太公迎接 Squire Gao Comes Out
那太公即忙換了衣服，與高才出來迎接，叫聲：「長老。」三藏聽見，急轉身，早已到了面前。那老者戴一頂烏綾巾，穿一領蔥白蜀錦衣，踏一雙糙米皮的犢子靴，繫一條黑綠絛子，出來笑語相迎，便叫：「二位長老，作揖了。」三藏還了禮，行者站著不動。那老者見他相貌兇醜，便就不敢與他作揖。行者道：「怎麼不唱老孫喏？」那老兒有幾分害怕，叫高才道：「你這小廝卻不弄殺我也？家裡現有一個醜頭怪腦的女婿打發不開，怎麼又引這個雷公來害我？」那太公即忙换了衣服，与高才出来迎接，叫声：「长老。」三藏听见，急转身，早已到了面前。那老者戴一顶乌绫巾，穿一领葱白蜀锦衣，踏一双糙米皮的犊子靴，系一条黑绿绦子，出来笑语相迎，便叫：「二位长老，作揖了。」三藏还了礼，行者站著不动。那老者见他相貌凶丑，便就不敢与他作揖。行者道：「怎么不唱老孙喏？」那老儿有几分害怕，叫高才道：「你这小厮却不弄杀我也？家里现有一个丑头怪脑的女婿打发不开，怎么又引这个雷公来害我？」
逐句解 Line by line
The squire changed his clothes in haste and came out with Gao Cai to receive them, calling, "Elder!"
即忙換了衣服: he does not receive strangers in his working coat. The whole of Squire Gao's character is in the promptness of that change.
Sanzang heard him, turned quickly about, and found him already at his side.
三藏 keeps 藏 as zàng, the name. 早已到了面前 — the old man has covered the ground while the monk was turning.
The old man wore a cap of black silk gauze and a gown of Shu brocade the colour of scallion-white;
A second costume inventory, answering Gao Cai's in the street. 烏綾巾: a scholar-farmer's headcloth. 蔥白 is the pale green-white of a scallion stem, and 蜀錦 the celebrated brocade of Sichuan — this is a rich man dressed in a hurry.
on his feet were boots of rough hide the shade of unhusked rice, and about his waist a sash of black-green braid.
糙米皮, the colour of unpolished rice; 犢子靴, calfskin boots. 絛子 (tāo zi) is a woven cord or sash. The catalogue is deliberately unheroic: no jade, no gold.
He came out smiling and speaking his welcome, saying, "Your two reverences, I make you my bow."
相迎: 相 is the reciprocal adverb xiāng. 作揖了 — the 了 is perfective; the bow is made in the saying of it.
Sanzang returned the courtesy; the Pilgrim stood and did not stir. Seeing how fierce and ugly his face was, the old man did not dare bow to him at all.
Three graphs here need care. 還了禮 takes 還 as huán, "to return" a courtesy, not hái. 站著 is zhe, a state maintained. 相貌 takes 相 as xiàng, "appearance" — the same graph that was xiāng one segment earlier.
The Pilgrim said, "Why do you not salute old Sun?" The old fellow, somewhat frightened, said to Gao Cai,
唱喏, to make a bow with a spoken salutation; 喏 is rě, a standing ruling. 那老兒 takes the diminutive suffix 兒, er. The Pilgrim demands the courtesy he has just refused to give.
"You young rascal, would you be the death of me? There is an ugly-headed, monstrous-faced son-in-law in the house already that I cannot get rid of;
小廝, a young servant. 弄殺我也 — "will you be the ruin of me?" 打發不開: cannot be sent packing, cannot be settled with.
why must you bring me this thunder-god to plague me too?"
雷公, the thunder-god, is the standard comparison for Sun Wukong's face throughout the novel, and will be made again, at the chapter's end, by the monster himself.
The passage is built on two refusals to bow. Sanzang returns the old man's salutation; the Pilgrim does not, and then complains of not receiving one. The narrator marks the sequence exactly — 三藏還了禮，行者站著不動 — and lets the reader see that Gao's failure to bow is caused by the very face that is now demanding the bow.
The costume list matters. Squire Gao has changed into Sichuan brocade to greet exorcists; Gao Cai went out in a cotton headcloth and bound trousers. The household's wealth is real, its dignity is fragile, and a monster in the back court is exactly the sort of thing that cannot be dressed for. When the old man cries 怎麼又引這個雷公來害我, he is complaining not of danger but of another unpresentable face at his table.