Now the monster, having lost the bout and withdrawn, had just caught his breath when he heard again someone thrusting through the water with a splash.

聽得…推得 ('heard … thrusting'; 得 de in both). The demon's recovery is cut short by Bajie's descent — the two enemies meet again on the river-bed.

He rose up of a sudden to look, and it was Bajie, rake in hand, driving through the water.

執了鈀推水 ('rake in hand, pushing through the water') — Bajie in his aquatic element, come to provoke the fight the ruse requires.

The monster raised his staff and cried out to his face: 'You monk, where do you think you're going? Watch out for a beating!'

那和尚 ('you monk'; 那 nà) and 那裡走 ('where do you run?'; 那 here nǎ, interrogative). 仔細看打 ('mind the blow'; 仔 zǎi in this binome, not zǐ) is a stock combat challenge.

Bajie brought up his rake to parry and said: 'What sort of monster are you, that you dare block the road here?'

甚麼妖精 ('what kind of fiend'; 甚 shén) and 擋路 ('to bar the way') — Bajie's demand for the demon's identity is what elicits the great autobiographical song.

The fiend said: 'So you don't know me. I am no ordinary demon or goblin, nor one of mean surname and no name.'

不認得我 ('don't recognize me'; 得 de). The demon's pointed denial — 不是那妖魔鬼怪 ('no mere demon or ghost'; 那 nà) — piques the question of who, then, he is.

Bajie said: 'If you're no demon or goblin, then how is it you take lives here?

傷生 ('to harm the living, to take life'). Bajie presses the contradiction: a self-professed non-demon who nonetheless devours men owes an account of himself.

'Tell me truly your name and surname — out with it plainly — and I'll spare your life.'

端的甚麼姓名 ('what, exactly, is your name'; 的 dì, the adverbial, and 甚 shén). The blunt bargain — name yourself and be spared — opens the way for the sung reply.

The monster said: 'I —'

那怪道 ('the monster said'; 那 nà), then the bare 我 ('I') that opens, inside the quotation, the twenty-five-couplet song. The closing 」 falls only at the song's end.

From my youth I was born with a vigorous spirit; ten thousand li through Heaven and Earth I roamed at large.

乾坤萬里 ('ten thousand li of Heaven-and-Earth'; 乾 qián in 乾坤, the cosmos, not gān 'dry'). The song opens, as such self-tellings do, with the speaker's untrammelled youth.

A hero, I made my dread name known through all the world; a gallant, I set the mould that bold men copied.

顯威名 ('displayed an awesome name') and 做模樣 ('set the pattern') establish the boast of early prowess against which the later fall will register.

Through the myriad realms and Nine Provinces I went as I pleased; over the Five Lakes and Four Seas I barged where I would.

九州 ('the Nine Provinces') and 五湖四海 ('Five Lakes and Four Seas') are the classic totalities of the Chinese world — the whole of it his to roam.

All because, to learn the Way, I wandered to the sky's edge; only to seek a master, I roved earth's wide reaches.

只為尋師 ('only in order to seek a master'; 為 wèi, 'for the sake of'). The turn from vagabond to seeker — 學道 ('to study the Dao') — begins the alchemical narrative.

Year on year, robe and bowl I kept close to my side; day upon day my heart and spirit I let not stray.

衣缽 ('robe and alms-bowl') marks the disciplined seeker; 心神不可放 ('the heart-spirit not to be let loose') states the discipline of concentration required of the adept.

Along the land I cloud-wandered some scores of times; everywhere I ambled a hundred journeys and more.

雲遊 ('to wander like a cloud') is the term of art for a seeker's pilgrimage from teacher to teacher; 閑行 ('to roam at leisure'; 行 xíng) doubles it.

And thus at last I came to meet a Perfected One, who opened for me the Great Way's bright golden light.

真人 ('the Perfected One') is the Daoist master; 才得遇 ('only then managed to meet'; 得 dé, to attain). His initiation into the 大道 ('Great Way') follows.

First I gathered in the Infant and the Fair Maid; then I set loose the Wood-Mother and the Metal-Duke.

Pure inner-alchemy: 嬰兒 ('the Infant') and 金公 ('Metal-Duke') both figure the true lead (yang, kidney-essence); 姹女 ('the Fair Maid') and 木母 ('Wood-Mother') both figure the true mercury (yin, heart-spirit). 將 here is jiāng, the disposal marker. The coupling of these two is the making of the elixir.

From the Hall of Light the kidney-water flowed to the Flowery Pool; up the Storied Tower the liver-fire was cast to the heart.

The body's alchemical topography: 明堂 ('Hall of Light,' a cranial point), 華池 ('Flowery Pool,' the mouth's reservoir), and 重樓 ('Storied Tower,' the throat; 重 chóng, 'layered,' not zhòng 'heavy'). The circulation of 腎水 ('kidney-water') and 肝火 ('liver-fire') is the interior refining of the elixir.

My three thousand merits complete, I bowed before Heaven's face; with steadfast heart I paid court, turned toward the radiance.

三千功滿 ('three thousand merits fulfilled') is the measure of cultivation completed; 朝禮 ('to pay court in homage'; 朝 cháo) marks the adept's admission to the celestial hierarchy.

The Jade Emperor then advanced me in rank, and with his own mouth enfeoffed me Curtain-Raising General.

封為捲簾將 ('enfeoffed as Curtain-Raising General'; 為 wéi, 'as, to be,' and 將 jiàng, the rank). This is the monster's heavenly office — 捲簾大將, who raised the curtain before the throne.

Within the Southern Heaven's Gate I stood honoured; before the Hall of Divine Mists I was styled among the highest.

我為尊 ('I was the honoured one'; 為 wéi) and 吾稱上 ('I was styled above'; 稱 chēng). 靈霄殿 ('the Hall of Divine Mists') is the throne-hall named earlier in the battle-rhapsody.

At my waist hung the tiger-head tally; in my hand I gripped fast the demon-quelling staff.

虎頭牌 ('the tiger-head warrant') is a badge of martial authority; 降妖杖 ('demon-subduing staff'; 降 xiáng) is the very weapon he now wields against Bajie — once an instrument of Heaven's order, now a fiend's.

On my head a golden helm flashed back the sun; over me armour shone bright as glowing sunset-cloud.

金盔 ('golden helmet') and 鎧甲 ('armour') complete the picture of the celestial officer in full regalia — the height from which he is about to fall.

Coming and going, I led the van that guarded the carriage; in and out at court I attended, and stood above the rest.

護駕我當先 ('I took the lead in guarding the [imperial] carriage') and 隨朝予在上 ('at court I stood above'; 朝 cháo) mark the peak of his standing before the calamity of the banquet.

It was only because the Queen Mother sent down her peaches, and spread a feast at the Jasper Pool, inviting the generals,

王母降蟠桃 ('the Queen Mother sent down the immortal peaches'; here 降 jiàng, 'to bestow, send down,' its other reading) and 邀眾將 ('invited the assembled generals'; 將 jiàng). The Peach Banquet at the 瑤池 ('Jasper Pool') is the scene of his undoing.

that by mischance I let fall and shattered a crystal of jade, and every god of Heaven was struck aghast with dread.

失手打破玉玻璃 ('by a slip of the hand smashed the jade crystal') — the single clumsy act, breaking a crystal cup or bowl, that condemns him. 魂飛喪 ('souls flew away in terror') registers the enormity in Heaven's eyes.

The Jade Emperor straightway flew into wrath, and charged the Left Assistant Minister then in office: to strip my cap, my armour and my rank, and thrust my person out upon the killing-ground.

This unit runs to four lines. 左輔相 ('Left Assistant Minister'; 相 here xiàng, a ministerial office, not xiāng) is bidden to 卸冠脫甲摘官銜 ('doff cap, shed armour, strip rank') and 將身推在殺場上 ('take his person and thrust it to the execution-ground'; 將 jiāng, disposal).

I owed it all to the Great Bare-Foot Immortal, who stepped from his rank to petition, and had me set free.

赤腳大天仙 ('the Great Bare-Foot Immortal') is the intercessor whose 越班啟奏 ('breaking rank to memorialize'; 將 jiāng, disposal, in 將吾放) commutes the death sentence — a stock motif of celestial clemency.

Spared from death and brought back to life, no punishment set upon me, I was banished to the eastern bank of the Flowing Sands.

饒死回生 ('spared death, restored to life') and 遭貶流沙 ('banished to the Flowing Sands') — the sentence commuted to exile, which is how the celestial officer becomes the river's fiend.

When full, I lie drowsing here within this mountain; when hungry, I go churning the waves to hunt for food.

飽時困臥 ('when sated, lie torpid') and 餓去翻波 ('when starved, go stirring the waves') reduce the once-honoured general to a beast of appetite — the degradation the song has been building toward.

The woodcutter who meets me keeps his life no longer; the old fisherman who sees me loses his body outright.

樵子 ('woodcutter') and 漁翁 ('old fisherman') are the innocents who fall to him — the human cost of his exile, told without remorse.

Back and forth I have devoured men in plenty; over and over I have wrought a plague of slaughter.

吃人多 ('devoured many men') states plainly the fiend's man-eating career; 傷生瘴 ('a miasma of killing') casts it as a spreading pestilence.

You dare bring your violence to my very door; today my belly has something to look for.

行兇到我門 ('to bring violence to my gate'; 行 xíng) turns the song back on Bajie: the demon reads the fight as prey delivered to his threshold.

Don't tell me you're too coarse and rank to taste: once I hold you fast, at my leisure I'll mince you into paste.

粗糙不堪嘗 ('too coarse to be worth eating') and the grisly 剁鮓醬 ('chop [you] into fish-paste') end the song on the cannibal threat — and the closing 」 falls here, sealing the whole spoken autobiography.