招求法師 A Notice Seeking a Master
連年乾旱，郡侯差我等在此出榜，招求法師祈雨救民也。」行者聞言道：「你的榜文何在？」眾官道：「榜文在此，適間才打掃廊簷，還未張掛。」连年干旱，郡侯差我等在此出榜，招求法师祈雨救民也。」行者闻言道：「你的榜文何在？」众官道：「榜文在此，适间才打扫廊簷，还未张挂。」
逐句解 Line by line
"We have had drought year after year, and the prefect has sent us out to post a notice calling for a master of the Law to pray for rain and save the people."
乾 is gān here, dry — the same character that was qián in the opening song, where it named the three-line figure standing for heaven. Six of this chapter's eight are the dry one, which tells you what the chapter is about. 郡侯 is the prefect, the senior official of the prefecture, and he is the closest thing this chapter has to a leading man besides Pilgrim. 法師 is a master of the Buddhist Law — the notice is a job advertisement, and the applicants have just walked into town.
Pilgrim heard this and said, "Where is this notice of yours?"
聞 is to hear — and Pilgrim's reaction is instant. Tripitaka is still apologising; his disciple has already spotted a contract.
The officials said, "The notice is right here. We have only just finished sweeping the gallery eaves and have not put it up yet."
適間 means just a moment ago. This is a nice piece of timing on the novel's part: the notice has not even been hung yet. The men who can answer it have arrived before the advertisement went live.
Here the chapter's machinery clicks into place. There is a drought, there is a public notice, and there is a monkey who can summon rain standing directly in front of it.
The detail that the notice has not yet been hung is doing real work. Coincidence in this novel is rarely just coincidence — the pilgrims keep arriving at the precise moment they are needed, and the book's position is that this is what a pilgrimage under heaven's supervision looks like from the inside. The officials think they are being efficient about the sweeping. They are being used.