萬事從寬 In All Things Be Generous
那大聖打滾撒賴，只要天王去見駕。天王無計可施，哀求金星說個方便。金星道：「古人云：『萬事從寬。』你幹事忒緊了些兒，就把他綑住，又要殺他。那大圣打滚撒赖，只要天王去见驾。天王无计可施，哀求金星说个方便。金星道：「古人云：『万事从宽。』你干事忒紧了些儿，就把他捆住，又要杀他。
逐句解 Line by line
The Great Sage rolled about on the ground and played the shameless rogue, insisting the Heavenly King go before the throne.
打滾撒賴 is rolling on the floor and refusing to behave — the exact behaviour of a child in a shop, performed by a god who has just been vindicated. 撒賴 survives into modern Chinese, with the first character swapped for one meaning to play at a thing — to play the shameless one.
The Heavenly King had no plan left. He begged the Gold Star to say something to smooth it over.
無計可施 is having no stratagem left to apply, still a live idiom. 方便 is a convenience or an accommodation, and asking somebody to 說個方便 is asking them to find a form of words that lets everyone off.
The Gold Star said, "The ancients had it: in all things be generous."
萬事從寬 — in ten thousand matters, follow the lenient course. Venus opens with a proverb, exactly as Sha Monk and Bajie did earlier, and for the same reason: in this novel a proverb is how you get a person to move.
You handled this a touch too tightly. You tied him up, and then you wanted to kill him as well.
忒緊了些兒 — a shade too tight, and 忒 carries the vernacular sense of too much, still heard in northern speech. It is a magnificently mild way to describe attempted execution.
Venus's method is worth watching because it is the opposite of everyone else's in this chapter. He does not establish facts or cite statutes; he finds a proverb and then understates the offence until it sounds manageable.
The scene has now inverted completely. The man who was to be beheaded is rolling about refusing to get up, and the man who ordered it is begging a third party for help.