Now the story tells how the Handsome Monkey King returned home in glory. Having wiped out the Monster of Havoc and carried off a great saber,

The chapter opens the way a storyteller picks a thread back up after the break: 卻說, roughly "now, as to what happened next." It is the standard hinge of 章回 fiction, the chaptered vernacular novel, and Wukong has held the title 美猴王, Handsome Monkey King, since ch.1. The Monster of Havoc (混世魔王) was killed at the close of 第二回, and his saber is the only real weapon the monkeys own — the whole chapter grows out of that one blade. Two small readings: 了 is le, the marker that an action is finished, in 剿了 and 奪了; and 一 in 一口 shifts to yì before the dipping tone of 口, which is the counter used for bladed arms.

day after day he drilled in the martial arts, setting the little monkeys to chop bamboo into pike-staves and whittle wood into swords, to make banners and pennants and blow signal-whistles, to advance and fall back, to pitch camp and raise the stockade — and so they sported for a good long while.

Every item here is real army drill — whittling weapons, running up banners, blowing signals, advancing and falling back, pitching camp — carried out by monkeys, which is the joke. 教 is jiào, "to set someone to do a thing," not jiāo, "to teach"; the same choice returns in 教演 a few lines on. 為 is wéi, "to make into," in 砍竹為標 and 削木為刀, and 削 takes the everyday xiāo, "to whittle, to pare," rather than the bookish xuē. A 標 is a pike or javelin-staff, a 哨子 a whistle, its 子 the light unstressed zi. In 一進一退 both 一 become yí before the falling tones of 進 and 退.

Then one day, sitting still in quiet thought, he reflected:

One quiet moment and the chapter turns: the playing stops and the worrying starts, the first stirring of the kingly cares that drive everything after. 處 is chù here, "place, the point at which," in 靜坐處.

'Here we all are at our games — but I fear our play may turn to earnest. We might alarm some king of men, or some King of Birds or King of Beasts might take it for a provocation and charge that we are drilling soldiers in revolt, and raise an army to come and destroy us. With your bamboo poles and wooden swords, how could you face such a foe?

Wukong's fear is the ordinary saying 作耍成真, "the game turns real" — worth holding onto, because the chapter keeps that promise in full. 犯頭 is a pretext, grounds for taking offence. 都是 takes dōu, "all"; 相殺, "to fall upon and kill," uses 相 as xiāng, aiming the action at a target rather than meaning "each other." The sharpest touch is that Wukong himself supplies the phrase 操兵造反, "drilling troops in revolt" — the exact charge Heaven will later bring against him.

We must have keen swords and halberds for that. What is to be done now?'

須得 is "must get hold of": 得 is the full verb dé, "to obtain," with 鋒利劍戟 as its object — not the děi of "have to," nor the unstressed linking de. 奈何 is the old cry, "what is to be done?"

Hearing this, the monkeys were each and all dismayed: 'Your Majesty's foresight reaches far — but there is simply nowhere to get such things.'

Flattery and helplessness in one breath. 所見甚長 is "your sight reaches very far," with 長 as cháng, "long," not zhǎng, "to grow." 無處 is "nowhere," 處 again chù; 個個 is "each and every one."

As they spoke, four old monkeys stepped forth — two were bare-rumped horse-apes, two were long-armed gibbons — and came before him, saying: 'Your Majesty, if it is keen weapons you wish to procure, nothing is easier.'

Enter the cabinet. These four — two 赤尻馬猴, "red-rumped horse-apes" (尻 kāo is the rump), and two 通背猿猴, "through-backed" or long-armed gibbons — are Wukong's standing advisers through the early chapters, and by the end of this one they will be ennobled as 健將, Stalwart Generals. 轉上 is "came turning forward," 轉 read zhuǎn.

Wukong said, 'How is it easy?'

Four words, and the scene moves: 怎見, "how do you reckon it so?"

The four monkeys said, 'Eastward from this mountain of ours, two hundred li across the water, lies the realm of Aolai.

The plan, in short, is to go shopping abroad. 傲來國, the kingdom of Aolai, lies just over the water from 花果山, and was named back in ch.1's account of the mountain's setting. 里 (lǐ), the Chinese mile of roughly half a kilometre, is left untranslated throughout. 那廂 is "over there, that quarter," with 那 as nà.

Within that realm there is a throne, and the city teems with soldiers and subjects beyond number; there are bound to be smiths who work gold and silver, copper and iron.

A city with a king in it must have smiths — that is the whole of the reasoning, and it is sound. The run of metals 金銀銅鐵, gold and silver and copper and iron, is the story pointing at an armory before we reach one. 一 in 一王位 becomes yì before the rising tone of 王. 無數 is "countless," with 數 as shù; as the verb "to count" it would be shǔ. 匠作 is "craftsmen, craft-work," 匠 read jiàng.

If Your Majesty goes there and either buys or has forged a stock of weapons, and then trains us in them to guard our mountain domain — that is truly what they call the plan for securing lasting peace.'

Listen to the register: a band of monkeys is being handed the vocabulary of imperial statecraft. 保泰長久之機, "the plan for securing lasting peace," leans on 泰, the hexagram ䷊ of the Book of Changes — Heaven below, Earth above, the figure named Peace or Prosperity — and 保泰, "preserving the flourishing state," is a genuine ideal of classical government, offered here with a perfectly straight face. 教演 is "to drill, to train," 教 read jiào; 長 is cháng, "lasting."

Hearing this, Wukong was filled with delight: 'You amuse yourselves here; wait while I go and return.'

去來 is the everyday "off I go" — the 來 is a light directional tag, not a literal "and come back." With that the scene shuts and the raid on Aolai begins.