雛兒妖精 Fledgling Demon Or Old Hand
八戒聽見，戰兢兢的道：「哥哥，你聽，那妖精計較要蒸我們吃哩。」行者道：「不要怕，等我看他是雛兒妖精，是把勢妖精。」八戒听见，战兢兢的道：「哥哥，你听，那妖精计较要蒸我们吃哩。」行者道：「不要怕，等我看他是雏儿妖精，是把势妖精。」
逐句解 Line by line
When Bajie heard it he said, all of a tremble, "Brother, listen! Those monsters are plotting to steam us and eat us!"
戰兢兢 triples a shiver into an adverb — trembling all over. Bajie's terror is always given its full physical description, which is part of why he is the one the reader believes.
Pilgrim said, "Don't be afraid. Let me see whether he is a fledgling demon or an old hand at it."
The two terms are worth having. 雛兒 is a nestling, so a novice, a greenhorn — the same image as English calling someone a fledgling. 把勢 is an old hand or a professional, originally a man skilled in weapons, and it survives in modern Chinese in exactly that sense.
Wukong's reply is the pivot of the whole steamer sequence. Told that they are about to be cooked, he does not look for a way out. He proposes to assess the cook.
The pair of terms he reaches for is a craftsman's pair, not a fighter's. Fledgling against old hand is how you would size up a carpenter or a cook, and that is precisely the register the next few pages will run in. The question on the table is no longer whether the demons are strong. It is whether they know their trade.
And notice that Bajie has done the useful thing again. He is the one listening to the enemy and relaying what he hears. The book gives him the panic and the intelligence in the same breath.