擔著黃旗 A Flag And A Gong
正走處，忽見似個小妖兒，擔著黃旗，背著文書，敲著鑼兒，急走如飛而來。行者笑道：「原來是這廝打鑼。他不知送的是甚麼書信？等我聽他一聽。」正走处，忽见似个小妖儿，担着黄旗，背着文书，敲着锣儿，急走如飞而来。行者笑道：「原来是这厮打锣。他不知送的是甚么书信？等我听他一听。」
逐句解 Line by line
As he went he suddenly caught sight of what seemed to be a little fiend, a yellow flag over his shoulder, a packet of despatches on his back and a gong that he beat as he came, hurrying along as fast as flying.
擔 is dān, to carry on the shoulder — the verb, not the dàn that names the load itself. The three 著 are all the zhe of an action in progress: flag, despatches and gong are all being carried at once, which is how a whole courier gets into twelve characters.
Pilgrim laughed: "So it is this fellow who has been beating the gong."
原來是 marks something turning out otherwise than supposed — ah, so that is what it was. It does double duty here: the gong is explained, and the explanation Wukong gave himself a moment ago is quietly dropped without ever being withdrawn.
"What letter can he be carrying, I wonder? Let me give him a listen."
The tail closes the speech in six characters with no he-said of its own, so it goes in with the sentence before it. 聽他一聽 puts the verb either side of the measure — the same frame as 問他一問, which was the last thing he said before this scene opened, fifty-five characters back. The question he meant to ask has become something he will overhear instead.
The courier is described entirely by his luggage. Flag, despatches, gong — three loads and three verbs, and no face, no size, no manner. He is an office rather than a person, which is precisely the reading Wukong made of the gong and got wrong.
And the wrong reading is never corrected aloud. A moment ago this was a post road with a courier on it; now it is a little fiend with a war despatch, and Wukong simply proceeds. What changes is his method. He had proposed to go and ask; he decides instead to listen.