The Handsome Monkey King delighted in his nature's freedom — and so, who would have thought, some three or five hundred years went by.

享樂天真 ('delighting in his innate, unforced nature'). 何期 (hé qī) is 'who would have expected.' 三五百載 reads 載 as zǎi ('year'), not zài ('to carry') — 'three or five hundred years.' The vast, vague span is the point: paradise is timeless until time is noticed.

One day, in the midst of a merry feast with the monkeys, he was suddenly seized with care and let his tears fall.

憂惱 (yōu nǎo) is 'care and vexation'; 墮下淚來 ('let his tears fall'; 墮 duò, 'to drop'). The sudden tears amid the feast are the hinge of the whole chapter — the first intrusion of mortality into the idyll.

The monkeys hastily gathered round and bowed, asking: 'Why is the Great King troubled?'

羅拜 (luó bài) is 'to gather round and bow,' a crowd doing obeisance. 何為煩惱 takes 為 as wèi ('why, for what reason').

The Monkey King said: 'Even in my time of joy I have one small misgiving for what lies ahead, and so I am troubled.'

雖 (suī) is 'although.' 一點兒遠慮 ('a little misgiving for the future'; 一 in its yì sandhi before 點, 兒 the diminutive er). 遠慮 ('thought for what lies far ahead') faintly recalls the Analects' 人無遠慮，必有近憂.

The monkeys laughed again: 'How discontented the Great King is!

好不知足 is colloquial 'how very discontented!' — 好 here an intensifier ('how…!'), 不知足 'not knowing contentment.'

We feast together day after day, in a blessed mountain and holy continent, an ancient cave;

仙山福地，古洞神洲 piles up the vocabulary of paradise — blessed mountains, grotto-heavens, a 'divine continent' (神洲) — restating in the monkeys' mouths what the chapter has been building.

we are not subject to the unicorn's rule, nor governed by the phoenix, nor bound by any king's throne among men —

不伏 (bù fú) is 'not subject to, not under the sway of.' The 麒麟 (qílín, the auspicious 'unicorn,' chief of beasts) and 鳳凰 (fènghuáng, the phoenix, chief of birds) stand for the natural hierarchies the free monkeys evade; 轄 (xiá) is 'to govern, to have jurisdiction over.'

free and at ease, ours is a blessing beyond measure. Why look so far ahead and grieve?'

無量之福 ('blessing beyond measure'; 無量 a Buddhist-flavoured 'immeasurable'). 為何 ('why') again takes 為 as wèi.

The Monkey King said: 'Today, true, we are not under the laws of human kings, nor in fear of the might of birds and beasts;

人王法律 is 'the laws of human kings.' 不懼 ('have no fear of') takes the 不 in its bú sandhi before the falling tone of 懼, against bù before the level tone of 歸 in 不歸 just before.

but in the years to come, when age comes and the blood grows thin, there is, unseen, old King Yama who holds us in his charge,

將來 (jiāng lái, 將 jiāng) is 'in time to come.' 閻王老子 is colloquial 'old King Yama' (閻王, the Buddhist lord of the dead; 老子 here the irreverent 'old fellow,' 子 neutral). 管著 ('keeps in his charge,' 著 the aspect-marker zhe) — death's bookkeeping awaits even a monkey king.

and once the body dies, shall we not have lived in this world for nothing, never to be enrolled for long among the immortals and gods?'

一旦身亡 ('once the body perishes'; 一 in its yí sandhi before 旦). 枉生 ('to have lived in vain'; 枉 wǎng). 不得久注天人之內 — 'not to be long enrolled among gods and men' — uses 注 (zhù) in the sense of being entered on a register, as in the celestial roll of the long-lived.

Hearing these words, the monkeys one and all covered their faces and wept, every one troubled by impermanence.

掩面悲啼 ('covering their faces and wailing'). 無常 (wú cháng) is the Buddhist anitya, 'impermanence'; 以無常為慮 ('taking impermanence as their care'; 為 here wéi, 'as'). The whole troop is converted in an instant to the fear of death.

Just then, out from the ranks sprang a bareback gibbon, who cried in a ringing voice:

班部 (bān bù) is 'the ranks, the assembled files' of the court just established. The 通背猿猴 ('through-the-back gibbon,' also written 通臂, a long-armed ape fabled to pass its breath through its spine) is one of the celebrated monkey-kinds; here he plays the wise counsellor. 厲聲 (lì shēng) is 'in a sharp, ringing voice.'

'If the Great King thinks so far ahead, this is what is truly called the awakening of the Heart-of-the-Way.'

道心 ('the Heart-of-the-Way,' the mind turned toward the Dao) and 開發 ('opening up, awakening') frame the king's fear of death not as weakness but as the first stirring of spiritual aspiration — the gibbon reads the tears correctly.

'Among the five kinds of creatures that now exist, there are only three sorts that King Yama does not govern.'

五蟲 (wǔ chóng) are the five classes of living creatures of traditional natural philosophy (feathered, furred, scaled, shelled, and naked — the last being humankind). 名色 here is 'kinds, sorts, categories.' Only three escape Yama's jurisdiction.

The Monkey King said: 'Do you know which three kinds?'

那三等人 takes 那 as nǎ ('which'), the interrogative — 'which three sorts?' — the older written form of 哪.

The gibbon said: 'They are the Buddhas, the immortals, and the holy sages, these three — who escape the wheel of rebirth, neither born nor dying, and live as long as Heaven and Earth, the mountains and the streams.'

The three are 佛、仙、神聖 — Buddhas, (Daoist) immortals, and holy sages, the syncretic trio of the deathless. 躲過輪迴，不生不滅 ('escaping the wheel of rebirth, neither born nor dying'; 輪迴 = saṃsāra, and 不生不滅 the Buddhist 'unborn and undying,' with 不 read bù before 生 but bú before the falling tone of 滅). 齊壽 (qí shòu) is 'equal in lifespan' to Heaven and Earth.

The Monkey King said: 'Where do these three dwell?'

居於何所 ('dwell in what place?'; 於 yú, 何所 'where'). Straightforward.

The gibbon said: 'They are only within the world of Jambudvīpa, in ancient caves and immortal mountains.'

閻浮世界 is the world of Jambudvīpa (閻浮提), the southern continent of Buddhist cosmography where human beings live — the same scheme as the 四大部洲 of the opening passages. The deathless dwell not in some far heaven but here, 'in ancient caves and immortal mountains.'

Hearing this, the Monkey King was filled with joy: 'Tomorrow I shall take my leave of you and go down the mountain;

辭汝等 ('take leave of you all'; 辭 cí, 汝 rǔ, the classical 'you'). 滿心歡喜 ('heart full of joy') — the fear of death turns at once into the joy of a quest.

I will roam like a cloud to the sea's far corners and travel to the ends of the earth, and I must seek out these three,

雲遊海角，遠涉天涯 ('wandering like a cloud to the sea's corners, traversing to the sky's edge'; 涉 shè, 'to wade, to journey through') is a set phrase for boundless travel. 務必 (wù bì) is 'must, without fail.'

to learn the secret of ageless long life and ever escape the calamity of King Yama.'

不老長生 ('ageless and ever-living'; 長 here cháng, 'long, everlasting,' not zhǎng) names the goal: physical immortality. 閻君之難 takes 難 as nàn (4th tone, 'calamity, peril'), not nán ('difficult') — the 'peril of Lord Yama,' i.e. death itself.

Ah! This one remark would in time leap him clear of the net of rebirth and bring about the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

噫 (yī) is an exclamatory sigh, the narrator breaking in. 頓教 ('all at once caused'; 教 here jiào, 'to cause, to make,' not jiāo 'to teach'). The aside 頓教跳出輪迴網，致使齊天大聖成 is overt foreshadowing — the chapter-title's 大道 beginning to be 'born,' and the future title 齊天大聖 named long before he claims it.

The monkeys clapped and cried in praise, all saying: 'Splendid! Splendid!

鼓掌稱揚 ('clapping and acclaiming'). 善哉 (shàn zāi, 'excellent! well said!') is a phrase with a Buddhist ring, the assembly blessing the resolve.

Tomorrow we'll cross the ridges and climb the hills, gather a wide store of fruits, and set out a grand feast to send the Great King off!'

越嶺登山 ('crossing ridges and climbing hills') and 大設筵宴 ('laying on a grand banquet'; 筵 yán, a feast-mat) prepare the send-off. The passage ends poised between the old idyll and the journey that ends it.