自念自誦 He Talks Himself Through It
好大聖，搖身一變，變做個猛蟲兒，輕輕的飛在他書包之上。只聽得那妖精敲著鑼，緒緒聒聒的自念自誦道：「我家大王忒也心毒。三年前到朱紫國強奪了金聖皇后，一向無緣，未得沾身，只苦了要來的宮女頂缸。好大圣，摇身一变，变做个猛虫儿，轻轻的飞在他书包之上。只听得那妖精敲着锣，绪绪聒聒的自念自诵道：「我家大王忒也心毒。三年前到朱紫国强夺了金圣皇后，一向无缘，未得沾身，只苦了要来的宫女顶缸。
逐句解 Line by line
Fine Great Sage! With a shake of his body he changed into a stinging fly and settled lightly on the fellow's despatch bag.
輕輕的 is the colloquial doubled adverb with its particle — ever so lightly — and it is the only word in the sentence about how the landing was managed. The change of shape takes ten characters; the manner of alighting takes three, and gets the emphasis.
He heard the fiend beating his gong and rattling on to himself, reciting and muttering: "Our Great King is a deal too cruel-hearted."
聒 is guō, and the dictionary of 1716 gives it exactly one reading — glossed as clamorous talk and as noise that disturbs, and cited from the 書經 at 今汝聒聒, which the commentators take as too many words muddling the sense. The reading offered first by modern dictionaries is not this one. 自念自誦 doubles the reflexive: he is both saying it and listening to himself say it.
"Three years ago he went to the Vermilion-Purple Kingdom and carried off the Golden Sage Empress by force; and he has had no luck with her in all that time and has never once been able to lay a hand on her, so that it is only the palace women fetched in for it who have suffered in her place."
Three things get named here for the first time in the chapter — the interval of three years, the kingdom itself, and the queen under this particular title. She was 金聖娘娘 in the chapter's opening speech and is 金聖皇后 here; the book gives her four different styles before it is done. 頂缸 is literally to carry the water-jar, and it is the standing idiom for standing in and taking what was meant for somebody else — carrying the can, near enough exactly.
The chapter has run one thousand eight hundred and thirteen characters without naming the kingdom it is set in, and it is a demon's errand-runner who finally names it, while complaining about his workload. The same sentence supplies the length of the abduction and the fact that it has come to nothing — neither of which the king himself ever managed to say.
What makes the grumble work is that it is not addressed to anybody. Nothing in it is shaped for an audience, so nothing in it is defended. He is not making a case against his master; he is muttering on a road, and muttering is where the truth about an administration usually surfaces.
The detail he opens with is the one that matters most, and he treats it as background. Three years of possession and not once able to lay a hand on her: the queen is a captive her captor cannot go near, and the reason will not be given for a long while yet. He mentions it only to explain why other women keep dying.