老妖披掛出洞 The Old Fiend Calls for His Armour
卻說那五十個敗殘的小妖拿著些破旗、破鼓，撞入洞裡，報道：「大王，虎先鋒戰不過那毛臉和尚，被他趕下東山坡去了。」老妖聞說，十分煩惱。正低頭不語，默思計策，又有把前門的小妖道：「大王，虎先鋒被那毛臉和尚打殺了，拖在門口罵戰哩。」那老妖聞言，愈加煩惱道：「這廝卻也無知。我倒不曾吃他師父，他轉打殺我家先鋒，可恨！可恨！」叫：「取披掛來。我也只聞得講甚麼孫行者，等我出去，看是個甚麼九頭八尾的和尚，拿他進來，與我虎先鋒對命。」眾小妖急急擡出披掛。老妖結束齊整，綽一杆三股鋼叉，帥群妖跳出本洞。却说那五十个败残的小妖拿著些破旗、破鼓，撞入洞里，报道：「大王，虎先锋战不过那毛脸和尚，被他赶下东山坡去了。」老妖闻说，十分烦恼。正低头不语，默思计策，又有把前门的小妖道：「大王，虎先锋被那毛脸和尚打杀了，拖在门口骂战哩。」那老妖闻言，愈加烦恼道：「这厮却也无知。我倒不曾吃他师父，他转打杀我家先锋，可恨！可恨！」叫：「取披挂来。我也只闻得讲甚么孙行者，等我出去，看是个甚么九头八尾的和尚，拿他进来，与我虎先锋对命。」众小妖急急擡出披挂。老妖结束齐整，绰一杆三股钢叉，帅群妖跳出本洞。
逐句解 Line by line
We tell now how the fifty battered imps came tumbling into the cave, their banners torn and their drums split, and made report:
The chapter opens on the survivors of ch20's rout. 敗殘 is "beaten and cut down" — of the Tiger Vanguard's five hundred, fifty return. Torn banners and split drums are the vernacular novel's standing shorthand for a broken company. 拿著 takes zhe, the marker of a state maintained while a second verb (撞入) unfolds.
"Great King! The Tiger Vanguard could not stand against that hairy-faced monk, and has been driven by him down the eastern slope."
毛臉和尚, "the hairy-faced monk," is what the imps call the Pilgrim throughout this chapter — never 孫悟空, and only once, contemptuously, 孫行者. 戰不過 is a potential complement: he could not prevail in the fighting.
Hearing this, the old fiend was greatly vexed. He was bowing his head in silence, turning over some stratagem, when another imp — one of those who kept the front gate — came in and said,
十分 here is the adverb "utterly," 分 reading fēn. 默思計策 — the old fiend is a strategist before he is a warrior, and the whole of ch21 turns on his being drawn out of that silence.
"Great King! The hairy-faced monk has beaten the Tiger Vanguard to death, and now drags him about before our gate, railing at us for a fight."
罵戰 is to stand before an enemy's gate and abuse him into coming out — a formal provocation in the military romances. 哩 takes lī, per the ch16 ruling on vernacular sentence particles.
At these words the old fiend grew more vexed still, and said, "The wretch is past all knowing.
這廝, "this fellow," is dismissive. 卻也無知 — "is past all knowing," i.e. has no notion of what he has done.
I had not, after all, so much as eaten his master; yet he turns about and kills the Vanguard of my house. Hateful! Hateful!"
倒 here is the adversative adverb dào, "on the contrary, after all," setting the fiend's restraint against the Pilgrim's violence. 轉, "turns about," carries the same grievance. The doubled 可恨 is a stock cry of the wronged villain.
He called out, "Bring my armour! I have only heard men talk of some Sun Xingzhe or other. Let me go out
聞得 takes de, the complement of perception. 講甚麼孫行者 — the 甚麼 (shén) is dismissive rather than interrogative: "some Sun Xingzhe or other."
and see what manner of nine-headed, eight-tailed monk he may be. I shall take him and haul him in, and he shall answer with his life for my Tiger Vanguard."
九頭八尾 is not a description but a sneer — the fiend expects a monster and will find a small ragged ape. 對命, "to answer life for life," is the language of the blood feud.
The imps hurried out with the armour. The old fiend girded himself trim and whole, snatched up a three-pronged steel trident, and at the head of his host went bounding out of the cave.
綽 takes chāo, "to snatch up," a standing lexical fix. 杆 is here the classifier for a shafted weapon and reads gǎn (pypinyin gives gān, the free-standing pole). 帥 is the verb, "to lead"; 結束 in the old sense is "to gird, to make ready."
Chapter 21 begins exactly where chapter 20 broke off, and it begins with paperwork: a report delivered, a second report contradicting the first, and a commander who must be told twice before he will rise. The Great King of Yellow Wind is the most bureaucratic of the early demons. He keeps a vanguard, a front gate with a porter, and a chain of report; he sits in silence 默思計策 while the news comes in. Nothing could be less like the Monkey King, who is at this moment outside the door making a noise.
What finally moves the fiend is not the loss of a captain but a point of accounting. He never ate the monk — the debt was never incurred — and yet the debt is being collected. 我倒不曾吃他師父，他轉打殺我家先鋒: the two adverbs 倒 and 轉 both mark reversal, and between them they carry the fiend's whole sense of grievance. He goes out to fight over a bookkeeping error.