貧僧求經 A Poor Monk Seeking Scriptures
那老者猛擡頭，看見行者，吃了一驚，拄著竹杖，喝道：「你是那裡來的怪人？在我這門首何幹？」行者答禮道：「老施主休怕我，我不是甚麼怪人。貧僧是東土大唐欽差上西方求經者。師徒四人，適至寶方，見天氣蒸熱，一則不解其故，二來不知地名，特拜問指教一二。」那老者猛抬头，看见行者，吃了一惊，拄着竹杖，喝道：「你是那里来的怪人？在我这门首何干？」行者答礼道：「老施主休怕我，我不是甚么怪人。贫僧是东土大唐钦差上西方求经者。师徒四人，适至宝方，见天气蒸热，一则不解其故，二来不知地名，特拜问指教一二。」
逐句解 Line by line
The old man jerked his head up, saw Pilgrim, and started with fright. Propping himself on his bamboo staff, he shouted, 'What sort of monster are you, and where have you come from? What is your business at my door?'
Two 那 four characters apart, read in opposite ways: 那老者 points ("that old man"), nà, while 那裡來 asks ("where from"), nǎ. 著 in 拄著 is the light zhe that marks an action in progress — he shouts while leaning on the stick. 喝 is hè, to shout, not the hē of drinking.
Pilgrim returned the bow and said, 'Old benefactor, do not be afraid of me. I am no monster of any kind.'
施主, "benefactor," is the word a monk uses for a lay householder, and Pilgrim leads with it to establish that he is clergy before he says anything else. 甚 is shén in 甚麼.
'This poor monk is one commissioned by the Great Tang in the Land of the East to go westward and seek the scriptures.'
欽差 qīn chāi is a piece of hard bureaucratic vocabulary — "imperially commissioned," the phrase used of an official carrying the emperor's own authority. 差 is chāi here, sent on a commission. That is the third distinct sound this one character has taken in the chapter: chā in 差別, and chāi both here and in 差人.
'We are four, master and disciples together, newly arrived in your honoured district. Seeing the weather so steaming hot, we neither understand the cause, in the first place, nor know the name of the region, in the second; and so we make bold to ask that you instruct us in a thing or two.'
Two 一 in one sentence and neither is a plain number. 一則…二來 is a frame for setting out points in order, "in the first place… in the second," and 指教一二 means "instruct me in a thing or two." Both are counting positions rather than quantities, so both keep the flat yī.
The old man's reaction is the correct one and the novel knows it. Pilgrim has just spent a paragraph arranging himself into a respectable exterior, and it makes no difference whatever: the householder takes one look at him and reaches for his stick. The comedy depends on our having watched the preparation fail in real time.
Pilgrim's reply is a careful three-move piece of self-presentation. He returns the bow, denies being a monster, and produces his credentials — commissioned by the Great Tang, bound west for scriptures. The politeness climbs sharply at 貧僧, the humble self-name of a monk, and again at 欽差, which belongs to imperial officialdom. He is claiming the protection of two institutions in one breath.
The question itself is a model of going the long way round. He does not ask why it is hot. He says he does not understand the cause and does not know the place name, lays the two out as a numbered pair, and then asks only to be told "a thing or two." Every element is a formula, and the formulas are doing real work: an unidentified creature at the gate has just converted itself into a guest with a question.