The elder hastily dismounted.

連忙 is at once, hurriedly; 下馬, to get down off the horse. He is glad to.

He saw a gate-tower, its brackets wrought as drooping lotus and elephant-trunk, its ridge-beams painted and its rafters carved.

The gate alone tells you what kind of house this is. 垂蓮象鼻, hanging-lotus and elephant-trunk, are shapes carved into the bracket sets (斗栱) that hold up a Chinese roof — the sort of joinery you pay for. 畫棟雕梁, painted ridgepoles and carved beams, is the set phrase for a house built to be looked at.

Sha Monk set down the load and Bajie led the horse, saying, "This household — it's an exceedingly wealthy and well-stocked one."

歇了擔子, set the load down, with 擔 as the noun dàn. 過當 is read guò dàng, beyond the ordinary measure, so here excessively, extravagantly rich; 富實 is wealthy and well-stocked. Bajie has appraised the property before anyone has knocked.

Pilgrim made to go straight in, but Tripitaka said, "You mustn't. We are men who have left the household life; each of us must keep clear of any cause for suspicion. On no account barge in uninvited."

三藏 takes 藏 as zàng — Tripitaka's name means Three Baskets, the three divisions of the Buddhist canon. 出家人 is one who has left the household, a monk; 嫌疑 is suspicion or the appearance of impropriety, and 避 is to steer clear of it; 擅入 is to walk in without leave. Note what he is anxious about. Four monks and a house with no men in it — his scruple is precisely the one the household is about to trample.

"Better wait until someone comes out, and then ask for lodging with due courtesy — that will do."

且自 is for now, just; 以禮求宿, ask for lodging properly; 方可, only then is it allowable.

Bajie tethered the horse and lounged aslant against the foot of the wall; Tripitaka sat upon the stone drum-block; Wukong and Sha Monk sat at the edge of the terrace-plinth.

Everyone finds somewhere to sit. 拴了馬, tied up the horse; 石鼓 is the drum-shaped stone block set beside a gate, used for mounting; 臺基 (tái jī) is the stepped stone platform a building stands on. And 行者 is read xíng zhě, the Pilgrim — the same character that gave the geese their rows as háng back in the autumn poem.

When no one came out for a long while, Wukong — impatient by nature — sprang up and went in through the gate to look, and found a great south-facing hall of three bays, its blinds and lattices hung high.

性急, of an impatient temper, which excuses nothing and explains everything. 向南的三間大廳 is a three-bay hall facing south, the honoured direction for the main room of a house; 簾櫳 (lián lóng) is blinds and window-lattice; 高控, hung high, drawn up.

On the screen-door hung a horizontal scroll-painting of "Longevity Mountains and Seas of Blessing"; and on the gilt-lacquered pillars to either side was pasted a spring-couplet on great red paper, which read: "Silk threads drift from the frail willow — dusk on the level bridge; snow dots the fragrant plum — springtime in the little court."

The furnishings are being read like a bank statement. 壽山福海, Mountain of Longevity and Sea of Blessing, is a stock auspicious subject; 橫披畫 is the wide horizontal scroll it is painted on. The 春聯 is a New Year door-couplet, written on red paper and pasted up the pillars — the ancestor of every red-and-gold sticker you still see on Chinese doorframes each spring. Because it is quoted as a written object rather than recited, it stays inside the prose here instead of being set as verse. 貼著 and 寫著 both take the running 著 (zhe): pasted up, and still pasted; written, and still written.

In the very center stood an incense-table of dull-finished black lacquer, and upon it sat an ancient bronze censer in the form of a beast.

退光黑漆 is a black lacquer rubbed back to a dull, lustreless finish, which costs more than a shine. 香几 is the incense stand; 獸爐 a censer cast in the shape of a beast. 中 is zhōng.

Above stood six folding armchairs, and on the side walls to either end hung four hanging-panels of the four seasons.

交椅 (jiāo yǐ) is the cross-legged folding chair — a seat with rank attached to it, which is why Chinese still says a person's 交椅 when it means their position. 兩山頭 is the two gable-end walls; 四季吊屏, a hanging set of four panels for the four seasons. 掛著 takes the running 著 (zhe).