原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
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
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。
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。
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.
點札 — 札 reads zhá; to call over the roll of subordinate officers. The fiend keeps a command structure, as ch21 has insisted from its first paragraph.
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：
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：
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, the pennant bearing the single graph 令, "orders," which a messenger carries. 磨一磨 — to wave it about; 磨 reads mó.
「大王，小的巡山，才出門，見一個長嘴大耳朵的和尚坐在林裡，
「大王，小的巡山，才出门，见一个长嘴大耳朵的和尚坐在林里，
"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." Bajie is never described by the demons in any other way, and never named.
若不是我跑得快些，幾乎被他捉住。
若不是我跑得快些，几乎被他捉住。
Had I not run rather fast, he would very nearly have caught me.
跑得快些 takes 得 as the resultative de. The imp is boasting about his own legs while reporting a failure.
卻不見昨日那個毛臉和尚。」
却不见昨日那个毛脸和尚。」
But of the hairy-faced monk of yesterday I saw nothing."
The one piece of intelligence the fiend most needs, delivered as an afterthought. He will draw exactly the wrong conclusion from it.
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。」
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。」
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, here indefinite — "off somewhere." The fiend guesses correctly at the second possibility and dismisses it in the next breath.
眾妖道：「大王，若果吹殺了他，是我們的造化；
众妖道：「大王，若果吹杀了他，是我们的造化；
Said the imps, "Great King, if he was indeed blown dead, that is our good fortune;
造化, "good fortune," a word with a cosmological history and a purely colloquial use here. The imps, unlike their master, are frightened.
只恐吹不死他，他去請些神兵來，卻怎生是好？」
只恐吹不死他，他去请些神兵来，却怎生是好？」
but if by chance the wind did not kill him, and he goes and asks for divine soldiers, what shall be done then?"
只恐吹不死他 — 不 takes bù mechanically before 死 (third tone). 卻怎生是好, "what is to be done then?"
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？」
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？」
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?"
怕那甚麼神兵: 那 demonstrative nà, 甚 as shén. 若還定得 — 還 is hái and 得 the potential dé. 靈吉菩薩 is the Bodhisattva Lingji, of whom the reader has never heard, and whose name the fiend has just given away.
總評 Commentary
The whole plot of the chapter turns on a boast. The old fiend, asked what he will do if the Pilgrim brings divine soldiers, answers with contempt: 怕那甚麼神兵 — what are divine soldiers to me? And then, to make the contempt complete, he names the single being in the universe who can defeat him. He does it to reassure his own troops, and he does it with a mosquito on the roof-beam.
Note that this is the second time in two chapters that a demon's subordinates have been the ruin of him. The imps ask the sensible question; the fiend cannot bear to be thought afraid; and the exception he makes — 只除了靈吉菩薩來是 — is the whole of the remaining narrative. Lingji has not been mentioned once in twenty chapters, and will be the pivot of this one.