He was still grumbling and bawling, his anger hard to quiet, when a voice was heard speaking up in the air, calling: "Great Sage Sun, do not fret; sworn brother of the Tang, cease your weeping.

哏哏 (hěnhěn) renders angry muttering; 吆喝 is to bawl or holler. 孫大聖, "Great Sage Sun," recalls Wukong's self-won title 齊天大聖; 唐御弟 (Táng yùdì), "the Tang emperor's sworn younger brother," is Sanzang, whom Taizong had honoured as his bond-brother before the journey. 聽得 takes resultative 得 (de).

We are a company of spirits dispatched by the Bodhisattva Guanyin, come expressly to give the scripture-seeker our hidden protection."

差 (chāi) is "to dispatch, send on a charge." 神祗 — the text writes the graph 祗 (U+7957, "reverent"), a very common variant for 祇 (U+7947, qí, an earth-deity); the word is 神祇 (shén qí), "spirits and deities," and is so read here. 暗中保, "to protect from the shadows," gives the chapter its 諸神暗佑.

Hearing this, the elder hastily made his obeisance.

禮拜 is to bow in reverence. Where Wukong's response to the unseen voice will be practical — a roll-call — Sanzang's is devotional: the two temperaments once more.

Said the Pilgrim: "Which of you are you? Announce your names, that I may call the roll."

那幾個 is interrogative — "which ones" — so 那 is read nǎ. 點卯 (diǎnmǎo), "to check attendance at the 卯 hour" (5–7 a.m., when clerks reported for duty), is bureaucratic idiom: Wukong treats the gods as a muster of subordinates — comic presumption entirely in character.

The gods said: "We are the Six Ding and Six Jia, the Guardians of the Five Quarters, the Four Sentinels of the Watches, and the eighteen Protectors of the Faith,

A roster of tutelary deities: the 六丁六甲 are twelve spirit-generals of the sexagenary cycle; the 五方揭諦 ward the five directions; the 四值功曹 are the sentinels of the year, month, day and hour; the 護教伽藍 are the eighteen saṃghārāma guardians of monasteries. 伽 here is read qié, its Buddhist-transliteration value.

each taking his turn on the day's watch to attend your call."

輪流, "to take turns"; 值日, "to be on duty for the day"; 聽候, "to await orders." The gods present themselves, with some irony, as a duty-roster on rotation — playing along with Wukong's muster.

Said the Pilgrim: "Who is on duty first today?"

先從誰起, "beginning with whom." Wukong presses the bureaucratic conceit, sorting out who is now answerable to him.

The Guardians said: "The Ding and Jia, the Sentinels, and the Protectors serve by rotation.

輪次 is "in rotation, by turns." 伽藍 again takes 伽 as qié. The reply keeps up the orderly, almost clerical division of duties.

But of us Guardians of the Five Quarters, it is the Gold-Headed Guardian alone who stays at your side day and night."

金頭揭諦 (Jīntóu Jiēdì), the "Gold-Headed Guardian," is the one who will presently fly to fetch Guanyin. 晝夜不離左右, "never leaving one's side day or night," marks him as the constant attendant among the rotating guard.

Said the Pilgrim: "If that is so, let those not on duty withdraw for now,

不當值 (bù dāng zhí), "not on the day's duty," 當 read dāng ("to serve one's turn"); 且退, "withdraw for the present." Wukong dismisses the off-duty ranks with a commander's briskness.

and let the Six Ding spirit-generals, the Sentinel of the day, and the Guardians stay to keep watch over my master.

六丁神將 — here 將 is "general" (jiàng), not the coverb jiāng. 保守著, "to keep guard over," durative 著 read zhe. Detailing a guard for Sanzang before he departs is Wukong's one prudent act in the whole scene.

Let old Sun go find that vile dragon down in the gorge and make it give me back my horse."

澗中, "in the gorge"; 教他還, "make it return," causative 教 (jiào) with 還 read huán. The battle-cry 還我馬來 is now fixed. 那澗 is demonstrative, nà.

The gods obeyed his command.

遵令, "to comply with an order." That celestial beings should defer to the monkey's muster is part of the passage's sustained comedy of rank.

Only then did Sanzang set his heart at rest; he sat down on the stone cliff and charged the Pilgrim to be careful.

放下心, "to set the heart at ease"; 吩咐, "to enjoin, instruct." Reassured of his guard, the monk can at last let his disciple go.

Said the Pilgrim: "Only be easy in your mind."

只管, "just, by all means"; 寬心, "to ease the mind." Wukong's parting word turns the master's own anxiety back toward calm.

Good Monkey King! He cinched tight his cotton cassock, hitched up his tiger-skin kilt, and gripped fast his gold-banded iron cudgel;

好猴王, "Good Monkey King!" is the storyteller's admiring cry before a feat. 直裰 (zhíduō) is a monk's long robe; 虎皮裙, the tiger-skin skirt Wukong has worn since his first exploits; 金箍鐵棒 is the gold-hooped iron staff, the 如意金箍棒. 揝 (zǎn) is to grip fast; the durative 著 is read zhe.

he braced up his spirits and went straight to the gorge, half riding cloud and half riding mist,

抖擻精神, "to rouse the spirits"; 徑臨, "to go directly to." 澗壑 (jiàn hè) is the ravine-chasm; 半雲半霧, "half cloud, half mist," describes his low, hovering flight over the water.

and, hovering over the surface of the water, cried aloud: "You rascally loach, give me back my horse!

潑 (pō) as a term of abuse is "vile, rascally"; 泥鰍 (níqiū) is a loach, a slippery mud-fish — a jeering diminutive for the dragon. 還我馬來, "give me back my horse," 還 read huán. 那水面 is demonstrative, nà.

Give me back my horse!"

The demand is repeated for emphasis — 還 again huán — a taunt calculated to draw the hidden dragon up to fight.