上南天門 To the Southern Gate of Heaven
好行者，一觔斗跳上南天門裡。諕得個龐、劉、苟、畢躬身，馬、趙、溫、關控背，俱道：「不好了，不好了！那鬧天宮的主子又來了。」行者搖著手道：「列位免禮，休驚。我來尋廣目天王的。」說不了，卻遇天王早到，迎著行者道：「久闊，久闊。前聞得觀音菩薩來見玉帝，借了四值功曹、六丁六甲並揭諦等，保護唐僧往西天取經去，說你與他做了徒弟，今日怎麼得閑到此？」行者道：「且休敘闊。唐僧路遇歹人，放火燒他，事在萬分緊急，特來尋你借辟火罩兒，救他一救。好行者，一觔斗跳上南天门里。諕得个庞、刘、苟、毕躬身，马、赵、温、关控背，俱道：「不好了，不好了！那闹天宫的主子又来了。」行者摇着手道：「列位免礼，休惊。我来寻广目天王的。」说不了，却遇天王早到，迎着行者道：「久阔，久阔。前闻得观音菩萨来见玉帝，借了四值功曹、六丁六甲并揭谛等，保护唐僧往西天取经去，说你与他做了徒弟，今日怎么得闲到此？」行者道：「且休叙阔。唐僧路遇歹人，放火烧他，事在万分紧急，特来寻你借辟火罩儿，救他一救。
逐句解 Line by line
Good Pilgrim! With a single somersault he leapt up within the Southern Gate of Heaven.
觔斗 is the somersault, written elsewhere in the book as 筋斗; 斗 is read dǒu, not dòu. One somersault of his covers a hundred and eight thousand lǐ — so he gets from a monastery courtyard to the gate of Heaven between one sentence and the next.
So terrified were Pang, Liu, Gou and Bi that they bent double, and Ma, Zhao, Wen and Guan drew back their shoulders, all crying, "This is bad, this is bad!
諕得 is xià de, "so frightened that." 龐、劉、苟、畢 and 馬、趙、溫、關 are the eight Marshals of the Thunder Department who guard the Southern Gate. Wukong broke past them in chapter five. Their bodies remember it before their minds do.
"That master who made havoc of Heaven has come again!" The Pilgrim waved a hand at them. "Gentlemen, no ceremony, and no alarm.
鬧天宮的主子 is "the master who made uproar in the Heavenly Palace." He is a mocking legend up here and a scolded novice down on the road, and the two facts sit side by side in this chapter without ever quite meeting. 搖著手 takes zhe.
"I have come to look for the Broad-Eyed Deva King." Before he had finished speaking, the King himself arrived, and coming toward the Pilgrim said, "It is long, long since we met.
廣目天王 is Virūpākṣa, the Broad-Eyed Deva King, who guards the western quarter — one of the four Heavenly Kings whose statues stand inside the gate of any Chinese temple. 說不了: 了 is liǎo here, "not finished." In 迎著 the particle is zhe, marking motion in a direction: the King coming toward him.
"I heard some while ago that the Bodhisattva Guanyin came before the Jade Emperor and borrowed the Four Sentinels, the Six Ding and Six Jia, and the Guardians and the rest,
聞得 takes a neutral de. The 四值功曹 (Sentinels of the four divisions of time), the 六丁六甲 (twelve cyclical spirits) and the 揭諦 (Guardians) were assigned to Sanzang back in chapter fifteen. Heaven, it seems, has kept up with the paperwork.
"to guard the Tang monk on his westward road for the scriptures; and it was said you had become his disciple. What leisure brings you here today?"
怎麼得閑 takes dé, the potential — "how do you come by the leisure." The Deva King is only making conversation. He does not know that the guardians he has just listed off are, at this moment, asleep at their posts around a hall that is about to be set alight.
The Pilgrim said, "Spare me the pleasantries. The Tang monk has fallen among villains on the road, who are setting fire to burn him.
敘闊 is to exchange the courtesies proper to a long separation, and 且休敘闊 cuts them off dead. Note what Wukong says: 路遇歹人, "fell among villains on the road." Every word of it is true, and it omits that the villains are his hosts and that he showed them the cassock himself.
"The matter is urgent past all measure. I have come on purpose to borrow your fire-shield of you, to save him.
辟火罩 is the shield that wards off fire, and the 兒 is the neutral diminutive, er. A borrowing, asked for in a hurry, by the one character in this chapter who will honour one.
The frame widens without warning. Two lines ago Wukong was a bee under a rafter; now he is standing inside the gate of Heaven, and eight Marshals of the Thunder Department are bowing out of the way of a creature they still call 那鬧天宮的主子, "the one who made havoc of the Heavenly Palace." The timing is deliberate. Wú Chéng'ēn reminds us of the scale of this being at precisely the moment he is about to use it to fan a fire — and reminds us, at the same stroke, of what the monks of the Guanyin cloister have cheerfully decided to murder in his sleep.
The Deva King's idle question does real work. He recites, in a single breath, the whole apparatus Guanyin obtained for the pilgrimage — Four Sentinels, Six Ding, Six Jia, the Guardians — and then asks how Wukong comes to have the leisure to visit. It is a courteous way of establishing two things: that Sanzang is under celestial guard tonight, and that not one of those guards has stirred. The protection of Heaven is real, and it is asleep. What stands between the Tang monk and the fire is a monkey with a borrowed shield and a grudge.