老妖只怕靈吉菩薩 Only Lingji Is Feared
說聲去，嚶嚶的飛到前面。只見那老妖坐在上面，正點札各路頭目。又見那洞前有一個小妖精，把個令字旗磨一磨，撞上廳來報道：「大王，小的巡山，才出門，見一個長嘴大耳朵的和尚坐在林裡，若不是我跑得快些，幾乎被他捉住。卻不見昨日那個毛臉和尚。」老妖道：「孫行者不在，想必是風吹死也；再不便去那裡求救兵去了。」眾妖道：「大王，若果吹殺了他，是我們的造化；只恐吹不死他，他去請些神兵來，卻怎生是好？」老妖道：「怕那甚麼神兵？若還定得我的風勢，只除了靈吉菩薩來是，其餘何足懼也？」说声去，嘤嘤的飞到前面。只见那老妖坐在上面，正点札各路头目。又见那洞前有一个小妖精，把个令字旗磨一磨，撞上厅来报道：「大王，小的巡山，才出门，见一个长嘴大耳朵的和尚坐在林里，若不是我跑得快些，几乎被他捉住。却不见昨日那个毛脸和尚。」老妖道：「孙行者不在，想必是风吹死也；再不便去那里求救兵去了。」众妖道：「大王，若果吹杀了他，是我们的造化；只恐吹不死他，他去请些神兵来，却怎生是好？」老妖道：「怕那甚么神兵？若还定得我的风势，只除了灵吉菩萨来是，其余何足惧也？」
逐句解 Line by line
No sooner said than done: he went whining to the front of the cave, and there was the old fiend sitting above, calling the roll of the captains of every quarter.
札 reads zhá; 點札 is to call over the roll of subordinate officers. The fiend keeps a command structure, and chapter 21 has been insisting on that since its opening paragraph.
Then he saw a little imp come in from before the cave, waving a pennant with the character for Orders on it, and running up into the hall to report:
令字旗 is the pennant bearing the single character 令, "orders" — the flag a military messenger carries so that sentries let him through. 磨一磨 is to wave it about, with 磨 read mó.
"Great King, your servant was patrolling the mountain, and had not long come out when he saw a long-snouted, big-eared monk sitting in the wood.
長嘴大耳朵: 長 is cháng, "long." This is the only time in the chapter that anyone on the demon side describes Bajie at all, and it is by snout and ears. They never learn his name.
Had I not run rather fast, he would very nearly have caught me.
跑得快些 takes 得 as de. The imp is boasting about the speed of his own legs in the middle of reporting a failure.
But of the hairy-faced monk of yesterday I saw nothing."
The single most important piece of intelligence the fiend could receive, delivered as an afterthought — and he is about to draw precisely the wrong conclusion from it.
Said the old fiend, "If Sun Xingzhe is not there, then he was surely blown dead by the wind; or else he has gone off somewhere to beg divine soldiers of someone."
The second 那裡 takes 那 as nǎ, indefinite here rather than interrogative: "off somewhere or other." He guesses right at the second attempt and dismisses his own answer in the same breath.
Said the imps, "Great King, if he was indeed blown dead, that is our good fortune;
造化 means "good fortune" in ordinary speech, though the word began life as a term for the creative workings of heaven and earth. The imps, unlike their commander, are frightened.
but if by chance the wind did not kill him, and he goes and asks for divine soldiers, what shall be done then?"
Because 死 is third tone, the 不 in front of it stays bù and needs no adjustment. 卻怎生是好 is "what is to be done then?" — the sensible question, asked by the rank and file.
Said the old fiend, "What are these divine soldiers to me? If there is one who can still my wind, it is only the Bodhisattva Lingji, and nobody else. Whom else need I fear?"
那 is the pointing nà, 甚 is shén. 若還定得 has 還 as hái and 得 as the "able to" dé. And there it is: 靈吉菩薩, the Bodhisattva Lingji — a name the reader has never once encountered in twenty chapters, handed over by the only person in the cave who had any reason to keep it quiet.
The whole plot of the chapter turns on a boast. Asked what he will do if the Pilgrim comes back with divine soldiers, the old fiend answers with contempt — 怕那甚麼神兵, what are divine soldiers to me? — and then, to round the contempt off properly, names the one being in the universe who can beat him. He does it to stop his own imps panicking, and he does it with a mosquito on the roof-beam.
This is the second time in two chapters that a demon has been undone by his own subordinates. The imps ask the sensible question; their commander cannot bear to be thought afraid; and the exception he allows himself — 只除了靈吉菩薩來是 — is the entire remaining plot. Lingji has not been mentioned once in twenty chapters, and everything from here to the end of this one turns on him.