Sanzang was greatly pleased, and called out: "Squire Gao, fetch an incense table, that we may use it."

香案, an incense table. Sanzang's first act on receiving a disciple is a ritual one, and it is directed not at the disciple but at Guanyin.

Old Gao hastened to carry one out. Sanzang washed his hands, burned incense, bowed towards the south, and said: "How much we owe the Bodhisattva's holy grace."

望南禮拜 — bowing to the south, towards Potalaka, Guanyin's island. 聖恩, holy grace: the vocabulary of an imperial pardon, used of a Bodhisattva.

The several elders added incense too and made their bows with him.

The 老兒 take the diminutive suffix, 兒 as er. Note that they worship without being asked.

The worship done, Sanzang went up and sat in state in the hall, and bade Wukong loose the fiend's cords.

上廳高坐, to take the high seat in the hall — the position of a master receiving a disciple, and also of a magistrate. 教 is causative jiào.

The Pilgrim shook his body once, drew the hair back into himself, and the bonds fell away of their own accord.

其縛自解, in classical Chinese: "and the bonds untied themselves." The rope was a hair, and the hair goes home.

The fiend bowed again before Sanzang and asked to follow him westward.

從新 (= 重新), afresh. The first bow was to a stranger in a hall; this one is to a master.

He bowed also to the Pilgrim, and taking him for elder brother as the one who had entered first, he called him thereafter Elder Brother.

以先進者為兄 — he who entered first is elder brother. Precedence is by ordination, not by age or power, and 為 is wéi in both feet. 稱 is chēng.

Sanzang said: "Since you follow me in the good fruit and would be my disciple, I shall give you a religious name, that we may call you by it morning and evening."

善果, the good fruit — the karmic result of good action, and by extension the religious life. 法名, a name in the Dharma.

He said: "Master, the Bodhisattva has already laid her hand on my crown and given me the precepts and a name. I am called Zhu Wuneng, Awakened to Power."

摩頂受戒, the laying of the hand upon the crown at the conferring of the precepts. The name 悟能, Awakened to Power, was given in chapter eight and completes the series begun with 悟空, Awakened to Emptiness.

Sanzang laughed. "Good, good. Your elder brother is called Wukong, and you are called Wuneng. Truly you are of one lineage within my gate."

宗派, a lineage or branch within a school. Sanzang is delighted to discover that Guanyin has been generating a generation-name for him without consultation.

Wuneng said: "Master, when I received the Bodhisattva's precepts I cut off the five pungent roots and the three forbidden meats,

五葷, the five pungent roots (garlic, onion and their kin), forbidden to Buddhists; 三厭, the three abominations of Daoist abstinence — the wild goose, the dog, and the black fish. That the two lists are drawn from different religions is not an error.

and in my father-in-law's house I kept the fast and abstained from flesh, and never once tasted meat.

持齋把素 once more, and the point of the repetition is that it is true: he kept the fast throughout his marriage.

Now that I have met my master, may I break my fast?"

And so to the question the whole passage has been approaching, asked with the guilelessness that is his signature: 我開了齋罷 — now may I break my fast?

Sanzang said: "You may not, you may not. Since you do not eat the five pungents nor the three forbidden meats, I shall give you a second name, and call you Bajie — Eight Rules."

八戒, the Eight Prohibitions — in Buddhist usage the eight precepts undertaken by a lay observer on fast-days. Sanzang converts a dietary refusal into a name, which is the most economical rebuke in the novel.

The Idiot said gladly: "I shall obey my master's command." And so he was also called Zhu Bajie.

歡歡喜喜: he is delighted. He has asked to eat meat, been refused, and been given a name commemorating the refusal, and he is delighted. 那獃子 — from this point the narrator, and not only Wukong, calls him the Idiot.