原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
山神土地 Two Old Men Beaten Out
原來行者打了一路，打出兩個老頭兒來：一個是山神，一個是土地，上前跪下道：「大聖，山神、土地來見。」原来行者打了一路，打出两个老头儿来：一个是山神，一个是土地，上前跪下道：「大圣，山神、土地来见。」
逐句解 Line by line
原來行者打了一路，打出兩個老頭兒來：一個是山神，一個是土地，上前跪下道：「大聖，山神、土地來見。」
原来行者打了一路，打出两个老头儿来：一个是山神，一个是土地，上前跪下道：「大圣，山神、土地来见。」
As it happened, Pilgrim had beaten his way along a stretch and beaten out two old fellows — one the mountain god and one the local earth god — who came forward and knelt down, saying, "Great Sage, the mountain god and the earth god present themselves."
兒 is ér. 山神 and 土地 are the lowest ranks of the Chinese spirit bureaucracy, one to a hill and one to a patch of ground — the parish officers of the invisible world, and always summoned by this method.
The tantrum turns out to be a summoning technique. Beating the ground until the local officials come out is how Pilgrim gets information in this novel, and it works.
The two gods are the smallest functionaries in the celestial system, and the humour of them throughout the book is that they are elderly, put-upon and permanently frightened of him. They arrive kneeling and announce themselves like clerks.
It is also a genuinely useful piece of world-building. Every hill and every field in this cosmos has a minor deity attached who has seen everything that happened there, which makes the countryside itself a witness.