原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
相貌刁鑽 A Face Sharp And Cunning
行者進前一步，厲聲道：「老孫便是。」那國王聽得聲音兇狠，又見相貌刁鑽，諕得戰兢兢，跌在龍床之上。行者进前一步，厉声道：「老孙便是。」那国王听得声音凶狠，又见相貌刁钻，諕得战兢兢，跌在龙床之上。
逐句解 Line by line
行者進前一步，厲聲道：「老孫便是。」
行者进前一步，厉声道：「老孙便是。」
Pilgrim took one step forward and said in a harsh voice, "Old Sun it is."
Four characters of answer to a king. 厲聲 is a voice pitched to cut, and he uses it in a throne room after a court has bowed to him on its knees.
那國王聽得聲音兇狠，又見相貌刁鑽，諕得戰兢兢，跌在龍床之上。
那国王听得声音凶狠，又见相貌刁钻，諕得战兢兢，跌在龙床之上。
The king, hearing how fierce and savage the voice was, and seeing besides how sharp and cunning the face, was so frightened that he shook all over and fell back on the dragon couch.
Two instances of 得 in one sentence, read differently. 聽得 keeps its full tone dé, one of the fixed compounds; 諕得 weakens to de to carry what follows. 相 is xiàng in 相貌, and 諕 is xià — the seventh of the chapter's eight.
老孫便是 is four characters and it undoes the entire performance of the previous passage. The king asked in royal speech which of them was the Divine Monk; the answer comes back in the language of a street.
The sequence of the king's fright is exact: he hears first and sees second. The voice does half the damage before the face arrives, which is why 厲聲 was worth the narrator's two characters.
And the furniture keeps its imperial epithet — he falls back onto the dragon couch — while the man on it has been knocked over by a greeting.