原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
陽世求丹
Seeking the Elixir in the World of the Living
話說那孫大聖頭痛難禁，哀告道：「師父莫念，莫念，等我醫罷。」長老問：「怎麼醫？」行者道：「只除過陰司，查勘那個閻王家有他魂靈，請將來救他。」八戒道：「師父莫信他。他原說不用過陰司，陽世間就能醫活，方見手段哩。」那長老信邪風，又念緊箍兒咒。慌得行者滿口招承道：「陽世間醫罷，陽世間醫罷。」八戒道：「莫要住，只管念，只管念。」行者罵道：「你這獃孽畜，攛道師父咒我哩。」八戒笑得打跌道：「哥耶，哥耶，你只曉得捉弄我，不曉得我也捉弄你捉弄。」行者道：「師父莫念，莫念，待老孫陽世間醫罷。」三藏道：「陽世間怎麼醫？」行者道：「我如今一觔斗雲，撞入南天門裡，不進斗牛宮，不入靈霄殿，徑到那三十三天之上，離恨天宮兜率院內，見太上老君，把他九轉還魂丹求得一粒來，管取救活他也。」话说那孙大圣头痛难禁，哀告道：「师父莫念，莫念，等我医罢。」长老问：「怎么医？」行者道：「只除过阴司，查勘那个阎王家有他魂灵，请将来救他。」八戒道：「师父莫信他。他原说不用过阴司，阳世间就能医活，方见手段哩。」那长老信邪风，又念紧箍儿咒。慌得行者满口招承道：「阳世间医罢，阳世间医罢。」八戒道：「莫要住，只管念，只管念。」行者骂道：「你这呆孽畜，撺道师父咒我哩。」八戒笑得打跌道：「哥耶，哥耶，你只晓得捉弄我，不晓得我也捉弄你捉弄。」行者道：「师父莫念，莫念，待老孙阳世间医罢。」三藏道：「阳世间怎么医？」行者道：「我如今一觔斗云，撞入南天门里，不进斗牛宫，不入灵霄殿，径到那三十三天之上，离恨天宫兜率院内，见太上老君，把他九转还魂丹求得一粒来，管取救活他也。」
逐句解 Line by line
話說那孫大聖頭痛難禁，哀告道：「師父莫念，莫念，等我醫罷。」
话说那孙大圣头痛难禁，哀告道：「师父莫念，莫念，等我医罢。」
The Great Sage, his head splitting past all endurance, pleaded piteously: "Master, stop chanting, stop chanting — let me heal him."
The chapter resumes mid-scene, under the compulsion of the Tight-Fillet Spell of the previous chapter. 難禁 ("unbearable") — 難 here nán, "hard to"; 罷 is the sentence-final particle ba (=吧), not the verb bà.
長老問：「怎麼醫？」
长老问：「怎么医？」
The elder asked, "Cure him — how?"
長老 (zhǎng lǎo, "the elder"): 長 read zhǎng, not cháng.
行者道：「只除過陰司，查勘那個閻王家有他魂靈，請將來救他。」
行者道：「只除过阴司，查勘那个阎王家有他魂灵，请将来救他。」
Pilgrim said: "Only by crossing into the Region of Darkness to search out which King Yama's registry holds his soul, and fetching it back to save him."
那個閻王 here is interrogative — 那 read nǎ, "which," not the deictic nà; Wukong proposes to find out which underworld court has the king's soul. 請將來: 將 a directional coverb, jiāng.
八戒道：「師父莫信他。
八戒道：「师父莫信他。
Eight Rules said: "Master, don't trust him.
莫信 = "do not believe." Bajie, ever the mischief-maker, moves at once to keep Wukong on the hook.
他原說不用過陰司，陽世間就能醫活，方見手段哩。」
他原说不用过阴司，阳世间就能医活，方见手段哩。」
He himself said there was no need to cross into the shades — that he could cure him alive in the world of the living, and only then would we see his skill."
陽世間 (yáng shì jiān) = "in the world of the living"; 間 here jiān. 手段 = "technique, prowess."
那長老信邪風，又念緊箍兒咒。
那长老信邪风，又念紧箍儿咒。
The elder, credulous of this heresy, once more chanted the Tight-Fillet Spell.
信邪風 = "believed the crooked wind," i.e. was taken in; 邪 = xié. 緊箍兒咒: 兒 the retroflex suffix er on 箍.
慌得行者滿口招承道：「陽世間醫罷，陽世間醫罷。」
慌得行者满口招承道：「阳世间医罢，阳世间医罢。」
Flustered, Pilgrim blurted out with his whole mouth in surrender: "I'll cure him in the world of the living, cure him in the world of the living!"
慌得: the complement-marker 得 read de. 招承 = "to own up, to give in." The two 罷 are again the particle ba.
八戒道：「莫要住，只管念，只管念。」
八戒道：「莫要住，只管念，只管念。」
Eight Rules said: "Don't let up — keep chanting, keep chanting!"
莫要住 = "do not stop." Bajie eggs the elder on for the fun of Wukong's pain.
行者罵道：「你這獃孽畜，攛道師父咒我哩。」
行者骂道：「你这呆孽畜，撺道师父咒我哩。」
Pilgrim swore at him: "You blockheaded beast of burden, egging the Master on to curse me!"
獃孽畜 = "idiot-creature"; 畜 read chù. 攛道 (cuān) = "to incite, to put someone up to it."
八戒笑得打跌道：「哥耶，哥耶，你只曉得捉弄我，不曉得我也捉弄你捉弄。」
八戒笑得打跌道：「哥耶，哥耶，你只晓得捉弄我，不晓得我也捉弄你捉弄。」
Eight Rules laughed till he tumbled over: "Brother! Brother! You only know how to make sport of me — you didn't know I could make a bit of sport of you too!"
笑得打跌: complement 得 = de ("laughed to the point of falling"). In 曉得 ("to know"), 得 is dé. 耶 (yé) a vernacular vocative.
行者道：「師父莫念，莫念，待老孫陽世間醫罷。」
行者道：「师父莫念，莫念，待老孙阳世间医罢。」
Pilgrim said: "Master, stop chanting, stop chanting — let old Sun cure him in the world of the living."
待老孫 = "let old Sun—." Final 罷 = the particle ba.
三藏道：「陽世間怎麼醫？」
三藏道：「阳世间怎么医？」
Tripitaka said: "Cure him in the world of the living — but how?"
三藏 (sān zàng), the pilgrim's dharma-name; 藏 read zàng.
行者道：「我如今一觔斗雲，撞入南天門裡，不進斗牛宮，不入靈霄殿，徑到那三十三天之上，離恨天宮兜率院內，見太上老君，把他九轉還魂丹求得一粒來，管取救活他也。」
行者道：「我如今一觔斗云，撞入南天门里，不进斗牛宫，不入灵霄殿，径到那三十三天之上，离恨天宫兜率院内，见太上老君，把他九转还魂丹求得一粒来，管取救活他也。」
Pilgrim said: "I'll ride one somersault of cloud, drive in through the Southern Heaven Gate — not entering the Dipper-Ox Palace, not going up to the Hall of Numinous Mist — straight to the topmost of the Thirty-Three Heavens, into the Tuṣita Court of the Heaven of Parted Sorrows; there I'll see the Most High Lord Lao, beg from him a single grain of his Nine-Cycle Soul-Reverting Elixir, and be sure to bring the king back to life."
觔斗雲 / 斗牛宮: 斗 read dǒu (somersault; the Dipper). 那三十三天: deictic 那 = nà. 兜率 (Tuṣita): 率 read shuài. 還魂丹: 還 = huán ("to return, revert"). 求得: 得 = dé ("to obtain").
總評 Commentary
The chapter opens in the middle of a coercion. Chapter 38 ended with Tripitaka demanding the impossible — that Wukong restore the drowned king of Wūjī (烏雞國) to life — and here the demand is enforced with the 緊箍兒咒, the Tight-Fillet Spell, the one instrument that can bend the Great Sage's will. The comedy is exact: Wukong, who fears no army of Heaven, is reduced to blurting surrender by a headache, while Eight Rules, delighted, urges the Master to keep chanting. Beneath the farce is the book's steady allegory of the 心猿, the "mind-monkey": the brilliant, unruly intelligence that only submits to discipline under constraint.
The turn of the plot is doctrinal as well as narrative. Wukong first proposes the obvious route — a descent to the underworld to reclaim the soul from a King Yama's register — and it is Bajie's needling, not piety, that forces him onto the harder path: a revival worked 陽世間, "in the world of the living," by an elixir rather than by bureaucratic retrieval of a ghost. That distinction sets up the whole chapter, sending Wukong upward to the Tuṣita Palace and the Nine-Cycle Soul-Reverting Elixir (九轉還魂丹) of Lord Lao, and it quietly aligns the rescue with the Daoist alchemical register that the chapter's title-couplet — "one grain of cinnabar-sand got from Heaven" — has already announced.