訛傳驛中 The Rumor Reaches the Horse
那些人出去，又不敢吆喝。夜深了，又不敢驚駕。都躲在那短牆檐下，戰戰兢兢不題。卻說那怪物坐在上面，自斟自酌。喝一盞，扳過人來，血淋淋的啃上兩口。他在裡面受用，外面人盡傳道：「唐僧是個虎精。」亂傳亂嚷，嚷到金亭館驛。此時驛裡無人，止有白馬在槽上吃草吃料。他本是西海小龍王，因犯天條，鋸角退鱗，變白馬，馱唐僧往西方取經。忽聞人講唐僧是個虎精，他也心中暗想道：「我師父分明是個好人，必然被怪把他變做虎精，害了師父。怎的好？怎的好？大師兄去得久了，八戒、沙僧又無音信。」那些人出去，又不敢吆喝。夜深了，又不敢惊驾。都躲在那短墙檐下，战战兢兢不题。却说那怪物坐在上面，自斟自酌。喝一盏，扳过人来，血淋淋的啃上两口。他在里面受用，外面人尽传道：「唐僧是个虎精。」乱传乱嚷，嚷到金亭馆驿。此时驿里无人，止有白马在槽上吃草吃料。他本是西海小龙王，因犯天条，锯角退鳞，变白马，驮唐僧往西方取经。忽闻人讲唐僧是个虎精，他也心中暗想道：「我师父分明是个好人，必然被怪把他变做虎精，害了师父。怎的好？怎的好？大师兄去得久了，八戒、沙僧又无音信。」
逐句解 Line by line
Those women got outside, yet dared not raise a cry.
The survivors of the feast flee in silence, unable even to alarm the palace. 那 is deictic nà.
The night was deep, and they dared not disturb the sovereign.
驚駕 is "to alarm the imperial presence" — the maids’ terror is trapped by protocol.
All huddled beneath the eaves of a low wall, trembling — but of that no more.
都 ("all") is dōu; 那 is deictic nà. 不題 ("no more of this") is the narrator’s formula for setting a thread aside.
Now the monster, seated above, poured and drank alone.
The narrative shifts (卻說) back to the demon at his solitary revel. 那 is deictic nà.
He would drain a cup, drag the corpse over, and gnaw at it, dripping blood, two mouthfuls at a time.
The grisly, methodical rhythm of the feast — drink, drag, gnaw — keeps the horror steadily before us.
While within he took his fill, outside the whole company passed the word: "The Tang monk is a tiger-spirit."
盡傳 ("all spread the word") takes 盡 as jìn. The chapter’s leakage motif is realized with cruel irony: the truth "leaks," but in the form of the demon’s lie.
The rumor spread and clamored abroad, until the clamor reached the Golden-Pavilion Hostel.
金亭館驛 is the "Golden-Pavilion Hostel," the postal lodging where the pilgrims’ mount was stabled.
At that hour the hostel was empty of men; only the white horse stood at the trough, eating its grass and fodder.
The scene narrows to the one seemingly powerless witness — the horse at its manger — from whom the rescue will come.
He was in truth the little Dragon-King of the Western Sea, who, for breaking the law of Heaven, had had his horns sawn off and his scales stripped away, and was made a white horse to bear Tripitaka westward on the scripture-quest.
The dragon-horse’s true identity: the third prince of the Western Sea, condemned for a capital offence (犯天條) and remade — 鋸角退鱗, "horns sawn, scales shed" — into Tripitaka’s mount. He is the 意馬 ("Horse of the Will") of the chapter title.
Suddenly hearing men say the Tang monk was a tiger-spirit, he too thought within himself: "My master is plainly a good man; surely some demon has changed him into a tiger-spirit and done him harm.
心中 takes 中 as zhōng; 分明 ("plainly") is fēn. Alone among the disciples, the horse reasons out the truth the whole court has missed.
What’s to be done? What’s to be done? The Eldest Brother has been gone this long while, and of Bajie and Sha Wujing there is no word."
大師兄 ("Eldest Disciple-Brother") is Sun Wukong, banished in the preceding chapters; 去得久 takes 得 as de. With Wukong gone and the others lost, the horse is the last resort.
This passage introduces the second term of the chapter’s title — the 意馬, the "Horse of the Will" — and reveals the white horse’s hidden nature as the punished dragon-prince of the Western Sea. His placement is deliberate: the humblest member of the company, a beast of burden at its trough, is the only one left to act when Wukong is banished and Bajie and Sha have failed.
The chapter’s governing motif of leakage reaches its bitterest turn here. The "secret" does escape and spread abroad — but it is the demon’s inversion that travels, "the Tang monk is a tiger-spirit," so that the truth’s exposure only deepens the danger. It is left to the horse alone to reason back from the rumor to the fact.
The horse’s anxious refrain — 怎的好？怎的好？ — and his roll-call of the absent disciples measure the pilgrimage at its lowest ebb: the Mind-Monkey banished, the others scattered, the master caged. The whole meritorious enterprise rests, for this night, on a horse.