The tale now turns to that Supreme Sage of High Heaven, the Greatly Merciful and Benevolent One — the Jade Emperor, Great Celestial Worthy, High Sovereign of the Profound Vault — who one day sat enthroned in the Golden-Gated Cloud Palace, the Hall of Miraculous Mist, gathering his immortal officials civil and martial at the hour of morning audience.

The camera pans upward, and Heaven turns out to hold a morning meeting. 卻表啟 is "the tale now sets forth," a storyteller's transition, 表 read biǎo, "to set out, to narrate." 玉皇大天尊玄穹高上帝 is the full ceremonial titulature of the Jade Emperor (玉皇), supreme god of the Daoist heaven, 穹 read qióng. 一日 takes yí. 金闕雲宮靈霄寶殿 is "the Golden-Portal Cloud Palace, the Hall of Miraculous Mist," 靈霄寶殿 being the Jade Emperor's throne-hall; 闕 is què and 霄 xiāo. 仙卿 is "immortal officials," 卿 read qīng; and in 早朝, "morning audience," 朝 is cháo, "court," not zhāo, "morning."

Suddenly the Perfected One Qiu Hongji came forward and memorialized: 'Your Majesty, outside the Hall of Comprehensive Brightness the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, Ao Guang, has come to submit a memorial and awaits your summons.'

Even a dragon king needs an usher to announce him, and must wait to be called. 丘弘濟真人 is the Perfected One Qiu Hongji, a Daoist immortal-official, 真人 (zhēn rén) meaning "Perfected One." 萬歲, literally "ten thousand years," is "Your Majesty"; 通明殿 is the Hall of Comprehensive Brightness; 進表 is "to submit a memorial," 表 read biǎo; and 宣詔 is "to summon by decree," 詔 read zhào.

The Jade Emperor issued a decree: 'Have him summoned in.' Ao Guang was ushered to below the Hall of Miraculous Mist; his obeisance done, an usher-immortal at the side took up his memorial, and the Jade Emperor read it through from the start. The memorial said:

著宣來 is "have him summoned," 著 the ordering zhuó; 禮拜畢 is "obeisance done," 畢 read bì; 傍 is "at the side," the same as 旁, read páng; 引奏仙童 is an usher-immortal lad whose office is to present memorials; 從頭看過 is "read it through from the start"; and 表曰 is "the memorial said," 曰 read yuē.

'From the water-element lower world, the East Pūrvavideha Continent, the Eastern Sea, your minister the little dragon Ao Guang respectfully memorializes the Great Celestial Holy Lord, High Sovereign of the Profound Vault:'

A memorial opens by placing its author in the cosmos and naming the throne it addresses, exactly as a formal 表 should. 水元下界 is "the water-element lower world"; 臣 is "your minister," the self-designation of a subject before a sovereign; and 玄穹高上帝君 is the Jade Emperor's title once more. 東勝神洲 is the eastern of the four continents, given here in Sanskrit as Pūrvavideha. Worth noting is that the 世德堂 text writes 神, "spirit," where the canonical Buddhist form of the name has 身, "body"; and in this base reading 勝 carries its sense of "superior, excellent" rather than "victory," giving "Eastern Continent of Superior Spirit."

'Recently, because of one Sun Wukong — a demon-immortal born on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, dwelling in the Water-Curtain Cave — who bullied this little dragon, forcibly occupied my watery dwelling, demanded a weapon, worked his spells and showed his might, demanded armor, and gave free rein to his ferocity and force;'

The complaint proper, in four brisk charges: he bullied me, he occupied my house, he demanded a weapon, he demanded armor. 近因 is "recently because of"; 欺虐 is "to bully and abuse," 虐 read nüè; 強坐水宅 is "forcibly occupied my watery dwelling"; 施法施威 is "worked spells and displayed might"; and 騁兇騁勢 is "gave free rein to ferocity and force," 騁 read chěng, "to gallop, to give rein to."

'he alarmed and injured my water-tribe and scared off the turtles and tuo-alligators; the South Sea dragon trembled in terror, the West Sea dragon was wretched and grieving, and the North Sea dragon drew in his head and submitted.'

Here the memorial rises into balanced prose built out of matched pairs of lines, three clauses weighed against one another: 戰戰兢兢, 悽悽慘慘, 縮首歸降 — trembling, wretched, and submitting with the head drawn in. This is the document's rhetorical heart. 諕走龜鼉 is "scared off the turtles and tuo-alligators," 諕 read xià and 鼉 tuó, the Yangtze alligator; 悽 is qī; and in 歸降, "to submit," 降 is xiáng, "to surrender," not jiàng.

'Your minister Ao Guang bent low in obeisance, presented the divine-treasure iron rod, the phoenix-wing golden cap, together with the chain-mail and cloud-stepping shoes, and saw him out with courtesy.'

The regalia handed over across the previous passages is now recited in the elevated 之-construction of formal prose — the rod, the cap, the mail, the shoes, itemized like a claim for damages. 舒身下拜 is "bent low in obeisance"; 鎖子甲 is chain-mail, its 子 the unstressed zi; and 步雲履 are the cloud-stepping shoes.

'Yet still he plied his martial arts and displayed his magic, saying only "Pardon the trouble! Pardon the trouble!" — truly without rival, and exceedingly hard to control.'

The best touch in the whole memorial: Wukong's breezy 聒噪, "pardon the trouble!", quoted back as evidence of an ungovernable menace. What read as cheek in the scene reads as a threat in the file. 仍 is "still, nonetheless"; 但云 is "saying only," 云 read yún, the literary "to say"; 聒 is guō; and 甚為難制 is "exceedingly hard to subdue," 為 read wéi.

'Your minister now submits this memorial, humbly awaiting the sage judgment, and earnestly begs for celestial troops to capture this demon-spawn, that the seas and mountains may be at peace and the lower world secure. Respectfully submitted.'

And the ask: send soldiers. 伏望聖裁 is "humbly awaiting the sage judgment," 伏 read fú and 裁 cái; 懇乞天兵 is "earnestly begging for celestial troops," 懇 read kěn; 妖孽 is "demon-spawn, baleful prodigy," 孽 read niè; 庶使 is "so that there may be," 庶 read shù; 海嶽 is "seas and mountains," 嶽 (= 岳) read yuè; 下元安泰 is "the lower world secure"; and 奉奏, "respectfully submitted," is the formal close of a memorial.

The Holy Emperor finished reading and issued a decree: 'Let the dragon-god return to his sea; We shall at once dispatch generals to seize him.' The old Dragon King kowtowed his thanks and withdrew.

Twelve words and a dismissal — the Jade Emperor deals with the sea in one breath. 聖帝覽畢 is "the Holy Emperor finished reading," 覽 read lǎn and 畢 bì; 著龍神回海 is "ordered the dragon-god back to the sea," 著 the ordering zhuó; 朕 is the imperial "We," here the Jade Emperor's; 遣將擒拿 is "dispatch generals to seize him," 將 read jiàng, "general"; and 頓首 is "kowtowed."