癩母豬 The Mangy Sow And The Lion
沙僧問道：「哥哥，帖兒上是甚麼話頭？」行者道：「乃慶釘鈀會的請帖。名字寫著『門下孫黃獅頓首百拜』。請的是祖翁九靈元聖老大人。」沙僧笑道：「黃獅想必是個金毛獅子成精。但不知九靈元聖是個何物？」八戒聽言，笑道：「是老豬的貨了。」行者道：「怎見得是你的貨？」八戒道：「古人云：『癩母豬專趕金毛獅子。』故知是老豬之貨物也。」他三人說說笑笑，趕著豬羊，卻就望見虎口洞門。沙僧问道：「哥哥，帖儿上是甚么话头？」行者道：「乃庆钉钯会的请帖。名字写着『门下孙黄狮顿首百拜』。请的是祖翁九灵元圣老大人。」沙僧笑道：「黄狮想必是个金毛狮子成精。但不知九灵元圣是个何物？」八戒听言，笑道：「是老猪的货了。」行者道：「怎见得是你的货？」八戒道：「古人云：『癞母猪专赶金毛狮子。』故知是老猪之货物也。」他三人说说笑笑，赶着猪羊，却就望见虎口洞门。
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk asked, "Elder brother, what was the talk on the card?"
帖 keeps tiě, the card reading. Sha Monk has been silent through the whole encounter and speaks the moment the fiend is out of sight, which tells us he was paying close attention throughout.
Pilgrim said, "It is an invitation to celebrate the Rake Banquet.
請帖 takes tiě on its second graph, the registered reading for an invitation card.
"The name written on it is: From your disciple and grandson, Yellow Lion, who knocks his head and bows a hundred times.
著 is zhe here, the reading for a state that holds — the name stands written. Pilgrim quotes the signature verbatim, and the novel reprints it verbatim, which is how we know he has it exactly.
"The one invited is his venerable grandsire, the Nine-Spirit Primal Sage, most honoured elder."
He repeats the title in full a second time. The novel is making sure we do not skim past it, because the name is the chapter's real cliff-hanger.
Sha Monk laughed and said, "Yellow Lion must be some golden-haired lion turned spirit.
Sha Monk works out the monster from his name in one line, and he is exactly right. He is the quiet one, not the slow one.
"But what sort of thing is a Nine-Spirit Primal Sage?"
The question the whole remaining plot answers, asked here and left hanging. The novel will not tell us until the following chapter.
Eight Rules, hearing this, laughed and said, "That will be old Hog's business."
貨 is goods or merchandise — his line of trade, his department. He is claiming the monster the way a tradesman claims a job.
Pilgrim said, "How does it follow that it is your business?"
見得 keeps dé at its full reading, the registered one for a verb of perception carrying its own predication — how is it made out, how does one see that.
Eight Rules said, "The ancients had a saying: a mangy sow goes straight for a golden-haired lion.
Here is the joke the passage is built for, and it takes a moment to land. Eight Rules calls himself 老豬, old Hog, all through the book. So a proverb about a sow chasing a lion makes the golden-haired lion his by rights — and he has quoted it as ancient wisdom, with a straight face, to claim a fight he has not yet had.
"So it is plain that it is old Hog's merchandise."
He closes the argument with the formal 故知, therefore we know — the phrasing of a scholar finishing a proof. Applied to a pig joke.
The three of them went along talking and laughing, driving the pigs and sheep, until the gate of the Tiger-Mouth Cave came into view.
著 is zhe, the reading for something kept up — the animals are driven the whole way. The cheerfulness here is deliberate: they are joking as they walk into the enemy's front door.
Eight Rules's proverb is the best pun in the chapter and it needs unpacking. He refers to himself as old Hog throughout the novel; the enemy is a golden-haired lion; and he produces a saying in which a sow chases exactly such a lion. On that basis he claims the monster is his to deal with — as though the proverb were a contract.
The joke also has a second layer. Whether the saying is genuinely old or invented on the spot, he delivers it wrapped in the machinery of scholarship: the ancients said, therefore we know. A pig quoting the classics to book himself a fight is the kind of comedy this novel does better than anyone.
Underneath the laughter, Sha Monk has asked the question that matters and nobody has answered it. They know what a yellow lion is. They do not know what a Nine-Spirit Primal Sage is, and they are about to pick a fight with its grandson.