Sanzang had scarcely read the card when he passed it to the prior. "Can it be that your master too was a fiend?"

敢莫, "can it be that." 簡帖: 帖 reads tiě. Sanzang, holding a letter of condolence, asks whether the dead man was a monster — and asks it of the dead man's subordinate.

The prior knelt down in haste. "Venerable sir, my master was a man.

The prior kneels to a monkey and defends his abbot in a single flat sentence: 我師父是人.

It was only that the Great King of Black Wind, having cultivated himself into the estate of men, would often come to the temple to expound the scriptures with my master;

修成人道, cultivated himself into the estate of men. The bear came to the temple to 講經, to discourse on the sutras.

and he taught my master certain arts of nourishing the spirit and swallowing the breath. So they called one another friends."

養神服氣 are Taoist longevity arts. The exchange was therefore two-way: the bear received Buddhist scripture and gave back Taoist breath-work. 相稱: 相 is xiāng, 稱 is chēng.

The Pilgrim said, "This crowd of monks has no fiendish air about it. Every one of them has a round head to top the heavens and a square foot to tread the earth;

沒甚 takes shén: not any. 頭圓頂天，足方履地 is the classical definition of man — round head answering the round heaven, square foot the square earth. The Pilgrim applies the anatomical test and pronounces the monks human.

only they are somewhat plumper and taller than old Sun. They are no fiends.

長大: 長 is zhǎng, grown. 些兒 takes the diminutive er. The only difference he can find between himself and a man is girth.

Look at the card there: it is written 'Your junior in the service, the Bear-Fiend.' The thing must certainly be a black bear come to spirithood."

帖兒: tiě and the diminutive er. The signature is the evidence, and the Pilgrim reads it as a confession of species.

Sanzang said, "I have heard the ancients say, 'The bear and the ape are of a kind.' Both are of the tribe of beasts. How then should he come to spirithood?"

聞得 takes the resultative de; 相類 takes xiāng; 都 reads dōu. Sanzang quotes a maxim on the kinship of bears and apes to a disciple who is an ape, and does not appear to hear himself.

The Pilgrim laughed. "Old Sun is of the tribe of beasts, and was made Great Sage Equal to Heaven. Wherein do I differ from him?

見做了齊天大聖: 見 is kept at the default jiàn, the classical passive marker — "was made." Ming vernacular often writes 見 for 現 (xiàn, "presently"), which would give "is now made"; the sense is scarcely altered, and the reading is flagged.

Broadly, of the things of this world, whatever has the nine apertures may cultivate itself and become immortal."

九竅, the nine apertures of the body. The doctrine is stated as a commonplace: any creature so furnished may cultivate the Way. It is the theological hinge of the whole chapter, and it is spoken by a monkey in defence of a bear.

Sanzang said again, "You told me just now that his powers are an even hand with yours. How then will you get the victory, and bring my cassock back?"

手平, an even hand. Sanzang gives the Pilgrim back his own word from the previous passage, and asks the practical question it implies.

The Pilgrim said, "Never mind, never mind. I have my remedy."

處治, a remedy, a way of dealing. He has none, and will have none until a Bodhisattva provides it.

While they were consulting, the monks set out the evening meal and begged master and disciple to eat.

晚齋, the evening meatless meal — the third the monastery has served him today.

Sanzang bade them light the lamps, and went again to rest in the meditation hall at the front.

掌燈, to take up the lamps. 教 is causative jiào.

The monks all leaned against wall and partition, thatched themselves shelters of matting, and lay down each where he was, leaving only the rear lodge for the prior and his second to sleep in.

挨牆倚壁: 挨 reads āi, to press close against. 苫搭窩棚, to thatch up nesting-sheds — the monks have no cells to sleep in, because the Pilgrim burned them.

It was then the still of night. Behold:

但見 opens the night rhapsody.