Hearing this, the Ten Kings bowed in courtesy and said, 'Even before that dragon was born, the death-register of the Southern Dipper had already fixed that he should perish by the hand of the Bureau of Men. This we knew long ago.'

The bench folds immediately, and the reason is bureaucratic. 伏禮 is to bow low in acknowledgement. The 南斗星死簿 is the death register of the Southern Dipper, 南斗, which in popular belief keeps the accounts of dying as the Northern Dipper keeps those of living. The dragon's death was logged before he was born; the file was closed before the case opened.

'It was only that he came here to press his dispute and insisted that Your Majesty be brought to face the three-tribunal confrontation.'

折辨 is a variant writing of 折辯, to argue a case out. 三曹對案 is the joint hearing of plaintiff, defendant and bench — and the Kings are now admitting they only convened it because the plaintiff insisted.

'We have now sent him into the Wheel of Transmigration, and he has gone off to be reborn.'

The plaintiff, meanwhile, has already been processed. 輪藏, lún zàng, is properly a revolving sutra-cabinet, and by extension the turning Wheel of Rebirth, 輪迴; 藏 is zàng, a repository. 轉生 is to be reborn into a new life. He sued, won a hearing, and was reincarnated before it convened.

'Now we have again put Your Majesty to the trouble of descending here; we beg your pardon for the offense of having pressed you to come.'

降臨, jiàng lín, "to descend and arrive," is how you speak of a distinguished guest turning up, not a defendant. With that apology the emperor's acquittal is complete — and nobody has yet mentioned that he is due to die.