Said the Pilgrim, "These are that crowd of stubborn spirits. Ever since they gave us the dragon-horse I have not once called their names, and now here they are playing their empty tricks again."

這夥強神 — 強 is qiáng, "stubborn, headstrong." 弄虛頭 is to play an empty trick, the same phrase the fiend used at the cave mouth earlier. 他倒又來 takes 倒 as the grudging dào.

Said Bajie, "Brother, do not give yourself airs. What should make them answer to your roll-call?" Said the Pilgrim, "Little brother, there is much you do not know.

扯架子, "to put on airs" — Bajie deflating his brother in three characters. 點札 is a military verb: to muster subordinates and call the roll. The Pilgrim reaches for it because he was once an officer of heaven himself, and Bajie's question is whether the commission is still good.

These dharma-guarding Saṃghārāma, the Six Ding and Six Jia, the Guardians of the Five Quarters and the Sentinels of the Four Watches all serve under the Bodhisattva's command, and guard our master in secret.

伽藍 is qié lán; 護教 takes jiào. The list is a real celestial establishment: 六丁六甲 are the twelve spirits of the calendar, 五方揭諦 (jiē dì) the guardians of the five quarters, and 四值功曹 the sentinels on duty for the year, the month, the day and the hour. Every one of them was assigned to this pilgrimage by Guanyin in chapter 15.

From the day they reported their names, I have had you with me all this while, and I have not once had need of them; and that is why I have not called the roll."

只為 takes 為 as wèi, "because." The compliment is buried where Bajie will not find it: with you beside me I have never once needed to call heaven down.

Said Bajie, "Brother, if they have orders to protect our master in secret, then of course they cannot show themselves openly, and so they conjured up that farmstead for us.

點化仙莊 uses the very verb the note on the tree used. Bajie, who two hundred and forty characters ago was accusing his hosts of tax evasion, now lays out the theology of the thing correctly and without hesitating.

Do not take it ill of them. Yesterday it was they who put the medicine in your eyes, and they too who saw us fed with a meal of fasting food; that is bending the whole heart, I should say.

盡心, with 盡 as jìn, lifted straight out of the last line of the verse on the tree. 虧他 is "we owe it to him" — and it is Bajie, not the Pilgrim, who is keeping the account.

Do not take it ill of them. Let us go and rescue our master." Said the Pilgrim, "Little brother, you speak well.

說得是 takes 得 as de. The Pilgrim concedes a point, which he does perhaps three times in the whole book.

It is not far from here to the mouth of the Yellow Wind Cave. Do not stir yourself, but stay here in the wood, watch the horse, and keep the luggage.

看馬守擔: 擔 is dàn, the load. Bajie is handed the horse and the baggage again, which is his part in this company and, in this chapter, his entire war record.

Let old Monkey go into the cave and listen for news, and find out what has become of our master; then I will fight him again."

打聽打聽 doubles the verb: go and have a listen. Notice what he does not say. He does not say he will fight. He says he will find out first, and that is new.

Said Bajie, "That is just it. Get us a sure word of it, dead or alive.

討一個死活的實信, "get a sure word, dead or alive." Bajie is already thinking about what happens to the company afterwards.

If our master is dead, each of us can go and seek his own fortune; and if he is not dead, we can put out our whole strength and give him all our hearts." Said the Pilgrim, "Enough of this loose talk. I am going."

各人好尋頭幹事 — each of us can go and look for a living. Bajie has said this before and will say it again: if Sanzang dies, the firm dissolves. 竭力盡心 is the other half of the sentence, and both halves are meant.