原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
來顯魂哩
Showing His Ghost
八戒道：「我分明看見他被妖精一口吞了。想是日辰不好，那猴子來顯魂哩。」行者到跟前，一把撾住八戒臉，一個巴掌打了個踉蹌道：「夯貨！我顯甚麼魂？」八戒道：「我分明看见他被妖精一口吞了。想是日辰不好，那猴子来显魂哩。」行者到跟前，一把挝住八戒脸，一个巴掌打了个踉跄道：「夯货！我显甚么魂？」
逐句解 Line by line
八戒道：「我分明看見他被妖精一口吞了。
八戒道：「我分明看见他被妖精一口吞了。
Bajie said: "I saw it plainly. The monster swallowed him at a gulp.
分明 — clearly, distinctly. Bajie is insisting on the quality of his own eyesight.
想是日辰不好，那猴子來顯魂哩。」
想是日辰不好，那猴子来显魂哩。」
It must be an unlucky day, and that monkey has come back to show his ghost."
日辰 is the day reckoned by the calendar, the sort a household would check before doing anything important.
行者到跟前，一把撾住八戒臉，一個巴掌打了個踉蹌道：「夯貨！
行者到跟前，一把挝住八戒脸，一个巴掌打了个踉跄道：「夯货！
Wukong came up to him, seized Bajie by the face with one hand, and with a slap set him staggering. "Blockhead!
夯貨 — literally a rammer, the heavy tool used to pound earth. Wukong reaching for something solid, useful and stupid.
我顯甚麼魂？」
我显甚么魂？」
What ghost am I showing?"
甚 reads shén here — the questioning what, not the shèn that means very.
總評 Commentary
Bajie's defence is not that he lied but that the world is behaving strangely. An unlucky day, and therefore ghosts. It is exactly the reasoning of a man who would rather rearrange the cosmos than admit he was wrong, and the novel has him produce it instantly, without any visible effort.
Checking the day was ordinary practice, not superstition at the margins. Almanacs listed which days suited which activities, and a household would consult one before a wedding, a journey or a burial. Bajie is reaching for the most respectable explanation available, which is what makes it funny.
Wukong's answer is a slap and a question, in that order. He does not argue with the ghost theory; he demonstrates against it. And the name he uses is the one he always uses — a rammer, the weighted block for pounding foundations — which tells you how settled this relationship is. They have had this argument before.