齊出圈外 All Together Outside the Ring
三藏聞此言，就是晦氣星到了。遂依獃子，一齊出了圈外。八戒牽了馬，沙僧擔了擔，那長老順路步行前進。不一時，到了樓閣之所，卻原來是坐北向南之家。門外八字粉牆，有一座倒垂蓮升斗門樓，都是五色裝的。那門兒半開半掩。八戒就把馬拴在門枕石鼓上；沙僧歇了擔子；三藏畏風，坐於門限之上。八戒道：「師父，這所在想是公侯之宅，相輔之家。前門外無人，想必都在裡面烘火。你們坐著，讓我進去看看。」唐僧道：「仔細耶，莫要衝撞了人家。」獃子道：「我曉得。自從歸正禪門，這一向也學了些禮數，不比那村莽之夫也。」三藏闻此言，就是晦气星到了。遂依呆子，一齐出了圈外。八戒牵了马，沙僧担了担，那长老顺路步行前进。不一时，到了楼阁之所，却原来是坐北向南之家。门外八字粉墙，有一座倒垂莲升斗门楼，都是五色装的。那门儿半开半掩。八戒就把马拴在门枕石鼓上；沙僧歇了担子；三藏畏风，坐于门限之上。八戒道：「师父，这所在想是公侯之宅，相辅之家。前门外无人，想必都在里面烘火。你们坐着，让我进去看看。」唐僧道：「仔细耶，莫要冲撞了人家。」呆子道：「我晓得。自从归正禅门，这一向也学了些礼数，不比那村莽之夫也。」
逐句解 Line by line
When Tripitaka heard this, it was as though his star of ill luck had come round.
晦氣星到了 is the narrator speaking, not the master: the lapse is marked as fated in the same breath as it is shown to be freely chosen.
So he did as the idiot said, and all together they stepped outside the ring.
Ten graphs for the act the whole chapter turns on. The novel gives it no more room than that, and no comment at all.
Bajie led the horse, Sha Monk shouldered the load, and the elder followed the road forward on foot.
擔了擔 carries both readings of the graph in three characters: the verb dān, to shoulder, then the noun dàn, the carrying-load. 長老 is zhǎng lǎo.
Before long they came to the place of the towers, which proved to be a house set with its back to the north and its face to the south.
坐北向南 is the auspicious orientation of a proper dwelling. Everything about the building is correct, which is what makes it convincing.
Outside the gate was a splayed whitewashed screen wall, and a gate-tower of the peck-and-pint sort with a pendant lotus, all of it painted in the five colours.
八字粉牆 is the screen wall splayed like the graph 八. 倒垂蓮 is the pendant-lotus bracket, with 倒 as dào, inverted. 升斗 names a bracket-set measured like the pint and peck vessels, so 斗 reads dǒu — pypinyin gives dòu, "to fight", and is wrong.
The gate itself stood half open and half closed.
半開半掩. Seven graphs of invitation. The novel has spent a whole passage certifying the house and now leaves the door ajar.
Bajie tied the horse to the stone drum at the gatepost; Sha Monk set down his load; and Tripitaka, who feared the wind, sat down on the threshold.
Three clauses divided by 「；」 inside one sentence, joined here into a single segment. 擔子 has 擔 as the noun dàn. 畏風 is the master’s stated reason for sitting, and the reason he sits on a threshold rather than going in.
Bajie said: “Master, this place must be the mansion of a duke or a marquis, the house of a chief minister. There is nobody outside the front gate — they will all be inside warming themselves at the fire.”
相輔 is the chief minister, so 相 reads xiàng, not xiāng. 烘火, to warm at a fire, is what Bajie wants and the reason he reads the emptiness as company.
You sit here, and let me go in and take a look.”
坐著 is durative zhe. The same phrase Wukong used before leaving — sit here — is now spoken by the one who talked them out of sitting.
The Tang Monk said: “Take care, and do not go giving offence to the household.”
仔細 is zǐ xì. The master’s worry is about manners. He has stopped considering danger altogether.
The idiot said: “I know that. Ever since I turned to the gate of Chan I have picked up a few of the proprieties, and I am not the boor of a villager I was.”
曉得 has 得 as dé. 禮數 has 數 as the noun shù, the forms of courtesy. Bajie claims manners in the doorway of a house he is about to loot.
The step out of the ring gets one clause. Everything around it — the orientation of the house, the screen wall, the bracket-set, the paint — gets four.
That imbalance is the design. The novel spends its detail on making the building credible, because the trap works only if the reader accepts it too.
Bajie ends the passage claiming to have learnt courtesy. The next passage has him walking uninvited up to a stranger’s bedchamber.