遞相揪住 Both Plead Their Case
這兩個遞相揪住道：「菩薩，這廝果然像弟子模樣。才自水簾洞打起，戰鬥多時，不分勝負。沙悟淨肉眼愚蒙，不能分識，有力難助，是弟子教他回西路去回覆師父。我與這廝打到寶山，借菩薩慧眼，與弟子認個真假，辨明邪正。」这两个递相揪住道：「菩萨，这厮果然像弟子模样。才自水帘洞打起，战斗多时，不分胜负。沙悟净肉眼愚蒙，不能分识，有力难助，是弟子教他回西路去回覆师父。我与这厮打到宝山，借菩萨慧眼，与弟子认个真假，辨明邪正。」
逐句解 Line by line
The two of them, gripping each other by turns, said: "Bodhisattva, this fellow does indeed resemble your disciple's own likeness.
遞相 dì xiāng, each in turn, reciprocally. The speech that follows is delivered by both mouths at once and the narration never separates them.
We fell to fighting from the Water-Curtain Cave onward, and have battled a long while without dividing victory from defeat.
不分勝負 'not dividing win from loss' — the same 分 that will govern 不能分識 in the next segment, distinguishing rather than parting.
Sha Wujing's fleshly eyes are dull and benighted; he could not tell us apart, and having strength could yet lend no help. So your disciple bade him go back to the westward road and report to our master.
肉眼 the fleshly eye, the ordinary organ as against 慧眼, the eye of wisdom asked for in the next segment. 教 jiào, to bid.
I have fought this fellow all the way to your treasure mountain to borrow the Bodhisattva's eye of wisdom, that she may tell your disciple's true from false and make plain which is deviant and which upright."
慧眼 huì yǎn, the prajñā-eye, the second of the five eyes in Buddhist reckoning — the faculty that sees through appearance to reality.
The whole plea is spoken twice simultaneously and the text refuses to mark which mouth is which. 這兩個遞相揪住道 gives one verb of speech to two subjects, and every sentence after it is grammatically singular — 弟子, your disciple — while being uttered in duplicate. The reader is placed exactly where the Bodhisattva is.
What the pair ask for is a faculty rather than a judgement: 借菩薩慧眼, borrow the eye of wisdom. It is the right request in principle, and the chapter will spend itself demonstrating that the faculty does not extend this far. The 慧眼 is set against Sha Monk's 肉眼 in the preceding sentence, which invites the reader to expect a difference of degree — better eyes will see better. That expectation is about to fail.
The plea also quietly incriminates nobody. Every fact in it is true of both speakers: both fought from the Water-Curtain Cave, both were unrecognised by Sha Monk, both came here. A false claimant who says only true things has produced testimony that cannot be broken by cross-examination, and the novel seems well aware of it.