One day, in his own cave, he charged the four Stalwart Generals to lay out a banquet and invited the six kings to drink; they slaughtered oxen and horses, made offerings to Heaven and Earth, had the monsters dance and sing, and all drank themselves dead drunk.

The banquet that will get him arrested. 一日 takes yí; 吩咐 is "to instruct, to charge"; the 將 of 四健將 is jiàng; 六王 are the six demon-kings, his sworn brothers. 著眾怪跳舞 takes 著 as the ordering zhuó, "had the monsters dance." 吃得酩酊大醉 is "drank themselves blind drunk," with 得 (de) hanging the result on the verb and 酩酊 (mǐng dǐng) meaning "dead drunk."

When the six kings had been seen off, he rewarded his headmen, great and small, with a feast as well; then, leaning in the pine-shade by the iron-plank bridge, in a moment he fell asleep.

One more round for the staff, then a nap in the pine shade — which is when the underworld comes for him. 賞𤛮 is "to reward and feast." Its second character, 𤛮, built on 牛, is read láo — the reading Unihan records — here carrying the sense of 賞勞 or 犒賞, "to reward one's followers with a feast." 頭目 is "headmen, chiefs"; 攲 is "to lean," qī; 松陰 is "pine-shade"; and 睡著, "fell asleep," takes 著 as zháo, the value that marks an action that came off.

The four Stalwart Generals led the others to guard around him, and dared not raise their voices.

The guard is mounted and the voices are kept down, which makes what happens next entirely invisible to them. The 將 of 四健將 is jiàng; 圍護 is "to guard around"; 不敢 takes bù.

Then, in his sleep, the Handsome Monkey King saw two men come up holding a warrant on which were the three characters 'Sun Wukong'; without a word of explanation they slipped a rope over him, lassoed the Monkey King's soul away, and dragged him staggering to the edge of a city.

Two men with a warrant and a rope: the underworld does its business with paperwork and a length of cord, like any bailiff. 睡裡 is "in his sleep," 裡 read lǐ; 一張 takes yì; 批文 is a warrant or summons; 不容分說 is "without allowing a word of explanation," with 不 as bù and 分 as fēn; 魂靈兒, "soul," carries the er ending; 踉踉蹌蹌 is "staggering, reeling," 踉 read liàng and 蹌 qiàng; and 一座 takes yí.

The Monkey King gradually felt himself sobering, and when he raised his head and looked, there was an iron placard on the city wall bearing three great characters: 'Land of Darkness.'

He sobers up in front of a signboard, which is a very ordinary way to discover you are dead. 漸覺酒醒 is "gradually felt himself sobering," 覺 read jué, "to perceive, to feel," not jiào, "sleep." 一鐵牌 takes yì before the dipping tone of 鐵; 幽冥界 is the Land of Darkness, the underworld.

All at once the Handsome Monkey King understood: 'The Land of Darkness is where King Yama dwells — why have I come here?'

頓然醒悟 is "all at once understood." 閻王 is King Yama (閻羅王), lord of the dead, 閻 read yán; 何為到此 is "why have I come here?", with 為 as the causal wèi.

The two men said, 'Your earthly span is due to end today, and we two, holding the warrant, have come to summon you.'

The reply is pure officialese — your time is up, we hold the paperwork, come along. 陽壽 is one's earthly lifespan, the span lived in the world of light; 該終 is "due to end"; 領批 is "holding the warrant"; and 勾你來 is "to summon you," 勾 read gōu, "to hook in."

Hearing this, the Monkey King said, 'Old Sun has leapt clear of the Three Realms and stands outside the Five Phases — I am no longer under his jurisdiction. How dare you, in your blindness, come to summon me?'

And there is the claim the whole episode turns on: he has stepped outside the system, so the system has no business with him. 超出三界外，不在五行中 is "leapt beyond the Three Realms, stands outside the Five Phases," 五行 (wǔ xíng) taking 行 as xíng, not háng. 不在 takes bú before the falling tone of 在, while 不伏 takes bù, 伏 read fú. 朦朧 is "muddled, in confusion"; 勾我 has 勾 as gōu. He made the same boast to the four elders earlier in the chapter, when it cost him nothing.

But the two death-fetchers only kept tugging and pulling, set on dragging him in.

勾死人 are the death-fetchers, the runners who collect souls, 勾 read gōu; 只管 is "kept right on"; 扯扯拉拉 is "tugging and hauling," 扯 chě and 拉 lā. They are not listening, which is a mistake.

At this the Monkey King's temper flared; he drew the treasure from his ear, gave it a shake until it was thick as a bowl,

惱起性來 is "his temper flared"; 掣出寶貝 is "drew out the treasure," 掣 read chè; 幌一幌, "gave it a shake," takes yì before the dipping tone of 幌; 碗來粗細 is "thick as a bowl."

and with a slight raise of his hand beat the two death-fetchers into a pulp. He freed himself from the rope, flung it aside, brandished the rod, and fought his way into the city.

打為肉醬 is "beat into a pulp," with 為 as wéi, "into"; 自解其索 is "freed himself from the rope," 解 read jiě; 輪著棒 is "brandishing the rod," 輪 (the same as 掄) read lún, "to swing," with 著 as the state-marking zhe.

He so terrified the Ox-Head ghost that it dodged this way and hid that, and the Horse-Face ghost that it fled south and north.

東躲西藏 and 南奔北跑 — dodging east and hiding west, running south and north — are both still live idioms for scattering in panic, and here the four directions are being used on the two most famous doorkeepers in the Chinese afterlife. 牛頭鬼 and 馬面鬼 are Ox-Head and Horse-Face, the standard demon-warders of the underworld. 諕得 is "so terrified that…" (諕 = 嚇, xià); 藏 is cáng.

The ghost-soldiers rushed up to the Hall of Darkness and reported: 'Your Majesties — disaster! Disaster! Outside there's a hairy-faced Thunder God fighting his way in!'

To the ghosts he is not a monkey but a Thunder God — 雷公, the thunder-deity, conventionally shown beak-faced and furious, which is close enough to a hairy simian face in a poor light. 鬼卒 is "ghost-soldiers," 卒 read zú; 森羅殿 is the Hall of Senluo, the underworld's judgment hall, 羅 read luó; 報著 takes 著 as the state-marking zhe; 禍事 is "disaster!"; 一個 takes yí; and in 打將來了 the 將 is the verb-tagging jiāng.