大仙歸觀 The Great Immortal Returns
卻說那大仙自元始宮散會，領眾小仙出離兜率，徑下瑤天，墜祥雲，早來到萬壽山五莊觀門首。看時，只見觀門大開，地上乾淨。大仙道：「清風、明月，卻也中用。常時節日高三丈，腰也不伸；今日我們不在，他倒肯起早，開門掃地。」眾小仙俱悅。却说那大仙自元始宫散会，领众小仙出离兜率，径下瑶天，坠祥云，早来到万寿山五庄观门首。看时，只见观门大开，地上干净。大仙道：「清风、明月，却也中用。常时节日高三丈，腰也不伸；今日我们不在，他倒肯起早，开门扫地。」众小仙俱悦。
逐句解 Line by line
Now that Great Immortal, his assembly at the Palace of Primordial Beginning dispersed, led his company of lesser immortals out from the Tuṣita heights, came down through the jade sky, alighted from the auspicious clouds, and soon arrived at the gate of the Five-Villages Abbey on the Mount of Ten Thousand Years.
The master of the abbey returns, and his route home is a tour of the Daoist heavens. 元始宮, Yuánshǐ Gōng, is the Palace of Primordial Beginning, seat of the Celestial Worthy of the Primordial Beginning, highest of the Three Pure Ones; 兜率, Dōushuài, is the Tuṣita Heaven. He has been at a lecture, which is what senior immortals do with their time. 五莊觀 takes 觀 as guàn, the abbey.
Looking about, he saw the abbey gate flung wide and the ground swept clean.
Gate wide open, ground swept clean — and everything the reader knows makes those two details sinister. 觀門 takes 觀 as guàn, the abbey. 乾淨, gān jìng, "clean," takes 乾 as gān, "dry, clean," not the qián that names the heaven-trigram — a distinction that will matter again when the firewood is stacked for the cauldron.
The Great Immortal said, "Clear Wind and Bright Moon are serviceable after all.
中用, zhòng yòng, "useful, up to the job," takes 中 as zhòng, "to hit the mark," not the zhōng that means "middle."
"Ordinarily, though the sun stood three zhàng high, they would not stir their backs; yet today, with us away, they have actually risen early, opened the gate, and swept the ground."
The complaint of every employer about the staff. 日高三丈 — the sun already three zhàng up — means the morning is well advanced; a 丈 is a Chinese measure of about three metres, and the height of the sun was how you told the time without a clock. 腰也不伸, "wouldn't even straighten their backs," is not getting out of bed. 他倒肯起早 takes 倒 as dào, "instead, of all things."
The lesser immortals were all pleased.
俱悅, jù yuè, all delighted — the last cheerful line anyone in the abbey gets.
The scene cuts to Zhenyuan, Patriarch of the Earthly Immortals, coming home from a lecture in the highest heavens to find his gate open and his courtyard swept. He is pleased. His lazy attendants, he tells the company, have finally learned to get up in the morning.
Every word of his approval is wrong, and the reader knows exactly how wrong. The gate stands open because four thieves went out through it in the dark; the courtyard is clean because nobody has been in it since; and the two boys he is praising are lying drugged in a locked room. It is a small, cruel, beautifully judged piece of dramatic irony, and the whole company joins in the mistake.
It also does something useful for the story. This is our first sight of the chapter's real antagonist, and he is introduced in a good mood, being generous about his staff. Nothing about the entrance suggests the power he is about to turn on the pilgrims, which makes the reveal land harder.