與他拂癢 Only Good For Scratching An Itch
教：「取繩索來。」那刁鑽古怪、古怪刁鑽與青臉兒是昨夜逃生而回者，即拿兩條繩，把他二人著實綑了。老妖問道：「你這潑猴，把我那七個兒孫捉了；我今拿住你和尚四個、王子四個，也足以抵得我兒孫之命。小的們，選荊條柳棍來，且打這猴頭一頓，與我黃獅孫報報冤仇。」那三個小妖各執柳棍，專打行者。行者本是熬煉過的身體，那些些柳棍兒，只好與他拂癢，他那裡做聲，憑他怎麼捶打，略不介意。教：「取绳索来。」那刁钻古怪、古怪刁钻与青脸儿是昨夜逃生而回者，即拿两条绳，把他二人着实捆了。老妖问道：「你这泼猴，把我那七个儿孙捉了；我今拿住你和尚四个、王子四个，也足以抵得我儿孙之命。小的们，选荆条柳棍来，且打这猴头一顿，与我黄狮孙报报冤仇。」那三个小妖各执柳棍，专打行者。行者本是熬炼过的身体，那些些柳棍儿，只好与他拂痒，他那里做声，凭他怎么捶打，略不介意。
逐句解 Line by line
He gave the order: "Fetch ropes."
Four characters, and the whole of the fiend's response to capturing the two strongest creatures in the chapter. No gloating and no speech - just a requisition.
Sly-Devil-Odd-Fellow, Odd-Fellow-Sly-Devil and the Blue-Faced Fiend, who were the ones that had escaped with their lives the night before, took two ropes at once and bound the pair of them good and tight.
The three comic fiends who got away from the rout come back to do this, which is the novel keeping its accounts. 著 is zhuó inside 著實, the applying reading - the sense of bringing force to bear on something - so the phrase means bound with real effort put into it.
The old fiend asked him: "You filthy ape - you took seven of my children and grandchildren;
The charge sheet again, and it is the second time this chapter that a villain opens with an accurate summary of the heroes' behaviour. 兒孫 - children and grandchildren - keeps the whole grievance inside a family.
"and I have now taken four of you monks and four princes, which is quite enough to set against the lives of my children and grandchildren.
The arithmetic is explicit: seven of his against eight of theirs. 抵得 is to be worth enough to offset something, the same accounting register as the life-for-life language of the hostage order. Both sides in this chapter keep reaching for a ledger.
"Little ones, pick out thorn-switches and willow rods, and give this monkey-head a beating first, and avenge my grandson the Yellow Lion for me."
荊條柳棍 names two different things to be hit with, neither of them a weapon - thorny brushwood and willow canes, the household implements of punishment rather than war. The fiend is not fighting him; he is disciplining him.
Those three little fiends each took a willow rod and beat away at Pilgrim in particular.
專打 - beating him specially, exclusively - has the three of them concentrating on one target. He is the one who killed the Yellow Lion, and the punishment is being aimed.
Pilgrim was after all a body that had been refined in fire, so those few little willow rods were just about good for scratching an itch. Would he make a sound? However they thumped away at him, he paid it not the slightest attention.
The joke of the chapter, and it rests on one reading. 那 is nǎ here, the asking reading used as a flat refusal - would he make a sound? meaning of course he would not. 熬煉 points back to the furnace of Chapter 7, where he was cooked for forty-nine days and came out harder than he went in. 拂癢 is to brush an itch, and it is doing to a torture scene exactly what a shrug does to an insult.
A torture scene that is also a comedy, and the novel keeps both going at once without ever choosing. Three small demons beat the Great Sage with willow canes for a whole afternoon, and he lies there finding it pleasant.
The instruments are the detail that makes it work. Not swords or clubs - thorn-switches and willow rods, the things a schoolmaster or a father reaches for. The fiend is not trying to kill Pilgrim, who has already proved unkillable several hundred pages ago; he is trying to punish him, which is a different and much more domestic ambition.
Underneath the joke is the same ledger both sides keep producing. Seven lions against eight prisoners, a beating owed for a dead grandson. Nobody in this chapter ever argues that the other side is wrong. They argue about the exchange rate.