專要吃僧 Here We Eat Monks Instead
群妖道：「你想這裡齋僧，不知我這裡專要吃僧。我們都是山中得道的妖仙，專要把你們和尚拿到家裡，上蒸籠蒸熟吃哩。你倒還想來吃齋。」群妖道：「你想这里斋僧，不知我这里专要吃僧。我们都是山中得道的妖仙，专要把你们和尚拿到家里，上蒸笼蒸熟吃哩。你倒还想来吃斋。」
逐句解 Line by line
The imps said, "You suppose we feed monks here. You do not know that here we make a point of eating them.
The whole joke lands on the swap of a single verb. 齋僧, to feed monks, against 吃僧, to eat monks — the same second character, the same shape, one character apart, and the difference is Bajie's life.
We are all demon-immortals who have got the Way here in the mountains, and what we do is take you monks home, put you in the steamer, cook you through and eat you. And you thought you were coming for a free meal."
得道 puts 得 at dé, its full attaining reading — these are creatures who have genuinely cultivated and got somewhere, which is what makes them dangerous. 倒 is dào, the contrary one: and yet you thought. And note the steamer, because Pilgrim's invented village was steaming rice in exactly such baskets.
The imps are pleased with themselves and they have earned it. The reversal is clean, it is delivered in their own words, and it turns on the difference between feeding a monk and cooking one.
Pilgrim's lie had steamer baskets in it. He put them there to explain away the fog, and here are the real ones, waiting at the end of the road he sent his brother down.