The Patriarch came hurrying out the door, dragging his staff, and demanded: "Who is making this clamor here?"

拽杖 (zhuài zhàng) is dragging his staff — he has come out in a hurry and not fully composed. 拽 is zhuài, to drag, not yè or zhuāi. 喧嘩 (xuān huá) is clamour, din.

At the shout the others hastily composed themselves, straightened their robes, and came forward.

檢束 (jiǎn shù) is to pull yourself together, to rein yourself in, and 整衣 is straightening the robes — the same gesture Wukong made at this master's threshold in the previous chapter. Everybody present knows what that tone of shout means.

Wukong too reverted to his true form and, mingling with the crowd, said: "We report to the venerable master: we were discoursing here, with no outsiders making any clamor."

He turns back into himself and hides in the crowd — 雜在叢中. And the answer he gives is technically true and thoroughly evasive: 更無外姓喧嘩, no outsiders have been making a noise. 外姓 means, literally, people of other surnames. 本相 is one's original form, with 相 as xiàng.

The Patriarch shouted in anger: "All this shouting and yelling — it is not at all the bearing of those in cultivation! For the cultivator, when the mouth opens the spirit-breath scatters, and when the tongue stirs disputes are born. How can you be clamoring and laughing here?"

The rebuke, and at its centre is the line that gives the chapter its second title: 口開神氣散，舌動是非生 — open the mouth and the spirit-breath scatters; stir the tongue and right-and-wrong is born. It is a maxim of sealed, silent cultivation, the exact counterpart of the elixir poem's 謹固牢藏, guard it close and let nothing leak. Talking spends what the whole discipline exists to save. 體段 is bearing or manner; 喝 is hè, to shout, not hē, to drink; 散 is sàn, to scatter, not sǎn, scattered or loose. (全不像 takes bú.)

The others said: "We dare not deceive the master — just now Sun Wukong was performing transformations for sport. We had him turn into a pine tree, and indeed he became a pine tree; we disciples all praised and applauded, and so our loud voices startled and affronted you. We beg forgiveness."

And they give him up at once, in detail, using his full name. 適才 is just now; 耍子 is for sport (子 neutral zi); 教他 takes 教 as the causative jiào, "we had him"; 喝采 is to applaud, with 喝 again hè; 驚冒 is to startle and affront. To their credit they volunteer that the request was theirs — and it makes no difference at all to what happens next. (不敢 keeps bù.)

The Patriarch said: "The rest of you, get up and go."

Four words, and the rest of the school is dismissed. What follows is between two people.

He called: "Wukong, come here! I ask you — what spirit were you playing at, transforming into what pine tree? Is this skill a thing to be paraded before others?"

賣弄 again — the word the narrator used when the trick began, now in the master's mouth as an accusation. 工夫 (gōng fu) is skill or accomplishment, the same word that gives English "kung fu." 可好… is rhetorical: is this a thing to be paraded in front of people?

"Suppose you saw another had it — would you not beg it of him? And another, seeing you have it, will surely beg it of you."

And here the rebuke turns from doctrine to something a great deal more worldly. Suppose you saw somebody else with this — wouldn't you ask him for it? Then somebody will ask you. The master has stopped talking about spiritual discipline. He is talking about what other people do when they see what you can do. (不要 takes bú before the falling tone of 要.)

"If you fear the trouble, you will have to teach him; and if you do not teach him, he will surely do you harm — and then your own life cannot be kept safe."

The trap set out in full. Afraid of the trouble, so you teach him — and you have armed a rival. Refuse, and he comes for you. 你之性命又不可保: either way your life is not safe. This is shrewd, cold counsel about conspicuous talent, and it has nothing to do with religion at all. (若不傳 keeps bù before the rising tone of 傳; 不可 keeps bù before the third tone of 可.)

Wukong kowtowed: "I only beg the master's forgiveness."

Six words. He does not argue this time.

The Patriarch said: "I do not blame you — but all the same, you must go."

And the sentence, which is worse for being gentle. 我也不罪你, I don't blame you — 但只是, all the same — 你去罷, you must go. (不罪 takes bú before the falling tone of 罪.)