扢撲的斷了 The Cord Snapped Three Times
刺史聞言，就教先箍起這個來。皂隸們齊來上手，把行者套上腦箍，收緊了一勒，扢撲的把索子斷了。又結又箍，又扢撲的斷了。一連箍了三四次，他的頭皮皺也不曾皺一些兒。卻又換索子再結時，只聽得有人來報道：「老爺，都下陳少保爺爺到了，請老爺出郭迎接。」刺史闻言，就教先箍起这个来。皂隶们齐来上手，把行者套上脑箍，收紧了一勒，扢扑的把索子断了。又结又箍，又扢扑的断了。一连箍了三四次，他的头皮皱也不曾皱一些儿。却又换索子再结时，只听得有人来报道：「老爷，都下陈少保爷爷到了，请老爷出郭迎接。」
逐句解 Line by line
The prefect, hearing this, gave orders to band this one first. The bailiffs came up together, fitted the head-band on Monkey and drew it tight with one hard pull — and with a crack the cord parted.
扢撲 — the sound of something snapping, like a firecracker. It belongs to a small family of doubled sound-and-lump words the book keeps using, and the first character is the same in all of them. It appears three times in the novel: twice here and once in a fight, where a cudgel makes the same noise. 收緊了一勒 — drew it tight with one hard pull. The verb is the one for hauling on a cord until it bites. The whole point of the head-band is that it cannot be resisted. It parts immediately.
They knotted it again and banded him again, and again it went crack and parted. Three or four times running they banded him, and the skin of his head did not so much as wrinkle.
又結又箍，又扢撲的斷了 — knotted again, banded again, and again the crack and the parting. The repetition is the comedy, and the book spells out the noise each time rather than summarising it. 頭皮皺也不曾皺一些兒 — the skin of his head did not so much as wrinkle. It is a wonderfully specific way of saying nothing happened: not that he was unhurt, but that his scalp did not even crease. Nobody in the room reacts. Bailiffs are breaking cord after cord on a man's skull and the book does not record a single word of surprise from the prefect, the bailiffs or the other three pilgrims.
They were just changing the cord and knotting it up afresh when someone came in with a report. "Your honour! His lordship the Grand Guardian Chen has arrived from the capital. Your honour is asked to go outside the wall and receive him."
都下 — the capital. The first character takes the reading it has in the word for a capital city, not the everyday one meaning all that it carries at the other nineteen places in this chapter. 少保 — Grand Guardian, one of the three junior guardianships of the heir apparent, and a very senior rank indeed. The first character takes the falling tone here, the same one it has in the word for a youth in this chapter's own poem about the prefect. It appears exactly once in the whole novel. 出郭迎接 — go outside the outer wall and receive him. Protocol: a prefect meets a superior from the capital beyond the city gate, not in his own hall. He has to stop what he is doing and go.
The torture fails four times and nobody remarks on it. That silence is the joke and it is a very dry one. Four bailiffs are working hard on a head that cannot be marked, breaking cord after cord, and the narrative simply counts the attempts and moves on.
What stops it in the end is not magic but bureaucracy. A senior official arrives from the capital and the prefect has to leave his own courtroom to go and meet him at the city wall. The pilgrims are saved from the head-band by protocol.
That is the shape of the whole chapter in miniature. Monkey's powers are useless here — he can survive the torture but cannot end it, cannot argue, cannot free anyone. What actually moves events is paperwork, rank and procedure, and every reprieve in this chapter comes from one of the three.