The Patriarch said: "Within the gate of the Way there are three hundred and sixty side-disciplines, and every one of them can bear its proper fruit. I wonder which of them you wish to study?"

The master opens the menu. 傍門 (= 旁門) are the "side-gates," the secondary branches set against the orthodox road to the golden elixir; the novel uses both characters, and 傍 reads páng. 三百六十 is a round number — the degrees of a circle, the days of a year — meaning simply "every sort there is." 正果, "the true fruit," is a Buddhist term for legitimate attainment, and note that he grants it to all of them: every side-gate bears real fruit. 那 here is nǎ, the interrogative "which" — the 世德堂本 writes the undifferentiated 那, later split off as 哪 — not nà, "that." (那一門 takes 一 as yì before the rising tone of 門; 不知 keeps bù.)

Wukong said: "I leave it to my honored master's judgment; your disciple will follow with a whole heart."

意思 is yì si with 思 neutral, "intention," not the full-tone sī, to think. 傾心 is to tip the whole heart toward something. He sounds entirely agreeable — for exactly one more line.

The Patriarch said: "Suppose I teach you the Way within the gate of 'Art' — how would that be?"

術字門, the gate of 術, Art or Technique, is the first of four branches on offer, and it covers the occult and divinatory arts. 教 is the verb jiāo, to teach, as in the opening passage; 個 is a loosely thrown-in measure word.

Wukong said: "What does the Way of the Art-gate amount to?"

怎麼說 — how is it described, what does it come to? He wants the specification before committing, and he will ask for it four times.

The Patriarch said: "The gate of Art is such things as summoning immortals and working the planchette, consulting oracles and casting the milfoil stalks — the art of knowing how to pursue good fortune and avoid disaster."

The catalogue is fortune-telling entire. 請仙扶鸞 (qǐng xiān fú luán) is spirit-writing: a suspended stylus — named for the 鸞, a phoenix-like bird — traces characters in a tray of sand while a summoned spirit guides the hand. A Ouija board with better calligraphy. 問卜揲蓍 (wèn bǔ shé shī) is the older and more respectable branch: 卜 is divination, and 揲蓍 is counting out yarrow stalks (蓍 shī) to cast a hexagram from the 《易經》, with 揲 read shé. 趨吉避凶 is to hurry toward good fortune and dodge disaster.

Wukong said: "Can one obtain long life by such means?"

Here is the test he will put to everything. 似這般 is "in this manner" (似 sì, like). 得 is the full-tone dé, to obtain, not the toneless de; 長 is cháng, so 長生 is long life, not zhǎng, to grow; 麼 is me, the little word that turns the sentence into a question. One question, asked four times, and nothing else in the world interests him.

The Patriarch said: "You cannot, you cannot."

Flat, and doubled. (不能 keeps 不 as bù before the rising tone of 能.)

Wukong said: "Then I won't learn it, I won't learn it."

The matching double refusal, four characters answering four. He does not argue, and he does not ask what else the art might be good for. (不學 keeps bù before the rising tone of 學.)

The Patriarch went on: "Suppose I teach you the Way within the gate of 'Stream' — how would that be?"

流字門, the gate of 流, Stream or Current, is the second branch, and it covers doctrine and devotion. 又道 is "went on to say."

Wukong again asked: "And what is the substance of the Stream-gate?"

是甚義理 — what is its substance, its rationale? 甚 is shèn, "what." (Some editions read 是甚意思.)

The Patriarch said: "The gate of Stream takes in the Confucians, the Buddhists, the Daoists, the Yin-Yang school, the Mohists, and the physicians — reading scriptures or reciting the Buddha's name, and the like of paying court to the Perfected and summoning down the saints."

This is a roll-call of the 諸子百家, the classical hundred schools: 儒 Confucian, 釋 Buddhist (shì, from 釋迦, Śākya), 道 Daoist, 陰陽 the Yin-Yang cosmologists, 墨 the Mohists, 醫 the physicians. Then the practices: reading scripture, reciting the Buddha's name, and 朝真降聖 (cháo zhēn jiàng shèng), paying court to the Perfected and calling down the saints — liturgy. Notice the scale of what is about to be waved away. 朝 is cháo, to attend upon, not zhāo, morning; 降 is jiàng, to bring down, not xiáng, to surrender.

Wukong said: "Can one obtain long life by such means?"

The refrain, word for word, for the second gate. (得 is dé; 長 is cháng.)

The Patriarch said: "If it is long life you want, that would be like setting a pillar inside a wall."

壁裡安柱 (bì lǐ ān zhù), setting a pillar inside a wall — a piece of builder's slang, which the next line will have to unpack. 裡 is the 世德堂本 form, where some editions print 裏.

Wukong said: "Master, I am a plain, honest fellow and do not follow your trade-cant. What do you mean by 'setting a pillar inside a wall'?"

打市語 (dǎ shì yǔ) is to talk in market-argot, trade cant — and the monkey's protest that he is an 老實人, a plain honest fellow who can't follow it, is a small masterpiece of needling. He follows it perfectly well. He simply wants the master to say it straight. 曉得 takes 得 as the neutral de. (不曉得 keeps bù before the third tone of 曉.)

The Patriarch said: "When people build a house and want it to stand firm, they set a supporting pillar within the wall; but the day the great hall is about to topple, that pillar is sure to have rotted away."

The figure unpacked. A builder who wants a house to stand firm mortars a supporting post inside the wall — and on the day the 大廈 (dà shà, a great hall; 廈 is shà, not xià as in 廈門, Xiamen) finally leans over, that hidden post turns out to have rotted through long ago (朽 xiǔ). Conventional piety, the master is saying, has no body of its own; it stands exactly as long as the perishable frame around it. Note the two lives of 將 in one sentence: first jiāng marking the thing handled, "take the post and set it," then jiāng again meaning "about to." (立一頂柱 takes 一 as yì before the third tone of 頂.)

Wukong said: "By that account it does not last either. I won't learn it, I won't learn it."

據此說, going by that account. 長久 is cháng jiǔ, lasting. And the double refusal again — he has now turned down divination and the entire intellectual heritage of China inside a dozen lines. (也不長久 keeps bù before the rising tone of 長; 不學 the same.)