金蟬長老 Golden Cicada Reborn
你道他叫好做甚？原來誇獎唐僧，說他是金蟬長老轉世，十世修行的好人，所以有此祥瑞罩頭。你道他叫好做甚？原来夸奖唐僧，说他是金蝉长老转世，十世修行的好人，所以有此祥瑞罩头。
逐句解 Line by line
And what was he calling out for?
The bare 甚 is the question word, shén — the same word as in 甚麼, just without its second half. The narrator turns and asks the reader directly, a storyteller's move the novel inherits from the marketplace.
It turned out he was praising the Tang Monk, saying that he was the Elder Golden Cicada come back into the world, a good man of ten lifetimes of cultivation, and that this was why such a lucky sign hung over his head.
The Golden Cicada was a disciple of the Buddha who dozed during a sermon and was sent down to be reborn — the reason Tripitaka is on this road at all. A cicada is a well-chosen emblem for it, since the insect climbs out of its own shell and leaves the empty case behind, which is exactly what a rebirth looks like from outside.
The novel is reminding the reader of something it needs them to hold on to: Tripitaka is not merely a nervous monk on a horse. He is ten lifetimes of accumulated merit walking around in a body, and that is precisely what makes him worth eating.
The logic is worth spelling out because the chapter depends on it. Demons do not want the Tang Monk because he is important; they want him because ten lifetimes of purity, concentrated in one person who has never spent any of it, is the most valuable substance in the world. He is not a hostage. He is an ingredient.