原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
老君的丹 The Elixir And The Wine
饑時把老君的丹，略略咬了兩三顆；渴時把玉帝的酒，輕輕呼了六七鍾。饥时把老君的丹，略略咬了两三颗；渴时把玉帝的酒，轻轻呼了六七钟。
逐句解 Line by line
饑時把老君的丹，略略咬了兩三顆；
饥时把老君的丹，略略咬了两三颗；
"When I was hungry I took Lord Lao's elixir and bit off two or three pills, just casually;
老君 is Laozi in his divine aspect, the alchemist of heaven. Eating the pills of immortality out of boredom is what made Pilgrim indestructible, and he mentions it as a snack.
渴時把玉帝的酒，輕輕呼了六七鍾。
渴时把玉帝的酒，轻轻呼了六七钟。
when I was thirsty I took the Jade Emperor's wine and knocked back six or seven cupfuls, quite lightly."
玉帝 is the Jade Emperor, the supreme ruler of the celestial bureaucracy. The two adverbs are the joke — casually, lightly — applied to robbing the two highest powers in heaven.
The comedy is entirely in the adverbs. He did not steal the elixir of immortality; he bit off two or three pills, just casually. He did not raid the celestial banquet; he knocked back six or seven cups, quite lightly.
Both events really happened in the novel's opening chapters, and both were catastrophic — the stolen elixir is why heaven could not execute him and the ruined banquet is why they tried. He is recounting a crisis that shook the cosmos as a story about being peckish.
For the monks this is presumably terrifying rather than reassuring, which does not occur to him for a moment.