拔濟拔濟 Save Us Save Us
那郡侯一見唐僧，不怕他徒弟醜惡，當街心倒身下拜道：「下官乃鳳仙郡郡侯上官氏，熏沐拜請老師祈雨救民。望師大捨慈悲，運神功，拔濟拔濟。」那郡侯一见唐僧，不怕他徒弟丑恶，当街心倒身下拜道：「下官乃凤仙郡郡侯上官氏，熏沐拜请老师祈雨救民。望师大舍慈悲，运神功，拔济拔济。」
逐句解 Line by line
The moment the prefect saw the Tang Monk, unafraid of how hideous his disciples were, he threw himself down in the middle of the street and bowed. "This humble officer is Shangguan, Prefect of Fengxian," he said. "I have bathed and perfumed myself to beg you, master, to pray for rain and save the people."
倒 is dǎo, to go down or topple — not the dào that means to pour. Every one of this chapter's twelve is the toppling one, which is unusual and worth noticing: things fall over a great deal in this story, and eventually two mountains will. 熏沐, incense and washing, is ritual preparation — he has purified himself before coming, which explains why he arrived on foot.
"I look to you, master, to pour out your great compassion, to set your divine powers working, and to save us — save us."
拔濟 is to pull someone out and bring them across — a Buddhist term for deliverance with a very physical image inside it, like hauling a drowning man from a river. Doubling it turns a request into something closer to a cry.
A prefect prostrating himself in the middle of a public street to four filthy travellers is an extraordinary breach of everything his position requires. The novel flags it precisely: he was not afraid of how hideous the disciples were.
That clause is doing quiet work. Everyone else in this town took one look at Bajie and screamed. Shangguan looks at the same faces and goes to his knees. Whatever else is wrong with him — and something is very wrong, as we will learn — he can tell the difference between what a thing looks like and what it is.
The repeated plea at the end breaks the formal register he has kept up until now. He has introduced himself properly, given his office and his surname, described his ritual preparation, and then the sentence simply gives way into save us, save us.