該與不該 Deserved or Not
四大天師道：「那方不該下雨。」行者笑道：「該與不該，煩為引奏引奏，看老孫的人情何如。」四大天师道：「那方不该下雨。」行者笑道：「该与不该，烦为引奏引奏，看老孙的人情何如。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Four Great Preceptors said, "Rain is not due to fall in that quarter."
那 is nà here, pointing — that quarter — rather than the nǎ that asks which. 不該 is not due, not supposed to: the language of an entitlement that has not been granted, exactly as one might say a payment is not due. Heaven talks about weather the way a clerk talks about a claim.
Pilgrim laughed. "Due or not due — take the trouble to present me, present me, and we shall see what Old Monkey's standing is worth."
為 is wèi here, meaning on my behalf, rather than the wéi that means to do or to serve as; the chapter uses both readings. 人情 is one of the hardest words in Chinese to carry over — the web of favours, obligations and standing that gets things done between people. Pilgrim is proposing to test how much of it he has left up here.
The Preceptors give him the ruling and Pilgrim simply declines to accept it as final. Due or not due — let us go and see.
What he reaches for is not force but standing. He wants to find out whether the name Great Sage still opens doors in heaven, which is a much more interesting question than whether he could break them down. The answer, over the next few passages, turns out to be that it opens every door and moves nothing at all.