原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
弄虛頭搗鬼
Why Is He Calling Us Out
就來弄虛頭，搗鬼：怎麼說降了妖精，就擡轎來送師父，卻又來叫戰，何也？」行者道：「老怪已被我降了，不敢出頭，聞著個『孫』字兒，也害頭疼。這定是二妖魔不伏氣送我們，故此叫戰。就来弄虚头，捣鬼：怎么说降了妖精，就抬轿来送师父，却又来叫战，何也？」行者道：「老怪已被我降了，不敢出头，闻着个『孙』字儿，也害头疼。这定是二妖魔不伏气送我们，故此叫战。
逐句解 Line by line
就來弄虛頭，搗鬼：怎麼說降了妖精，就擡轎來送師父，卻又來叫戰，何也？」
就来弄虚头，捣鬼：怎么说降了妖精，就抬轿来送师父，却又来叫战，何也？」
So you come playing tricks and stirring up mischief. How is it that you said you had subdued the monster and that a chair would come to carry the master, and now here he is challenging us to battle?"
降 reads xiáng, to subdue, not the jiàng that means to come down. 弄虛頭 is to work an empty trick.
行者道：「老怪已被我降了，不敢出頭，聞著個『孫』字兒，也害頭疼。
行者道：「老怪已被我降了，不敢出头，闻着个『孙』字儿，也害头疼。
Wukong said: "The old fiend has been subdued by me and dares not show his head. If he so much as catches the word Sun his head aches.
降 is again xiáng. 著 reads zháo, the ending that marks a perception that landed — catching the word rather than listening for it.
這定是二妖魔不伏氣送我們，故此叫戰。
这定是二妖魔不伏气送我们，故此叫战。
This will be the second monster, who is not content to send us on, and so is calling for a fight.
不伏氣 — unwilling to swallow it. The complaint of someone who has lost and will not accept the result.
總評 Commentary
Wukong's explanation is correct in its facts and wrong in its conclusion. The old fiend is indeed beaten and hiding; the second fiend is indeed acting on his own initiative. What Wukong does not know is that the three of them agreed on this together a page ago, and that the whole promise was a lie from the moment it was made.
This is a favourite structure of the novel. The reader is handed the truth in one scene and then watches an intelligent character reason his way to a plausible, confident and completely wrong account of it. Wukong is not being stupid; he is working from evidence that has been arranged to mislead him.
The detail about the word Sun making the demon's head ache is Wukong enjoying himself. He has spent the chapter demanding to be called grandfather, and he now reports that his surname alone functions as a headache. Reputation again, and this time offered as a battlefield asset.