三徒闖戶 The Disciples Burst In
那行者本來性急，八戒生來粗魯，沙僧卻也莽撞，三個人聽得師父招呼，牽著馬，挑著擔，不問好歹，一陣風，闖將進去。那老者看見，諕得跌倒在地，口裡只說：「是妖怪來了，妖怪來了。」三藏攙起道：「施主莫怕，不是妖怪，是我徒弟。」老者戰兢兢道：「這般好俊師父，怎麼尋這樣醜徒弟。」三藏道：「雖然相貌不中，卻倒會降龍伏虎，捉怪擒妖。」老者似信不信的，扶著唐僧慢走。那行者本来性急，八戒生来粗鲁，沙僧却也莽撞，三个人听得师父招呼，牵着马，挑着担，不问好歹，一阵风，闯将进去。那老者看见，諕得跌倒在地，口里只说：「是妖怪来了，妖怪来了。」三藏搀起道：「施主莫怕，不是妖怪，是我徒弟。」老者战兢兢道：「这般好俊师父，怎么寻这样丑徒弟。」三藏道：「虽然相貌不中，却倒会降龙伏虎，捉怪擒妖。」老者似信不信的，扶着唐僧慢走。
逐句解 Line by line
Now Pilgrim was hasty by nature, Eight Rules coarse from birth, and Sha Monk reckless too; the three of them, hearing the Master call, led the horse and shouldered the load, and without a by-your-leave, in a gust of wind, came charging on in.
Three character sketches in a single breath: 性急 hasty, 粗魯 coarse, 莽撞 headlong. Then 一陣風, "in a gust of wind," and they are through the door before anyone can stop them. 不問好歹 is without asking whether it was a good idea. 那 points — nà; 聽得 takes 得 as dé; 牽著 and 挑著 both take 著 as zhe; 擔 is dàn, the load; 闖將進去 uses 將 as jiāng, the helper word carrying the verb along.
The old man, seeing them, was so frightened he toppled to the ground, crying over and over: "The monsters have come, the monsters have come!"
The old man goes over backwards. 諕得 takes 得 as de, frightened to the point of falling; 諕 is xià; 跌倒 takes 倒 as dǎo, to topple. 那 points — nà. And the cry doubles, which is this chapter's way of marking panic. It comes twice here and twice more when the servants arrive with the lamps.
Tripitaka raised him up and said: "Patron, do not be afraid — they are no monsters, but my disciples."
攙起 is helping somebody up off the ground by the arm. 藏 in 三藏 is zàng.
The old man, trembling, said: "Such a fine, handsome master — how did you come by disciples as ugly as these?"
戰兢兢 is trembling all over. And then the line everybody in this book eventually says to Tripitaka: such a handsome master, where did you find disciples as ugly as that?
Tripitaka said: "Ill-favored as they are, they can yet subdue dragons and tame tigers, and seize monsters and catch fiends."
降龍伏虎, subdue the dragon and tame the tiger, is a stock phrase for mastery over forces much larger than yourself — and 降 is xiáng in it, to subdue, not the jiàng of coming down. 相貌不中 takes 相 as xiàng, looks, and 中 as zhòng, up to the mark; because zhòng falls, the 不 before it shifts to bú. 倒 in 卻倒 is dào.
The old man, half believing and half not, supported the Tang Monk and walked slowly on.
似信不信 — as if believing and not — takes 似 as sì. 扶著 takes 著 as zhe. He goes on holding the handsome monk's arm and walking very slowly, which is about the most eloquent stage direction in the passage.
It happens exactly as Tripitaka feared, and on cue. The narrator gives the three of them one adjective each — hasty, coarse, headlong — and they come through the door 一陣風, in a gust of wind, with the horse and the luggage and no thought at all. The old man, who a moment ago was being talked round to hospitality, goes over backwards shrieking that the monsters have come. The timing is pure farce: the invitation extracted in the previous passage is what makes the disaster possible.
Tripitaka's defence of them is where the episode turns. Ill-favoured they may be — their 相貌不中, their looks not up to the mark — but they 降龍伏虎, subdue dragons and tame tigers, which is the stock phrase for exactly the office they hold. The old man's answer is not agreement but a wary compromise: he goes on holding the handsome monk's arm and walks slowly. The contrast between face and function is left standing, unresolved, as the party finally crosses the threshold into the house where the chapter's real sorrow is waiting.