Tripiṭaka, on his horse, said with delight, "Disciples, all my way westward I have passed through many hills and streams, and all were jagged, perilous places — none so fair as this mountain's prospect. Its hidden charm is rare indeed.

Tripiṭaka relaxes, and it makes him talkative. 一向, yí xiàng, all along, this whole time. 更不似, gèng bù sì, still less like — 似 in its comparative reading sì.

If Thunderclap be near and the road not far, we should make ourselves solemn and seemly to meet the World-Honoured One."

His instinct on seeing something beautiful is to wonder whether they are nearly there, and then to worry about being properly dressed for it. 相近, xiāng jìn, close to one another, with the reciprocal 相. 世尊, Shì zūn, the World-Honoured One, a title of the Buddha.

Pilgrim said with a laugh, "Too soon, too soon — we are nowhere near arriving."

Pilgrim punctures it in six syllables. 得到, dé dào, to reach — 得 in its "attain" sense.

Sha Monk said, "Elder Brother, how far are we from Thunderclap?"

多少, duō shao, how much, how far.

Pilgrim said, "A hundred and eight thousand lǐ — and of the ten stages we have not yet walked out even one."

A hundred and eight thousand lǐ is the novel's fixed figure for the distance to the Buddha's realm, and it is chosen for what it means rather than what it measures — it is also the exact distance Pilgrim's cloud-somersault covers in one jump. He could be there this afternoon. Tripiṭaka cannot, and that gap is the whole book. 十停中, shí tíng zhōng, "of the ten portions."

Bājiè said, "Brother, how many years must we walk before we get there?"

才得到, cái dé dào, only then arrive, with 得 again in the "attain" sense.

Pilgrim said, "This road — if it were the two worthy brothers walking, ten-odd days might do it; if I were to walk it, I could go fifty circuits in a day and still see daylight; but if Master walks it — no hope, no hope."

Rank stratifies the joke. Ten days for the two junior disciples, fifty round trips a day for Pilgrim, and for Tripiṭaka — 莫想, mò xiǎng, don't even think about it, said twice. 若論, ruò lùn, "as for."

Tripiṭaka said, "Wukong, when do you say we may reach it?"

Tripiṭaka asks the obvious follow-up. 你說得 takes the light de, the structural link between "say" and the clause it introduces.

Pilgrim said, "Were you to walk from youth to age, and from age to youth again, a thousand times over, it would still be hard; only let your nature be seen and your will sincere, and at each turning-back of the thought — there is the Numinous Mountain."

And here the comedy turns into doctrine without warning. Walk it from youth to age and back a thousand times over and you still will not arrive — but 見性, seeing into your own nature, and 念念回首, turning the thought back on itself at every moment, and you are already there. 靈山, Líng shān, is Vulture Peak, the Buddha's mountain and the literal destination of the journey; Pilgrim has just relocated it inside the listener's head. This is the Chan reading of the whole pilgrimage, dropped into a conversation about mileage.

Sha Monk said, "Elder Brother, though this place be not Thunderclap, from such scenery there must be some worthy soul dwelling here."

Sha Monk changes the subject, and in doing so cues the chapter's real business. 居止, jū zhǐ, to dwell. 觀此景致 takes 觀 as the verb guān, "to look at" — worth marking now, because the same character is about to become a noun with a different tone.

Pilgrim said, "Those words are apt.

卻當, què dàng, quite right — 當 in its "fitting, apt" sense, not the dāng of "ought."

Here there can be no evil sprites — surely this is the home of some holy monk or immortal company. Let us roam and go slowly."

邪祟, xié suì, malign spirits. Pilgrim's verdict that there is nothing evil here is the last thing he will get right for some time. 慢行, màn xíng, go slowly.

Of this no more.

不題, bù tí — "of this we say no more." A storyteller's device for dropping one thread so another can be picked up, and the next passage picks up a completely different one.