That master, gazing from horseback into the distance, saw before a fragrant juniper a nest of sticks and grass;

香檜, the fragrant juniper; 柴草窩, a nest of sticks and grass. The Chan Master lives up a tree, in a bird's nest, which is exactly what his name has been saying since Bajie first said it.

on the left were elk and deer with flowers in their mouths, on the right mountain monkeys offering fruit;

Deer carrying flowers in their mouths, monkeys bringing fruit: this is the fixed iconography of the sage in retreat, the holy man whom the animals wait on unbidden. Wukong, who is a mountain monkey, is about to ride up and offer nothing at all.

and in the treetops blue simurghs and painted phoenixes sang together, while black cranes and brocade pheasants gathered in a company.

青鸞 is the blue simurgh, a phoenix-relative; 錦雞, the brocade fowl, is the golden pheasant, a real and spectacular bird. 咸集 is classical: all are gathered.

Bajie pointed and said: "Is that not the Crow's Nest Chan Master?"

那不是烏巢禪師？ uses the pointing 那, nà. Bajie spots him from a distance and points at him, which is not how one introduces a hermit.

Sanzang put the whip to his horse and rode straight to the foot of the tree.

縱馬加鞭, to give the horse its head and lay on the whip. Sanzang, who two minutes ago wanted to proceed with great caution, is now at a gallop.

Now the Chan Master, seeing the three of them coming on, left his nest at once and came down from the tree.

卻說 switches the camera to the Chan Master. He does not wait to be called on: 即便離了巢穴，跳下樹來, he left the nest at once and jumped down out of the tree.

Sanzang dismounted and bowed to him, and the Chan Master raised him with his hand. "Holy monk, rise. Forgive me for not coming to meet you, forgive me."

攙 is to take somebody by the arm and raise them. 失迎, "I failed to come out and meet you," is the identical formula Bajie used to Sanzang a few passages back — the polite fiction that a host ought to have been waiting at the gate.

Bajie said: "Old Chan Master, I make my bow."

作揖了: Bajie salutes with folded hands, and the 了 at the end makes it perfunctory — a nod rather than a bow. They know each other.

The Chan Master asked in surprise: "Are you not Zhu Ganglie of Fuling Mountain? What great destiny is this, that you should be travelling with a holy monk?"

大緣 is a great karmic affinity, the kind of connection that takes lifetimes to accumulate. 得與聖僧同行 takes 得 as dé, and 同行 takes 行 as xíng, to travel together — not háng, which would make it a trade or a profession, and which is the standing trap with this character.

Bajie said: "The year before last the Bodhisattva Guanyin exhorted me to good, and I asked to follow him as a disciple."

前年, the year before last, which is how the novel reckons the gap since the Bodhisattva's visit. The Chan Master is being informed that the hog he could not convert has been converted by Guanyin instead.

The Chan Master was greatly pleased. "Good, good, good!" Then, pointing at the Pilgrim, he asked: "And who is this?"

Three 好 in a row for the hog. Then he turns to the Pilgrim and has to ask who he is.

The Pilgrim laughed. "How is it that this old Chan knows him, and does not know me?"

認得 takes 得 as de, twice over, and 倒 is dào, "on the contrary." Wukong is offended, and the offence is precisely the vanity of a creature who was, until quite recently, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

The Chan Master said: "Because I have not had the acquaintance." Sanzang said: "He is my eldest disciple, Sun Wukong."

因少識耳 — "because I have but little acquaintance." Four characters of classical Chinese, perfectly courteous, perfectly deflating, with 少 read shǎo. It is the polite version of "I am afraid I have not had the pleasure."

The Chan Master laughed politely: "Pardon my discourtesy, pardon my discourtesy."

陪笑 is the apologetic smile you produce when you have embarrassed someone more important than you. 欠禮, "I have been remiss in courtesy." The Chan Master has just declined to be impressed, and is now apologising for it.