暗中護佑 Guarded in Secret
卻說行者駕觔斗雲復至慈雲寺，寺僧接著，來問：「唐老爺救得否？」行者道：「難救，難救。那妖精神通廣大，我弟兄三個與他三人鬥了多時，被他呼小妖先捉了八戒，後捉了沙僧，老孫幸走脫了。」眾僧害怕道：「爺爺這般會騰雲駕霧，還捉獲不得，想老師父被傾害也。」行者道：「不妨，不妨。我師父自有伽藍、揭諦、丁甲等神暗中護佑，卻也曾吃過草還丹，料不傷命。却说行者驾觔斗云复至慈云寺，寺僧接着，来问：「唐老爷救得否？」行者道：「难救，难救。那妖精神通广大，我弟兄三个与他三人斗了多时，被他呼小妖先捉了八戒，后捉了沙僧，老孙幸走脱了。」众僧害怕道：「爷爷这般会腾云驾雾，还捉获不得，想老师父被倾害也。」行者道：「不妨，不妨。我师父自有伽蓝、揭谛、丁甲等神暗中护佑，却也曾吃过草还丹，料不伤命。
逐句解 Line by line
We tell now how Pilgrim rode his somersault cloud back to the Cloud-of-Compassion Monastery, where the monks came out to meet him and asked, "Is His Reverence the Tang Master saved or not?"
Back at the monastery that lost its lantern-oil, and the monks ask the only question they have. 救得否 ends on 否, read fǒu, which turns a statement into a yes-or-no question — saved, or not. Keep an eye on that character: later in the chapter it turns up again with a completely different sound and job.
Pilgrim said, "Hard to save. Hard to save."
Four characters, said twice, and it is the most downcast thing Pilgrim says in the book. He does not say impossible. He says hard.
"That fiend's powers are wide and deep. We three brothers fought his three a long while, and he called up his little demons and took Eight Rules first and Sha Monk after; only old Monkey got away."
An honest account, including the part where he ran. 幸走脫了 — luckily got clear — puts his own escape down to luck rather than to skill, which is not how this character usually talks about himself.
The monks were frightened, and said, "Your Honour can ride the clouds and drive the mists like this, and still they could not be taken? Then we suppose the old master has been done to death."
The monks reason from what they have seen, and it is sound reasoning: if the flying one failed, what hope is there? 捉獲不得 puts 得 after a verb and 不, which is the shape that means "cannot manage to" — and in that shape the character is the light de, not the full verb. The same characters in the other order, with 不得 coming first, would mean "may not" and take the full sound instead. Word order alone decides it.
Pilgrim said, "No matter, no matter."
Doubled again, and the doubling is doing the reassuring. He has just agreed the situation is hard; now he tells them not to worry. Both things are true and he does not reconcile them.
"My master has the temple-guardians, the Revealers of Truth and the Six Ding and Six Jia among his gods, protecting him unseen; and besides, he once ate the Herb of Reverted Cinnabar, so I reckon his life is not in danger."
The reassurance is a list of protections, and it is worth unpacking. 伽藍 are the guardian spirits of a monastery; the 揭諦 are Revealers, a set of protective deities; the 丁甲 are the Six Ding and Six Jia, calendar spirits assigned to the pilgrims as an invisible escort. All three were detailed to the journey at the outset. And 草還丹, the Herb of Reverted Cinnabar, is the ginseng fruit from chapters 24 to 26 — the tree Eight Rules helped knock over, whose fruit is said to add ten thousand years to a life. 還 there is huán, to return or revert, not the hái that means "still".
The chapter's middle movement begins, and it begins with a defeat being reported to civilians. Pilgrim has just lost both his brothers and left his master chained in a cave, and the first thing he has to do is stand in a monastery courtyard and explain it to the monks whose town paid for the lamps.
What he says is interesting for what it admits. He calls the rescue hard, credits his own escape to luck, and does not pretend the fight went any way but badly. This is not the monkey of the early chapters, who would have claimed a victory and gone back for a second one.
The reassurance he offers is bureaucratic rather than heroic: my master has guardians assigned to him, and he has eaten a fruit of great virtue, so the paperwork is against his dying. It is a very Chinese comfort — the celestial civil service will not let this happen — and it turns out to be exactly right, because the rest of the chapter is Pilgrim going up to that civil service and filing a request.