是鬼，是怪？ Is It a Ghost or a Fiend?
行者一把揪住耳朵，掄拳罵道：「你這個淫心不斷的夯貨！說那甚胡話？」正吵鬧間，只見驛丞來報道：「聖上有旨，差官來請三位神僧。」八戒道：「端的請我們為何？」驛丞道：「老神僧幸遇公主娘娘打中繡毬，招為駙馬，故此差官來請。」行者道：「差官在那裡？教他進來。」那官看行者施禮，禮畢，不敢仰視，只管暗暗說道：「是鬼，是怪？是雷公，夜叉？」行者一把揪住耳朵，抡拳骂道：「你这个淫心不断的夯货！说那甚胡话？」正吵闹间，只见驿丞来报道：「圣上有旨，差官来请三位神僧。」八戒道：「端的请我们为何？」驿丞道：「老神僧幸遇公主娘娘打中绣毬，招为驸马，故此差官来请。」行者道：「差官在那里？教他进来。」那官看行者施礼，礼毕，不敢仰视，只管暗暗说道：「是鬼，是怪？是雷公，夜叉？」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim seized him by the ear with one hand and, brandishing a fist, cursed him: "You lecherous lump, whose filthy mind never stops! What rubbish is that you are talking?"
夯貨 — lump, blockhead, literally a rammer's load. It is Pilgrim's standing insult for his brother.
⚠ 說那甚胡話 — what rubbish is that you are talking. Both characters in the middle are the dismissive kind, not questions: it is the frame that turns up seven times across the novel with a noun after it, always meaning that so-called thing of yours.
Pilgrim grabs the ear rather than the cudgel, which is how the novel marks family quarrels as against real ones.
While they were squabbling, the superintendent came in with word: "His Majesty has issued an order, and an officer is dispatched to invite the three divine monks." Eight Rules said, "What is it in truth that he invites us for?" The superintendent said, "The old divine monk has had the good fortune to be struck by the princess's embroidered ball and taken for consort, and so an officer is dispatched to invite you."
端的 — in truth, really. The second character is read dì in this pairing, which is licensed as an exception to its usual single reading; the particle here is a different character altogether.
The summons has come, exactly as Pilgrim arranged, and Eight Rules still has no idea any of this was planned.
Pilgrim said, "Where is the officer? Tell him to come in." That officer, seeing Pilgrim make his greeting, returned it and then dared not look up, and only kept muttering to himself, "Is it a ghost, or a fiend?"
⚠ 差官在那裡 — where is the officer? Here the two characters after the officer are the question form, nǎ. Six characters later the same pair is a plain location. The chapter puts its two readings of this word closer together than any other in the novel.
不敢仰視 — dared not look up. The officer performs the courtesy perfectly and then cannot raise his eyes, which is the same thing the superintendent did a thousand characters ago. Everyone in this country is impeccably polite and terrified.
"Is it a thunder god, or a night-stalker?"
雷公 — the Thunder Duke, who in Chinese pictures has a beaked face, wings and a hammer. Pilgrim is compared to him more than to anything else in the novel, and it is the closest thing he has to a resemblance.
夜叉 transcribes the Sanskrit yaksha, a class of fierce nature-spirit taken into Buddhism as a guardian. Both guesses are wrong and both are flattering, and the officer is too frightened to notice either.
The summons arrives and Pilgrim's plan is complete: three demon-hunters invited into a throne room by royal order, with the false princess in the building. He set this up below the tower, told his master exactly what to say, and has said nothing about it to his brothers, who are still arguing about whether ugliness has charm.
The officer who brings the summons is one of the chapter's small delights. He bows correctly, cannot look up, and mutters his way through a list of what Pilgrim might be — a ghost, a fiend, a thunder god, a night-stalker — while standing in front of him. The novel has a great fondness for competent officials being frightened out of their wits and carrying on anyway.
And there is a nice symmetry in it. The chapter opened with monks who could not stop a departing saint and ends with an official who cannot look at one. Nobody in India has been able to see what is actually in front of them from the moment the pilgrims arrived — which is the same failing that has kept a demon on the throne for a year.