原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
神仙晚輩 Immortals And Their Juniors
那家子聽言，都說是神仙。八戒道：「我們雖不是神仙，神仙還是我們的晚輩哩！」那家子听言，都说是神仙。八戒道：「我们虽不是神仙，神仙还是我们的晚辈哩！」
逐句解 Line by line
那家子聽言，都說是神仙。
那家子听言，都说是神仙。
That household, hearing him speak, all said they must be immortals.
那家子: this 子 is the plain flat ending on a noun, zi, the same one that sits on 猴子 and 果子 elsewhere in the project.
八戒道：「我們雖不是神仙，神仙還是我們的晚輩哩！」
八戒道：「我们虽不是神仙，神仙还是我们的晚辈哩！」
Eight Rules said: "Though we are not immortals, the immortals are still our juniors!"
還 is hái, still. The little 哩 on the end, li, is the throwaway tag that turns a large boast into an aside — the spoken equivalent of saying it over one shoulder.
Eight Rules gets the last word in this stretch and spends it on a boast that is, strictly speaking, defensible. The pilgrims do outrank most of the immortals they run into, and the novel has shown as much repeatedly. Delivered to an awestruck farmhouse with 哩 hung on the end, it is nevertheless pure swagger.
The placement is deft. The chapter has just watched the Bodhisattva, the gate-guards, the whole celestial host and the Jade Emperor fail to answer a simple question, and it now lets Eight Rules declare the pilgrims senior to the entire establishment. He means it as bragging about rank. As a description of what the reader has just witnessed, it is close to accurate.