He came straight up beneath the tree and called aloud to the Tang Monk: "Elder, this humble Daoist salutes you."

He opens with impeccable manners. 貧道, pín dào, "this poor Daoist," is the humble self-reference a Daoist uses, the mirror of the monk's 貧僧. 起手, qǐ shǒu, is the Daoist salute, hands raised together. 長老, zhǎng lǎo, "elder," is the courteous form for a senior monk, with 長 as zhǎng.

The elder hurriedly returned the courtesy: "Forgive me, forgive me for not seeing you sooner."

失瞻, shī zhān, is "I failed to see you" — the standard apology when somebody greets you first, roughly "forgive me, I hadn't noticed you there." Doubling it makes it warmer.

The Great Immortal asked, "From which quarter has the elder come?

那方來的, nǎ fāng lái de, "from which quarter?" — interrogative 那 as nǎ. He knows the answer perfectly well.

"And why do you sit in meditation here on the road?"

為何, wèi hé, "for what reason," with 為 as wèi, "because of." 打坐, dǎ zuò, is sitting in meditation, which is a polite way of describing a man who has fallen asleep by the roadside.

Sanzang said, "This poor monk is one sent from the Great Tang in the Eastern Land to fetch scriptures in the West; passing through here, I take a makeshift rest."

Sanzang gives the full formula, as he does to everyone he meets. 差往西天取經者, "one dispatched to the Western Heaven to fetch the scriptures," takes 差 as chāi, "to send on a commission," not chà, "to be wrong." 權為一歇, "a rest for the time being," with 為 as wèi.

The Great Immortal feigned surprise: "The elder comes from the east—might you have passed by my poor mountain on the way?"

Now the trap closes by a degree. 佯訝, yáng yà, is to feign surprise — the narrator tells us outright that the astonishment is acted. 荒山, huāng shān, "my barren mountain," is a modest way of referring to your own home, like calling your house a hovel; the mountain in question is Ten Thousand Years.

The elder said, "I do not know—which is the immortal officer's treasured mountain?"

Sanzang, who has not the least idea, asks politely which mountain is meant. 仙官, xiān guān, "immortal officer," and 寶山, bǎo shān, "your treasured mountain," are both courtesies — you inflate the other man's and deflate your own.

The Great Immortal said, "The Five-Villages Abbey on the Mount of Ten Thousand Years—that is where this poor Daoist dwells."

And there it is, said pleasantly. 棲止處, qī zhǐ chù, "my perching place," with 棲, qī, the verb for a bird settling — still modest, still smiling. 五莊觀 takes 觀 as guàn.