原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
不敢不敢 The Vanguard Declines the Honour
老妖按下風頭，把唐僧拿到洞裡，叫：「先鋒。」那定計的小妖上前跪倒，口中道：「不敢，不敢。」老妖按下风头，把唐僧拿到洞里，叫：「先锋。」那定计的小妖上前跪倒，口中道：「不敢，不敢。」
逐句解 Line by line
老妖按下風頭，把唐僧拿到洞裡，叫：「先鋒。」
老妖按下风头，把唐僧拿到洞里，叫：「先锋。」
The old fiend brought his wind down, carried the Tang Monk into the cave, and called, "Vanguard."
按下風頭 is pressing the wind down to land, the same phrase used of Pilgrim's cloud. And the first thing the fiend does on getting home is call the imp by the rank he promised him, which is a promotion confirmed before anything else is said.
那定計的小妖上前跪倒，口中道：「不敢，不敢。」
那定计的小妖上前跪倒，口中道：「不敢，不敢。」
The imp who had laid the plan came forward, knelt down and said, "I dare not, I dare not."
不敢 twice over is the correct ritual refusal of an honour, said by everyone who is about to accept one. 那定計的小妖 — the imp who fixed the plan — is how the novel keeps naming him, since he has no name.
The cave runs on court manners. A rank conferred, a formal refusal, and in a moment a formal insistence — the whole exchange could be happening in the throne room the chapter opened in.
He is still nameless. Two imps have between them frightened their commander out of a plan and talked him into a better one, and the novel gives neither of them anything to be called.