猜著和尚 Guessed for a Monk
正說處，只見那虎力大仙道：「陛下，第三番是個道童。」只管叫，他那裡肯出來。三藏合掌道：「是個和尚。」八戒盡力高叫道：「櫃裡是個和尚。」那童兒忽的頂開櫃蓋，敲著木魚，念著佛，鑽出來。喜得那兩班文武齊聲喝采。諕得那三個道士拑口無言。正说处，只见那虎力大仙道：「陛下，第三番是个道童。」只管叫，他那里肯出来。三藏合掌道：「是个和尚。」八戒尽力高叫道：「柜里是个和尚。」那童儿忽的顶开柜盖，敲着木鱼，念着佛，钻出来。喜得那两班文武齐声喝采。諕得那三个道士拑口无言。
逐句解 Line by line
Just as they were speaking, the Tiger-Power Immortal said: "Your Majesty, the third round is a Daoist-lad.
正說處: 處 = chù, at the very point of speaking. Tiger-Power announces the answer with total confidence, which is the last thing he will do with confidence in this chapter. 第三番 is the third bout. 那 = nà.
Call all you like — how should he be willing to come out?"
他那裡肯出來: 那 asks — nǎ — and expects no answer. "As if he'd come out." He is right about the Daoist-lad and wrong about everything else.
Tripitaka pressed his palms together and said: "It is a monk."
合掌, palms joined, and four quiet words. 三藏: 藏 = zàng.
Eight Rules bawled at the top of his voice: "In the chest is a monk!"
And Bajie, who has no gift for quiet, bellows it. 盡力高叫: 盡 = jìn, with all his force. The contrast between the two deliveries is the passage's best sight gag.
That lad, of a sudden, pushed up the chest-lid, tapped his wooden fish, chanted the Buddha's name, and bored his way out.
The cue works to the letter, in the order it was given: 頂開櫃蓋, 敲著木魚, 念著佛, and out he comes. Both 著 are zhe; 佛 = fó; 那童兒: 那 = nà, 兒 = ér.
So delighted were the two files of civil and military that they cried acclaim with one voice;
喝采 is to shout approval — 喝 = hè, the shouting sound, not the hē of drinking. The whole court cheers, civil officers and military both. 喜得: 得 = de, so delighted that. 那 = nà.
and the three Daoists were so frightened they clamped their mouths and had not a word.
And the other half of the picture. 諕得 — 諕 is xià, "to frighten," an old way of writing 嚇; 得 = de. 拑口無言 is mouths clamped shut and not a word between them. This is the first of six appearances of 諕 in the chapter, and every one of them marks the moment somebody's certainty gives way. 那 = nà.
The plan runs exactly as written. The shorn boy pushes up the lid on cue, wooden fish tapping and the Buddha's name on his lips, and the guess of "a monk" is confirmed in front of the entire court. The reversal is total — the Daoists' own precaution has manufactured a Buddhist — and the storyteller frames it with two reactions set side by side: the whole assembly shouting approval, and three men with their mouths clamped shut, 拑口無言, not a word between them.
The character 諕 that carries their fright is an old way of writing 嚇, and this reader keeps it as xià wherever it appears; it will turn up five more times before the chapter ends, always at a moment when somebody's certainty collapses. Three rounds of second sight have produced three humiliations, and the guessing game is over. Unable to win by cunning, the Daoists will now stake everything on the body itself — beheading, disembowelling, and a cauldron of boiling oil.