相貌取人 Judge Not by the Face
行者道：「老高，你空長了許大年紀，還不省事。若專以相貌取人，乾淨錯了。我老孫醜自醜，卻有些本事。替你家擒得妖精，捉得鬼魅，拿住你那女婿，還了你女兒，便是好事，何必諄諄以相貌為言？」太公見說，戰兢兢的，只得強打精神，叫聲：「請進。」這行者見請，才牽了白馬，教高才挑著行李，與三藏進去。他也不管好歹，就把馬拴在敞廳柱上，扯過一張退光漆交椅，叫師父坐下。他又扯過一張椅子，坐在傍邊。那高老道：「這個小長老，倒也家懷。」行者道：「你若肯留我住得半年，還家懷哩。」行者道：「老高，你空长了许大年纪，还不省事。若专以相貌取人，干净错了。我老孙丑自丑，却有些本事。替你家擒得妖精，捉得鬼魅，拿住你那女婿，还了你女儿，便是好事，何必谆谆以相貌为言？」太公见说，战兢兢的，只得强打精神，叫声：「请进。」这行者见请，才牵了白马，教高才挑著行李，与三藏进去。他也不管好歹，就把马拴在敞厅柱上，扯过一张退光漆交椅，叫师父坐下。他又扯过一张椅子，坐在傍边。那高老道：「这个小长老，倒也家怀。」行者道：「你若肯留我住得半年，还家怀哩。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Pilgrim said, "Old Gao, you have grown to these many years for nothing, and still know nothing of the world.
空長了許大年紀 — "grown so old to no purpose." 長 is zhǎng, to grow. 還不省事: 還 is hái, "still," and 省事 means to understand how the world goes.
If you will judge a man by his face alone, you go wholly wrong. Old Sun is ugly enough, but he has some skill.
乾淨, as an adverb, is "utterly, clean wrong"; 乾 is gān, not the trigram qián. 相貌 is xiàng. 醜自醜 — the concessive doubling, "ugly he may be, ugly."
If I catch the fiend for your household, seize the goblin, lay hold of that son-in-law of yours and give you back your daughter —
擒得 and 捉得 both take 得 as dé: the goal obtained. 還了你女兒 is huán, to give back. Notice that the Pilgrim promises the daughter's return before he has been told there is a daughter shut up.
will that not be well done? Why harp so on a man's face?"
諄諄 (zhūn zhūn) is "earnestly, over and over," from the 詩經. 以相貌為言: 為 is wéi, "to make of it a matter of speech."
Hearing this, the squire trembled, but forced up his spirits and said, "Please come in."
戰兢兢 — trembling. 強打精神: 強 is qiǎng, "to force," not qiáng, "strong"; pypinyin defaults wrongly. 只得 keeps 得 as dé.
Being asked, the Pilgrim at last led the white horse in, bade Gao Cai shoulder the baggage, and went inside with Sanzang.
見請, "being invited" — the classical passive. 挑著 is zhe. Gao Cai, who set his pack down at the gate, picks up somebody else's.
Caring nothing for what was seemly, he tethered the horse to a pillar of the open hall, dragged over a lacquered armchair, and told his master to sit.
不管好歹, without regard for propriety. 敞廳 is the open reception hall — a horse is tied to its pillar. 退光漆 is the dull-polished lacquer of good furniture; the chair is dragged, not carried.
Then he dragged over another chair and sat down beside him.
The second chair is the point. Sun Wukong seats himself beside his master, at the level of a guest, in a hall where he has just tethered a horse. 傍邊 writes 旁邊, and 傍 takes páng.
Old Gao said, "This little elder makes himself quite at home."
家懷: to be at ease as though in one's own house — said of a guest, and not entirely as a compliment. 倒也 carries the old man's dry surprise.
The Pilgrim said, "If you will let me lodge here half a year, I shall be more at home yet."
住得半年: 得 is the potential dé. 還家懷哩 takes 還 as hái, "even more so," and 哩 as lī. The Pilgrim hears an insult and answers it as an invitation.
The Pilgrim's sermon on physiognomy is the moral centre of the chapter, and the novel plants it here, some two thousand graphs before Zhu Ganglie appears. 若專以相貌取人，乾淨錯了 is spoken by a monkey with a thunder-god's face to an old man whose whole grievance against his son-in-law is that the creature has a snout. The reader is being taught how to read the second half of the chapter before the second half begins.
And yet the lesson is not simple. Sun Wukong preaches against judging by appearance and then behaves exactly as his appearance would predict — tying the horse in the reception hall, hauling chairs about, seating himself uninvited. 家懷, the old man's word, means "at ease as in one's own house," and the Pilgrim promptly promises to be more so. The novel's sympathy is with him, but it does not pretend he is easy to have about.