As the two went forward, the elder asked from horseback, "Wukong, the iron rod with which you just now killed the tiger — how is it I no longer see it?"

The dialogue lets Sanzang — and the returning reader — ask after the marvellous weapon. 長老 reads 長 as zhǎng.

The Pilgrim laughed and said, "Master, you do not know.

你不曉得 ("you don't know") takes 得 as the resultative de (曉得, "to know").

This staff of mine was got long ago from the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean; it is called the Divine Iron that Fixes the Bed of Heaven's River, and again the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel.

The rod's pedigree is recited in full. It was won from the undersea Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean in the novel's early chapters; its grand names are 天河鎮底神珍鐵 ("the Divine Iron that Anchors the Bed of the Milky Way") and 如意金箍棒 ("the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel"). 得來 ("got, obtained") reads 得 as dé.

In the year I made my great rebellion in Heaven, I leaned on it heavily.

甚是虧他 — "relied greatly upon it" — uses 甚 in its adverbial sense, shèn ("very"). The reference is again to the Havoc in Heaven.

It transforms at my will — grows great when I would have it great, small when I would have it small.

The 如意 ("as-you-will") power of the cudgel is its defining trait: it grows and shrinks at its master's command.

Just now I turned it into the likeness of an embroidery needle and tucked it in my ear. Only when it is needed do I bring it out."

The reader has already seen this in action, when the needle behind his ear became the great rod against the tiger.

Sanzang heard this with secret delight, and asked again, "When that tiger caught sight of you just now, why did it not stir at all, but let you strike it at your ease — how do you account for that?"

Sanzang's second question — why the tiger cowered without resisting — sets up Wukong's grand self-description. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng.

Wukong said, "I will not deceive you, Master: not to speak of a tiger, were it even a dragon, at the sight of me it would not dare be uncivil.

The boast opens by dismissing tiger and dragon alike. Wukong styles himself 老孫 ("old Sun"), his habitual swagger.

I, old Sun, have some skill at subduing dragons and taming tigers, some power to overturn rivers and churn seas; I read a face and tell its colour, I hear a sound and discern its meaning; at my largest I take the measure of the cosmos, at my smallest I withdraw into a hair;

The core of the boast is cast in balanced parallel prose. 降龍伏虎 ("to subdue dragons and tame tigers") takes 降 in its sense "to subdue," read xiáng — not jiàng ("descend"). In 大之則量於宇宙 ("at its largest it spans the cosmos") 量 is the verb "to measure, to span," read liáng, parallel to the verb 攝 ("to draw in") in the answering clause.

my changes are without end, my appearing and vanishing beyond all fathoming.

The parallelism closes on his powers of transformation and concealment — endless change, unfathomable appearing and vanishing.

To skin a tiger like this — what is there rare in that?

He caps the boast by belittling the very feat that so horrified the monk. In 何為稀罕 ("what is there rare in it?") 為 functions as the copula "to be, to count as," read wéi.

If ever we come to some knotty pass, then you shall see my true arts."

The turn to future "knotty passes" (疑難處, with 難 read nán) is a wink to the reader: the road ahead will indeed test those arts.

Hearing these words, Sanzang grew all the more untroubled and at ease, and whipped his horse onward.

The exchange has done its work: the timid monk is reassured of his disciple's power. 聞得 reads 得 as de.