父子不仁 Father And Son Have Been Unkind
逐句解 Line by line
If I do not bring this plaint, then I must consider that father and son have been unkind, and have deliberately let a woman of their house turn demon and injure the multitude.
父子 keeps 子 at zǐ, the literary reading — this is a formal pairing of father and son, not the everyday word for a child. 故縱 is a term of art meaning to let go on purpose, and in the Ming code it named a specific offence: an official who deliberately failed to act. Pilgrim is not being colourful, he is citing a category.
I humbly beg your compassion and approval: that a summons be issued and the case brought to court, the wickedness taken up and my master rescued, and the guilt plainly established. This would be a deep kindness.
The closing petition is five matched four-character clauses in a row, which is what formal petition-writing looks like: prose built out of matched pairs. 伏乞 is prostrate, I beg, the standard humble opening of a petition to the throne. 行拘至案 is to issue process and bring the party before the bench. 為 here is wéi, to be — this would be a kindness.
Herewith the above accusation."
有此上告 is the closing formula, the equivalent of a signature block. Four characters, and the document is finished.
The petition ends in the correct register, and the correctness is the point. Nothing in it sounds like a monkey. Somewhere in five hundred years of trouble Pilgrim has learned the shape of a plaint, and he has produced one that a clerk would file without blinking.
The move being made is a threat dressed as courtesy. If the court will not act, then the accuser is obliged to conclude the worst about the accused — and that conclusion is now written down and in the record.