The moment the Handsome Monkey King saw him, he threw himself down and kowtowed beyond counting, crying only:

倒身下拜 ('threw himself down in a bow'; 倒 dǎo) and 磕頭不計其數 ('kowtowed beyond counting'; 磕 kē; 不 in its bú sandhi before the falling tone of 計). The bold king is all reverence before the master.

'Master! Master! Your disciple pays homage with all his heart, pays homage with all his heart!'

志心朝禮 ('to pay homage with a wholehearted will'; 志心, single-minded devotion). 朝 here is cháo ('to pay court, to do homage'), not zhāo ('morning') — 朝禮 is reverent worship.

The patriarch said: 'From what region are you? State your native place and name clearly first, then bow again.'

你是那方人氏 ('from what region are you?'; 那 here nǎ, the interrogative 'which,' the older form of 哪). 鄉貫 (xiāng guàn) is one's native place and registry; 姓名 (xìng míng) one's surname and given name.

The Monkey King said: 'Your disciple is from the Water-Curtain Cave of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, in the country of Aolai in the Eastern Continent of Superior Spirit.'

The monkey gives his full provenance — 東勝神洲傲來國花果山水簾洞 — the cosmic address established in the opening passages: the Eastern Continent (東勝神洲), the land of Aolai (傲來國), the mountain and the cave.

The patriarch shouted an order: 'Throw him out! He's nothing but a cheat and a humbug — what fruit of the Way could the likes of him cultivate?'

喝令 ('shouted an order'; 喝 hè). 撒詐搗虛之徒 ('a fellow who deals in fraud and fabrication'; 撒詐, to practise deceit, 搗虛, to concoct falsehood). 那裡修甚麼道果 — here 那裡 is nǎ lǐ, a rhetorical 'how (could he)…?'; 道果 ('the fruit of the Way') is the goal of cultivation. The master's feigned rejection is a testing rebuff.

The Monkey King hastily kowtowed without stopping: 'Your disciple's words are honest, with not a shred of deceit.'

磕頭不住 ('kowtowing without ceasing'; 不 in its bú sandhi before the falling tone of 住). 老實之言…決無虛詐 ('honest words, with no deceit at all'). The monkey, alarmed, insists on his sincerity.

The patriarch said: 'If you're honest, how can you speak of the Eastern Continent of Superior Spirit?

The master presses the test: 怎麼說東勝神洲 ('how can you claim the Eastern Continent?') — the distance, he implies, makes the claim incredible.

That place is separated from here by two seas and a whole Southern Continent of Jambudvīpa — how could you ever have got here?'

隔兩重大海，一座南贍部洲 ('separated by two seas and a whole Southern Continent'; 那 here nà, the demonstrative 'that'; 重 here chóng, 'layers, fold'). The geography is the monkey's own journey in reverse — across the eastern and western seas, past Jambudvīpa.

The Monkey King kowtowed: 'Your disciple drifted over oceans and crossed seas, traversing realms and roaming about for a dozen years and more, before I finally found my way to this place.'

登界遊方 ('crossing realms and roaming abroad'; 遊方, a term for a wandering seeker). 十數個年頭 ('a dozen years and more'; 年頭, colloquial 'years') and 方才訪到 ('only then found'; 方才, only just; 才 cái) sum up the long quest of the past several passages.

The patriarch said: 'So you came step by step — well enough. What is your surname?'

逐漸行來的也罷 ('so you came by degrees — very well'; 行 xíng; 罷 bà, a particle of concession). Then the fateful question: 你姓甚麼 ('what is your surname?'; 姓 xìng) — which the monkey is about to mishear.

The Monkey King said again: 'I have no temper. If a man curses me, I'm not vexed; if he strikes me, I'm not angered.

Here is the chapter's running pun. The monkey answers 我無性 ('I have no temper'), taking 姓 (xìng, 'surname') for its homophone 性 (xìng, 'nature, disposition'). 不惱 ('not vexed'; 惱 nǎo) and 不嗔 ('not angered'; 嗔 chēn, a Buddhist term for anger) keep the 不 in its bù form before their non-falling tones.

I just make an apology and let it go. All my life I've had no temper.'

陪個禮兒就罷了 ('I just offer an apology and let it go'; 陪禮, to make amends; 兒 the diminutive er). The monkey's 一生無性 ('all my life, no temper') is comic — he answers a question about lineage with a boast about his even temper.

The patriarch said: 'Not that kind of nature. Your parents — what was their surname?'

The master untangles the pun: 不是這個性 ('not that kind of nature'; 不是 takes 不 as bú before the falling tone of 是), then asks again, 你父母原來姓甚麼 ('what was your parents' surname?'). 性 ('nature') and 姓 ('surname') are perfect homophones (both xìng), and the joke turns on the monkey's having, quite literally, no surname — because he has no parents.

The Monkey King said: 'I have no parents either.' The patriarch said: 'No parents — then were you born on a tree?'

我也無父母 ('I have no parents either'). The master's guess — 想是樹上生的 ('then were you born on a tree?') — is a half-serious folk notion of strange births, and sets up the true answer.

The Monkey King said: 'I wasn't born on a tree, but I did grow out of a stone.

卻是石裡長的 ('but I grew out of a stone'). Here 長 is zhǎng, 'to grow,' not cháng, 'long' — the first time the chapter uses this reading of 長, after the many 長春／長生／長年 (cháng) before. The monkey's origin is finally spoken in his own voice.

All I remember is that on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit there was a magic stone, and the year it split open, I was born.'

花果山上有一塊仙石，其年石破，我便生也 ('on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit there was a magic stone, and the year it split, I was born'; 塊 kuài, 便 biàn). The monkey recounts, in a single sentence, the cosmic birth of the chapter's opening — and it is this, his being 'born of Heaven and Earth,' that secretly delights the master.