久修得道 A Spirit Long In Cultivation
天尊遂與大聖、獅奴，踏雲徑至竹節山。只見那五方揭諦、六丁六甲、本山土地都來跪接。行者道：「汝等護祐，可曾傷著我師？」眾神道：「妖精著了惱睡了，更不曾動甚刑罰。」天尊道：「我那元聖兒也是一個久修得道的真靈：他喊一聲，上通三聖，下徹九泉，等閑也便不傷生。孫大聖，你去他門首索戰，引他出來，我好收之。」行者聽言，果掣棒跳近洞口，高罵道：「潑妖精，還我人來也。天尊遂与大圣、狮奴，踏云径至竹节山。只见那五方揭谛、六丁六甲、本山土地都来跪接。行者道：「汝等护祐，可曾伤着我师？」众神道：「妖精着了恼睡了，更不曾动甚刑罚。」天尊道：「我那元圣儿也是一个久修得道的真灵：他喊一声，上通三圣，下彻九泉，等闲也便不伤生。孙大圣，你去他门首索战，引他出来，我好收之。」行者听言，果掣棒跳近洞口，高骂道：「泼妖精，还我人来也。
逐句解 Line by line
The Heavenly Worthy then went with the Great Sage and the lion-keeper, treading the clouds straight to Bamboo Node Mountain.
Three of them: a god, a monkey and a stable hand. The rescue party that settles this chapter is smaller than any of the war parties that failed at it.
There they saw the Guardians of the Five Quarters, the Six Ding and Six Jia, and the local god of that mountain all come to kneel in welcome.
The gods Pilgrim posted are still at their stations. He shouted at them a few passages ago for being off duty, and they have been on it ever since.
Pilgrim said: "You have been protecting them - has my master been hurt at all?"
曾 is céng inside 可曾, the reading it takes as the adverb asking whether a thing has yet happened. 著 is zháo inside 傷著, the reading for something that lands and takes effect - not hurting but having been hurt. His first question after summoning a god is about his master.
The gods said: "The fiend was vexed and went to sleep, and has not applied any punishment further."
著 is zháo again in 著了惱, vexation catching hold of him rather than vexation he put on. And 甚 is shén here, the reading meaning any or what, not the shèn of very that this chapter uses at most of its other sites.
The Heavenly Worthy said: "That Primal Sage child of mine is a true spirit that has practised long and attained the Way. When he cries out, his voice reaches up to the Three Sages and down through the Nine Springs; and in the ordinary way he does no harm to living things.
The god's defence of his mount, and it changes what the reader has been watching. 久修得道 - long in practice and arrived at the Way - makes the beast an adept rather than a monster. 九泉, the Nine Springs, is the world of the dead, so his voice runs the whole height of the cosmos. And 等閑也便不傷生 says he does not usually kill - which is exactly true of this chapter, where he swallowed six people and harmed none of them.
"Great Sage, go to his door and challenge him to battle, draw him out, and I shall take him in hand."
索戰 is to demand a fight, and the god is asking Pilgrim to do the one thing he is good at while the actual work is done by somebody else. 收之 - gather him in - is the language of collecting property, not of defeating an enemy.
Pilgrim heard him and duly whipped out his cudgel, sprang up to the mouth of the cave and railed at him in a loud voice: "Foul fiend! Give me back my people!
還 is huán here, the giving-back reading, and not the hái of still or yet that the same character carries at eleven of its seventeen sites in this chapter. The demand is for restitution, and it is the third time in the chapter that somebody has asked for people back.
The god's description of his own animal quietly rewrites the whole chapter. The creature is not a demon but a true spirit long in practice, whose voice carries from the Three Sages down to the world of the dead, and who does not ordinarily kill.
The remarkable thing is that this is verifiably true of everything we have watched. He swallowed six people and harmed none of them. He ordered Eight Rules kept alive. He beat Pilgrim with willow rods rather than killing him, and set a schedule instead of a slaughter. The chapter has called him a fiend for four thousand characters and never once shown him kill anybody.
And the plan for dealing with him is not a fight. Pilgrim is to knock at the door and shout, while the god waits outside to collect. The word for what will happen to the most formidable creature in the book is the word for gathering in something that belongs to you.