高坐法位 Let Us Each Take One Too
望師父高坐法位,也讓我兩個各招個徒弟耍耍,也是西方路上之憶念。」三藏俱欣然允之。望师父高坐法位,也让我两个各招个徒弟耍耍,也是西方路上之忆念。」三藏俱欣然允之。
逐句解 Line by line
We beg our master to take the high seat of the dharma and let the two of us each take on a disciple for the fun of it, as something to remember of the road to the west."
法位 is the dharma seat, the raised place a teacher occupies — they are asking Tripitaka to sit in it, which formalises the whole arrangement. Then the register drops: 耍耍, for a bit of fun, is the same casual word Pilgrim used for going up to play with his rod over the courtyard. And 憶念, something to remember by, is the phrase that gives the passage its warmth — a souvenir of the journey.
Tripitaka gladly consented to it all.
Seven characters, and the last of the chapter's four 欣然, willingly. 允 is the formal verb for a superior granting a request. He has been made a patriarch and has agreed to the whole arrangement in one clause.
Bajie and Sha Monk ask for something Wukong did not: a disciple each, for the fun of it, as a keepsake of the road.
That word for keepsake is the one that lands. These are two beings who will one day finish this journey, and one of them is thinking about what he will have to remember it by.
It is also the chapter's title being made good. The Mind-Ape, the Wood and the Earth take disciples — all three of them, which is why the title names all three and not Bajie alone.