求見尊師 Seeking an Audience
行者道：「這皇帝十分造化。常言道：『術動公卿。』老師父有這般手段，結了親，其實不虧他。噫！不知我貧道可有星星緣法，得見那老師父一面哩？」道士笑曰：「你要見我師父，有何難處？我兩個是他靠胸貼肉的徒弟，我師父卻又好道愛賢，只聽見說個『道』字，就也接出大門，若是我兩個引進你，乃吹灰之力。」行者深深的唱個大喏道：「多承舉薦，就此進去罷。」行者道：「这皇帝十分造化。常言道：『术动公卿。』老师父有这般手段，结了亲，其实不亏他。噫！不知我贫道可有星星缘法，得见那老师父一面哩？」道士笑曰：「你要见我师父，有何难处？我两个是他靠胸贴肉的徒弟，我师父却又好道爱贤，只听见说个『道』字，就也接出大门，若是我两个引进你，乃吹灰之力。」行者深深的唱个大喏道：「多承举荐，就此进去罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said: "This emperor has fortune indeed.
造化 is fortune or luck here — the same word that meant the world's making and shaping a line ago, now demoted to a man's good luck. 分 is fēn.
As the old saying goes, 'Craft moves the great ministers.'
術動公卿, "craft moves the great ministers" — a proverb, and flattery aimed squarely where it will do most good. The edition marks it as a quotation rather than as verse.
With such arts as your old masters possess, to have bound themselves in kinship — truly it does them no discredit.
不 is bù before 虧; 了 is the light le marking the match as already made.
Ah!
噫, yī — a sigh, put on for the occasion.
I wonder whether this poor Daoist might have the least speck of karmic affinity — enough to win one sight of your old masters' faces?"
The flattery is now pitched as humility: might a nobody like him have even a speck of 緣, the karmic affinity that has to exist between two people before they can meet at all? 星星 is a mere speck. 得 is full dé, to get to see; 那 is nà; 哩 is li; 一 is yí before 面.
The Daoist said with a smile: "You wish to see our masters? What difficulty is there in that?
難 is nán; 處 is chù.
We two are their bosom-and-flesh disciples, and our masters, moreover, so love the Dao and cherish the worthy that at the mere sound of the word 'Dao' they will come out to the very gate to receive a man. If we two bring you in, it will cost no more than blowing away ash."
Vanity answers vanity. 靠胸貼肉, "against the chest and touching the flesh," is how they describe their closeness to the masters — and 吹灰之力, "the force needed to blow away ash," is how much trouble the introduction will cost. Both are still live idioms; the second is what modern Chinese reaches for when something takes no effort at all. 好道 is hào; the quoted 道 is dào.
Pilgrim, bowing low, made a deep salute and said: "Much obliged for the recommendation — let us go in, then."
唱個大喏 is to make a loud, deep salutation — 喏 is rě here, the vocal bow of 唱喏, not the default nuò that means assent. 多承, much obliged. 罷 in 進去罷 is light ba, the "let's" ending, not the verb bà, to stop.
Wukong flatters his way in, quoting the proverb 術動公卿, "craft moves the great," and professing to hope for the least speck of the affinity that would let a nobody glimpse such masters. It is laid on thickly and it works perfectly.
The two young Daoists are vain of exactly the thing he is flattering — their closeness to the immortals, 靠胸貼肉, "against the chest and touching the flesh" — and they promise an introduction costing no more than 吹灰之力, the effort of blowing ash off a table. The disguised Great Sage is now being walked towards the center of the kingdom's power by two men who think they are doing him a favor.