醜似妖魔 Ugly as Demons Every One
我留他吃齋，他說有徒弟在府前，我即命請。少時進來，見我不行大禮，打個問訊，我已不快；及擡頭看時，一個個醜似妖魔，心中不覺驚駭，故此面容改色。」我留他吃斋，他说有徒弟在府前，我即命请。少时进来，见我不行大礼，打个问讯，我已不快；及抬头看时，一个个丑似妖魔，心中不觉惊骇，故此面容改色。」
逐句解 Line by line
I kept him for a meal, and he said his disciples were outside the palace, so I gave orders to invite them in.
The prince retells the scene from his own side, and it is a model of fairness — every step of it was his own decision. He kept the monk, he heard about the disciples, he issued the invitation. Nobody imposed on him.
Presently in they came, and instead of performing the full obeisance before me they made a greeting. I was displeased already;
And here is the grievance stated plainly: not the full prostration, only the monastic greeting. 大禮 is the great ceremony, the kneeling and knocking of the head that a subject owes a ruler; 問訊 is the palms-together salute a monk gives anybody. Tripitaka told Bajie off for the wrong thing. The prince's complaint is not that the salute was coarse but that it was the wrong rank of courtesy — which is precisely the point Tripitaka made about high and low, arrived at independently from the other side of the room.
and then when I raised my head to look, every one of them was as ugly as a demon. Fright came over me before I knew it, and that is why the colour changed in my face."
醜似妖魔, ugly as demons, is the third variation on the same charge, after the officials' pig-goblin and monkey-spirit. 不覺, without noticing, is the honest part: he did not choose to be frightened, it simply happened. And 擡頭看時 — when he raised his head to look — quietly explains the whole misunderstanding. He had his head lowered for the bow that never came, and he looked up into three faces.
The prince's account is entirely reasonable and it lands the blame in a different place from Tripitaka's telling. Rudeness did not offend him; the wrong grade of courtesy did, and then he was simply frightened.
The small physical detail carries it. He was looking down when they came in, waiting for a prostration, and raised his head at the wrong moment. Two people can be scrupulously polite and still produce this.
Three descriptions of the disciples in three scenes: goblin, spirit, demon. The novel is stacking them deliberately, because the whole back half of the chapter is going to knock the stack over.