銷化胎氣 The Conception Dissolved
那裡有頓飯之時，他兩個腹中絞痛，只聽轂轆轂轆三五陣腸鳴。腸鳴之後，那獃子忍不住，大小便齊流。唐僧也忍不住要往靜處解手。行者道：「師父啊，切莫出風地裡去，怕人子，一時冒了風，弄做個產後之疾。」那婆婆即取兩個淨桶來，教他兩個方便。須臾間，各行了幾遍，才覺住了疼痛，漸漸的銷了腫脹，化了那血團肉塊。那婆婆家又煎些白米粥與他補虛。八戒道：「婆婆，我的身子實落，不用補虛。你燒些湯水與我洗個澡，卻好吃粥。」沙僧道：「二哥，洗不得澡。坐月子的人弄了水漿致病。」八戒道：「我又不曾大生，左右只是個小產，怕他怎的？洗洗兒乾淨。」真個那婆子燒些湯與他兩個淨了手腳。唐僧才吃兩盞兒粥湯。八戒就吃了十數碗，還只要添。行者笑道：「夯貨，少吃些，莫弄做個沙包肚，不像模樣。」八戒道：「沒事，沒事，我又不是母豬，怕他做甚？」那家子真個又去收拾煮飯。那里有顿饭之时，他两个腹中绞痛，只听毂辘毂辘三五阵肠鸣。肠鸣之后，那呆子忍不住，大小便齐流。唐僧也忍不住要往静处解手。行者道：「师父啊，切莫出风地里去，怕人子，一时冒了风，弄做个产后之疾。」那婆婆即取两个净桶来，教他两个方便。须臾间，各行了几遍，才觉住了疼痛，渐渐的销了肿胀，化了那血团肉块。那婆婆家又煎些白米粥与他补虚。八戒道：「婆婆，我的身子实落，不用补虚。你烧些汤水与我洗个澡，却好吃粥。」沙僧道：「二哥，洗不得澡。坐月子的人弄了水浆致病。」八戒道：「我又不曾大生，左右只是个小产，怕他怎的？洗洗儿干净。」真个那婆子烧些汤与他两个净了手脚。唐僧才吃两盏儿粥汤。八戒就吃了十数碗，还只要添。行者笑道：「夯货，少吃些，莫弄做个沙包肚，不像模样。」八戒道：「没事，没事，我又不是母猪，怕他做甚？」那家子真个又去收拾煮饭。
逐句解 Line by line
In not so much as the time it takes to eat a meal, the two of them felt a griping in the belly, and there was nothing to be heard but a rumbling and gurgling of the bowels, three or four bouts of it.
腹中 takes 中 as zhōng. 轂轆轂轆 is a mimetic of internal rumbling and keeps the pypinyin default under the standing policy on mimetic binomes.
After the rumbling, the idiot could hold out no longer, and voided at both ends.
大小便齊流 is stated once, without elaboration, and the narrative moves on. The novel is matter-of-fact about the mechanism of the cure.
The Tang Monk too could hold out no longer, and wanted to go somewhere quiet to relieve himself.
靜處 takes 處 as chù; 解手 takes 解 as jiě. The euphemism is preserved for the master and dispensed with for Bajie, which is a nice piece of decorum.
Pilgrim said, "Master, on no account go out into a draughty place — it's a fearful thing — you might take a chill and turn it into a case of postpartum illness."
怕人子 is an exclamatory idiom, roughly 'frightful'. 產後之疾 is the technical term for a postpartum disorder, and Wukong is deploying it as his fourth joke at his master's expense in the chapter.
The old woman at once fetched two clean buckets and let the pair of them relieve themselves.
方便 is the polite verb for the act. 教 is causative jiào. Sixteen graphs, and the household's hospitality has now extended about as far as it can.
In a short while, after each had gone several times, they felt the pain stop; little by little the swelling went down, and the clots of blood and lumps of flesh were dissolved away.
須臾間 takes 間 as jiān; 才覺 takes 覺 as jué; 化了 takes 化 as huà. Four 了 take positional fixspecs. 化 is the same verb the poem used of the elixir — the dissolution is complete.
The old woman's household then boiled a little white rice gruel for them, to make up their strength.
補虛 — to supply what is depleted — is standard convalescent vocabulary, and the gruel is what one gives after a confinement.
Eight Rules said, "Grandmother, my body is sound enough; I don't need making up.
身子實落 takes 落 as luò; 實落 is 'solid, substantial'. He has just been described voiding at both ends, and pronounces himself in good order.
Boil me a little hot water and let me have a bath, and then the gruel will go down nicely."
The request is Bajie's own invention and produces the passage's best exchange. Nobody has suggested he needs a bath.
Sha Monk said, "Second brother, you mustn't take a bath. People in their lying-in fall ill if they meddle with water."
A J2 join of the speech-opener onto its continuation. 洗不得 is a potential complement, so 得 is de. 坐月子 is the month of postpartum confinement, and Sha Monk applies the prohibition against washing during it with a straight face.
Eight Rules said, "But I never had a full delivery — at worst it was only a miscarriage. What have I to fear from it? A wash will get me clean."
A J3 join on the five-graph tail. 乾淨 takes 乾 as gān, dry — pypinyin gives the trigram reading qián at every occurrence. 大生 and 小產 are the real obstetric terms for a full birth and a miscarriage, and Bajie is arguing about which category he falls into.
So the old woman did boil some water, and the two of them washed their hands and feet.
淨了手腳 — hands and feet only. The household has quietly split the difference between Bajie's bath and Sha Monk's prohibition.
The Tang Monk took only two small cups of the gruel.
兩盞兒 takes 兒 as the suffix er. The measure is the same 盞 the medicine came in, and Tripitaka keeps to the same restraint.
Eight Rules ate a dozen bowls of it straight off, and still wanted more.
十數碗 takes 數 as shù, an indefinite numeral; 還 is hái, still. The chapter began with him draining a bowl at a draught, and it ends with him doing the same thing with the convalescent gruel.
Pilgrim said with a laugh, "Blockhead, eat less of it — don't make yourself a sandbag belly, it looks like nothing at all."
少 is shǎo; 肚 is dù. 沙包肚 is Wukong's own coinage and the fifth joke he has made on this subject.
Eight Rules said, "No matter, no matter — I'm no sow, what have I to fear from it?"
Both 沒 are méi and take positional fixspecs; 做甚 takes 甚 as shén. 母豬 is the pig's own retort to a pregnancy joke, and it closes the running gag by conceding the premise.
And the household did indeed go off again to set about cooking rice.
Eleven graphs, and the passage ends on the household resigning itself to feeding him.
The cure is described with the same clinical flatness the old woman used for the disease. A griping, a rumbling, several visits to a bucket, the swelling subsiding, and 化了那血團肉塊 — the clots and lumps dissolved away. The verb is 化, the same one the alchemical poem used of the elixir, and the novel spends no more words on the resolution than it did on the onset.
What follows is the chapter's last extended joke, and it works because all three speakers take the obstetric frame entirely seriously. Wukong warns his master against draughts lest he contract 產後之疾, a postpartum disorder. Sha Monk forbids Bajie a bath on the grounds that people 坐月子 — in their lying-in month — must not meddle with water. Bajie's rebuttal is that he never had a full delivery, only a miscarriage, so the rule does not apply to him. Every term used is genuine medical vocabulary, correctly deployed, about a condition none of them can possibly have.
The household resolves it with a compromise so practical it passes almost unnoticed: they boil the water and the two of them wash their hands and feet. Neither Bajie's bath nor Sha Monk's prohibition wins, and nobody remarks on it.
The closing exchange returns the chapter to where it started. Tripitaka takes two small cups of gruel; Bajie eats a dozen bowls and asks for more; Wukong tells him he will give himself a sandbag belly. It is the same distribution of appetite that produced the pregnancy in the first place — the master taking less than half, the pig draining what is left — and the novel restages it in miniature to show that nothing whatever has been learned. Bajie's last word, 我又不是母豬, concedes the entire joke in four graphs.