Excellent Great Sage! He worked a spell, turned to meet the wind and changed, and was indeed the very likeness of the old monk.

迎著風 takes zhe: 迎 is a verb of directed motion, and the graph marks a state maintained, not a goal reached. Compare the ruling on 在海上迎著我.

He hid away the iron rod, stretched his stride, came straight to the cave mouth, and called, "Open the gate!"

藏 here is cáng, to hide — not the zàng of the name. 拽開步: 拽 reads zhuài.

The little demon opened it, saw such a figure standing there, and turned quickly to report, "Great King, the elder Jinchi is come."

模樣: mú. 長老: zhǎng. The little demon does not look twice.

The fiend was greatly startled. "I have this moment dispatched the little one with a card to invite him.

差了小的 — 差 is chāi, to dispatch on an errand. Two segments later the same graph appears as 差矣 and reads chà, to be mistaken.

At this hour he cannot yet have reached there. How is it he comes so speedily?

那裡 is here locative nà, "there," the temple. 來得 takes the manner-marking de; 哩 is the particle lī. The fiend reasons correctly from a false premise and arrives at the truth.

I suppose the little one never fell in with him, and that Sun the Pilgrim has assuredly called him here to demand the cassock.

撞著 is an attainment compound and reads zháo. His deduction is exact — the messenger did not meet the abbot — and his conclusion is exactly wrong.

Steward — put the Buddha-robe away, and let him not lay eyes on it."

管事的, the steward. 藏了: cáng. 教 is the causative jiào. Concealing the robe is the one precaution he takes, and it is sufficient.

The Pilgrim came in at the front gate, and saw in the courtyard pine and bamboo mingling their green,

天井 is the open court within the gate; 篁 is bamboo. The description that follows is prose, but it is the third garden of the chapter.

peach and plum contending in loveliness, flowers opening in clusters, orchids fragrant in tufts: a very cave-heaven of a place.

洞天, the cave-heaven, is a technical term of Taoist sacred geography: one of the graded paradises within the mountains. The narrator applies it to a bear-fiend's front yard without visible irony.

On the second gate he saw a matched couplet, which read: In stillness hidden in the deep hills, no vulgar cares; secluded in an immortal cave, delighting in heaven's own truth.

The couplet is an inscribed object — a 對子 quoted as a thing seen, like the six graphs on the lintel of the cave — and is set here as prose rather than as verse. 樂天真: 樂 reads lè. 天真 is heaven-given nature, and the couplet is a recluse's boast.

The Pilgrim said within himself, "This creature too has shed the dust and left the world — a monster who knows what is allotted him."

脫垢離塵 is Buddhist; 知命 is from the Analects. The Pilgrim, alone and unheard, pays the fiend the highest compliment anyone pays him in the chapter, and immediately proceeds to rob him.

Passing in and going further forward, he came within the third gate to painted ridgepoles and carven beams, bright windows and coloured doors.

畫棟雕梁: painted ridgepole, carved beam — the formula for a rich house. 都 reads dōu.

He saw the black fellow wearing a lined jacket of dark-green ramie silk,

紵絲 is ramie silk; 袢襖 a lined jacket. The fiend is now dressed for a visitor and not for war, and the earlier armour-poem should be read against this.

over it a cloak of raven-blue figured damask, on his head a soft cap of black horn, and on his feet a pair of deerskin boots dyed black.

Three garments, three classifiers, three sandhis of 一 — 一領, 一頂, 一雙 — all before graphs of the first or third tone, and all therefore yì.

Seeing the Pilgrim enter, he set his gown and cap straight and came down the steps to receive him. "Old friend Jinchi, these many days we have been strangers. Pray sit, pray sit."

降階 takes jiàng, to come down the steps: the correct courtesy of a host receiving an honoured guest. 欠親, to have been remiss in intimacy.

The Pilgrim greeted him with due ceremony. The greeting done, they sat; and being seated, they took tea.

相見: xiāng. 見畢而坐，坐定而茶 — four beats of ceremony in eight graphs, and the parallelism is the point. Everything here is done properly.

The tea over, the fiend leaned forward. "I sent but now a small note, begging a meeting the day after tomorrow. How is it my old friend condescends to visit me today?"

小簡, my poor note. 下顧, to condescend to call. The fiend is asking the one question that could unmask his guest, and asks it as an apology.

The Pilgrim said, "I was on my way to pay my respects, and unlooked-for met your splendid brush upon the road. Seeing that there was an elegant gathering for a Buddha-robe, I came hurrying, desiring only to be granted a sight of it."

華翰, "splendid brush," is the courteous word for another man's letter — and the Pilgrim has just beaten its bearer flat. He confesses to reading it, and calls the reading a chance encounter on the road.

The fiend laughed. "My old friend is mistaken. This cassock belongs by right to the Tang monk. He lodged his staff at your house:

差矣: chà. 住錫, to lodge one's staff, is said of a travelling monk. The fiend now corrects his guest on a point of ownership, and he is right: the cassock is the Tang monk's. The thief is the only person in the chapter who says so.

can it be you never saw it, that you come to me for a sight of it?"

豈不曾看見 — the question is unanswerable, and the Pilgrim answers it at length.

The Pilgrim said, "This poor monk had borrowed it, and it being late at night had not yet unrolled it, when unlooked-for the Great King took it away.

還 is adverbial hái. The lie is a good one: it explains why the abbot would not have examined the robe, and it is very nearly what happened.

Then fire burned our barren hill and my substance was lost; and the Tang monk's disciple is a stout fellow besides.

家私, household goods. He speaks of the burnt monastery as 荒山, "our barren hill," in the self-deprecating style proper to an abbot describing his own house.

In all that confusion we searched on every side and could not find it. So it was the Great King's abundant fortune that gathered it in — and therefore I have come expressly to see it."

洪福收來, "your abundant fortune gathered it in" — a phrase that turns a theft into a piece of luck, and flatters the thief for it. 都 reads dōu.