暗示老君 The Hint at Lord Lao
那羅漢一個個空手停雲。行者近前問道：「眾羅漢，怎麼不下砂了？」羅漢道：「適才響了一聲，金丹砂就不見矣。」行者笑道：「又是那話兒套將去了。」天王等眾道：「這般難伏啊，卻怎麼捉得他？何日歸天，何顏見帝也？」旁有降龍、伏虎二羅漢對行者道：「悟空，你曉得我兩個出門遲滯何也？」行者道：「老孫只怪你躲避不來，卻不知有甚話說。」羅漢道：「如來吩咐我兩個說：『那妖魔神通廣大，如失了金丹砂，就教孫悟空上離恨天兜率宮太上老君處尋他的蹤跡，庶幾可一鼓而擒也。』」行者聞言道：「可恨，可恨！如來卻也閃賺老孫。當時就該對我說了，卻不免教汝等遠涉。」李天王道：「既是如來有此明示，大聖就當早起。」那罗汉一个个空手停云。行者近前问道：「众罗汉，怎么不下砂了？」罗汉道：「适才响了一声，金丹砂就不见矣。」行者笑道：「又是那话儿套将去了。」天王等众道：「这般难伏啊，却怎么捉得他？何日归天，何颜见帝也？」旁有降龙、伏虎二罗汉对行者道：「悟空，你晓得我两个出门迟滞何也？」行者道：「老孙只怪你躲避不来，却不知有甚话说。」罗汉道：「如来吩咐我两个说：『那妖魔神通广大，如失了金丹砂，就教孙悟空上离恨天兜率宫太上老君处寻他的踪迹，庶几可一鼓而擒也。』」行者闻言道：「可恨，可恨！如来却也闪赚老孙。当时就该对我说了，却不免教汝等远涉。」李天王道：「既是如来有此明示，大圣就当早起。」
逐句解 Line by line
The arhats, every one of them, hung in the clouds with empty hands.
Deictic 那羅漢: 那 = nà; 一個個: 一 = yí before a fourth tone. 空手停雲 puts them in the same posture as the gods on the ridge two passages ago.
Pilgrim came up and asked: "Venerable arhats, why have you stopped sending down the sand?"
不下砂了: 了 = le. He asks the question knowing the answer; the scene is played for the arhats' benefit, not his.
The arhats said: "Just now there was a noise, and the golden cinnabar sand was gone."
響了: 了 = le; 一聲: 一 = yì. 矣 is the one classical sentence-final in this stretch of vernacular — the arhats speak a shade more formally than the gods do.
Pilgrim laughed and said: "That thing of his has snared it away again."
那話兒: deictic 那 = nà, suffix 兒 = er — "that whatsit," the vernacular for a thing one will not or cannot name. 套將去了: 將 = jiāng, 了 = le.
The Devarāja and the rest said: "If he is as hard to subdue as this, how is he ever to be caught? What day shall we return to Heaven, and with what face shall we look on the Emperor?"
難伏: 難 = nán; 捉得他: 得 = dé, the potential. The gods' concern has narrowed to the report they will have to make.
The two arhats Dragon-Subduer and Tiger-Tamer, standing by, said to Pilgrim: "Wukong, do you know why the two of us were slow in setting out?"
旁有 — they have been standing there since the road. 降龍: 降 = xiáng; 曉得: 得 = dé.
Pilgrim said: "Old Monkey only put it down to your dodging out of it — I did not know there was anything to be said."
有甚話說: 甚 = shén. He is being told, and he still supposes the delay was idleness; the joke of the counting scene is being paid off.
The arhats said: "The Tathāgata charged the two of us to say this: 'That fiend's powers are very great. If the golden cinnabar sand should be lost, then have Sun Wukong go up to the Palace of Tuṣita in the Heaven of Parted Sorrows, to Laozi the Most High, and seek out his traces there — so it may be that he can be taken at a single stroke.'"
The second of the chapter's two passages in the inner marks 『』. Deictic 那妖魔: 那 = nà; 失了: 了 = le; 就教: 教 = jiào, causative; 老君處: 處 = chù ("at his place"). 離恨天 is the highest of the thirty-three heavens in the popular reckoning, where 兜率宮, the Tuṣita Palace, stands — 率 = shuài in this transcription, not the lǜ of "rate," which is what pypinyin returns for all three tokens in the chapter. 一鼓而擒: 一 = yì before a third tone; the phrase is from the drum-beat of 一鼓作氣.
Pilgrim heard it and said: "Hateful, hateful! The Tathāgata has played Old Monkey false after all.
閃賺 = "to trick, to leave in the lurch by a feint." The complaint is affectionate and entirely characteristic: he has just been handed the answer and his first move is to file a grievance about the delivery.
"He should have told me so at the time, and then he need not have made you all travel so far."
當時: 當 = dāng; 說了: 了 = le; 教汝等遠涉: 教 = jiào, causative. The reader knows the reason and Pilgrim does not: he cannot keep a secret, and the Buddha said so to his face.
Devarāja Li said: "Since the Tathāgata has given so clear an indication, Great Sage, you had better start early."
就當早起: 當 = dāng ("ought to"). 明示 — a clear indication — is the Devarāja's word for what the chapter's own title calls 暗示, a hint.
The instruction the two arhats stayed behind for is now delivered, and its form is the thing to notice: it was conditional. Not "go to Laozi," but "if the golden cinnabar sand should be lost, then send him to Laozi." The Tathāgata handed out a weapon while providing in advance for its failure, which means he knew the sand would be taken — and the reader, who has watched four assaults end identically, cannot be surprised. The sand had to fail in front of the eighteen arhats and Devarāja Li's whole company before anyone would accept that the answer was not a bigger weapon.
Pilgrim's response is to complain about the sequencing, and Devarāja Li's is to call it 明示, a clear indication, where the chapter's own title calls it 暗示, a hint. Neither of them remarks on what the reader has been holding since the autobiography: that Wukong himself, twenty couplets into his own boasting, named 金剛套 — Lord Lao's diamond snare — as the thing that took him in Chapter 6. The Buddha has not told him anything he did not already know. He has only told him where to go and ask.