唱喏不拜 Eight Rules Mistakes a Banquet
那獃子聽見來請，對沙僧道：「兄弟，你還不教下書哩，這才見了下書的好處。想是師父下了書，國王道，捎書人不可怠慢，一定整治筵宴待他；他的食腸不濟，有你我之心，舉出名來，故此著金牌來請。大家吃一頓，明日好行。」沙僧道：「哥啊，知道是甚緣故，我們且去來？」遂將行李、馬匹俱交付驛丞，各帶隨身兵器，隨金牌入朝。早行到白玉階前，左右立下，朝上唱個喏，再也不動。那文武多官，無人不怕。都說道：「這兩個和尚貌醜也罷，只是粗俗太甚，怎麼見我王更不下拜，喏畢平身，挺然而立？可怪，可怪。」八戒聽見道：「列位，莫要議論，我們是這般：乍看果有些醜，只是看下些時來，卻也耐看。」那呆子听见来请，对沙僧道：「兄弟，你还不教下书哩，这才见了下书的好处。想是师父下了书，国王道，捎书人不可怠慢，一定整治筵宴待他；他的食肠不济，有你我之心，举出名来，故此著金牌来请。大家吃一顿，明日好行。」沙僧道：「哥啊，知道是甚缘故，我们且去来？」遂将行李、马匹俱交付驿丞，各带随身兵器，随金牌入朝。早行到白玉阶前，左右立下，朝上唱个喏，再也不动。那文武多官，无人不怕。都说道：「这两个和尚貌丑也罢，只是粗俗太甚，怎么见我王更不下拜，喏毕平身，挺然而立？可怪，可怪。」八戒听见道：「列位，莫要议论，我们是这般：乍看果有些丑，只是看下些时来，却也耐看。」
逐句解 Line by line
When the blockhead heard they were being invited, he said to Sha Monk, 'Brother — and you were against delivering the letter! Now you see the good of delivering a letter. I'll wager the master delivered it, and the king said a letter-bearer must not be slighted, and has certainly laid on a banquet to entertain him; and since the master's own appetite is poor, out of regard for you and me he named our names — and so a golden tablet has been sent to invite us. We'll all eat a good meal, and be off tomorrow in fine fettle.'
你還不教下書哩 (還 = hái; 哩 = li) = "and you still wouldn't [have us] deliver the letter!"; 教 (jiào) = "to have [someone do]." 食腸不濟 = "[his] appetite is poor"; 著金牌 (著 = zhuó) 來請 = "sent a golden tablet to invite." Eight Rules' whole speech is a comic misreading — he takes a summons to fight a demon for an invitation to dinner.
Said Sha Monk, 'Brother, who knows the reason for it? Let us just go and see.'
甚緣故 (甚 = shén) = "what reason." Sha Monk's cautious "who knows why" is the foil to Eight Rules' confident greed.
So they handed over the baggage and the horse to the post-master, and each taking his own weapon, followed the golden tablet into court. Coming early to the foot of the white-jade steps, they took their places to left and right, gave a single shout of salute toward the throne, and then stirred no further.
將 (jiāng, coverb) 行李 = "took the baggage"; 驛丞 = "the post-station warden." 朝上 (朝 = cháo, "toward") 唱個喏 (喏 = rě, the vocal salute of 唱喏) = "gave a bowing-cry toward [the throne]." Their refusal to prostrate — 再也不動, "moved no further" — is the breach of decorum the court will find so shocking.
The many officials, civil and military, were every one of them afraid. They all said, 'That these two monks are ugly may pass — but they are excessively coarse and rude. How is it that, on seeing our king, they did not so much as bow, but, their salute done, stood straight upright, stiff and unmoving? Most strange, most strange!'
無人不怕 = "there was none unafraid"; 都 (dōu) = "all." 粗俗太甚 (甚 = shèn) = "excessively coarse." 喏畢 (喏 = rě) 平身，挺然而立 = "their salute done, they stood stiffly erect" — the monks' failure to kowtow (更不下拜) affronts the court's sense of propriety, and the repeated 可怪 ("how strange!") marks its bafflement.
Eight Rules, overhearing, said, 'Gentlemen, no need to gossip. We are simply made this way: at first glance we are indeed a bit ugly, but look a while longer, and you'll find us quite easy on the eye.'
列位 = "you gentlemen [all]"; 莫要議論 = "do not discuss [us]." 耐看 = "worth looking at, a face that wears well." Eight Rules' unabashed self-recommendation — that his ugliness improves on acquaintance — is a fine comic touch, wholly in character.
Eight Rules' misreading of the summons is pure character-comedy. Where Sha Monk cautiously wonders at the reason, Eight Rules leaps at once to the conclusion nearest his own appetite: the letter must have earned them a banquet, the master's poor appetite has left the eating to himself and his brother, and a golden tablet has come to fetch them to dinner. His whole cheerful construction — "we'll all eat a good meal, and be off tomorrow" — is built on greed, and the gap between what he expects (a feast) and what awaits (a demon to fight) is the engine of the scene's humor.
The disciples' conduct at court then delivers a pointed satirical contrast. Only a few scenes earlier the assembled officials had sighed with admiration at Tripitaka's decorous rites and bearing, the very model of the "superior realm"; now his disciples give a single perfunctory shout and stand "stiff and unmoving," refusing the kowtow that propriety demands, and the same court recoils in baffled outrage. Eight Rules' shameless rejoinder — that his ugliness merely wants getting used to — completes the picture of a boorishness wholly indifferent to the court's proprieties, and the humor cuts, gently, at the pomp so lately admired.