拴著吃草料 Tied Up Eating Fodder
沙僧把行李遞入，攙著唐僧進去，沙僧也到裡邊。行者道：「我的馬在那裡？」旁有伏侍的道：「馬在後屋拴著吃草料哩。」沙僧把行李递入，搀着唐僧进去，沙僧也到里边。行者道：「我的马在那里？」旁有伏侍的道：「马在后屋拴着吃草料哩。」
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk passed the baggage in, helped the Tang Monk through, and got in himself.
Three actions in nine characters, and Sha Monk does all of them. He handles the luggage, handles the master, and gets himself in last — which is his function in the party stated as plainly as the novel ever states it. 著 is zhe: supporting him through.
Pilgrim said: "Where is my horse?"
那 is nǎ, where. He is the last one standing outside the chest and the horse is the thing he checks on.
An attendant standing by said: "The horse is tied up in the back room, eating fodder."
The character for beside here is 旁, which occurs exactly once in this chapter — everywhere else the same idea is written with a near-twin that has a person radical added on the left, and that one appears four times. Both read páng in this sense. 著 is zhe, tied and standing tied.
Pilgrim's last thought before shutting himself in a box is the horse, and it is not sentiment. The white horse is the third prince of the Western Sea dragon king under a spell, and it is also the one piece of property that proves their story.
What he does next makes the disaster complete. Leaving the horse in the back room would have saved it; he is about to have it tied to the outside of the chest.