結義七王 The Seven Sworn Brothers
他放下心，日逐騰雲駕霧，遨遊四海，行樂千山。施武藝，遍訪英豪；弄神通，廣交賢友。此時又會了個七弟兄，乃牛魔王、蛟魔王、鵬魔王、獅驼王、獼猴王、𤟹狨王，連自家美猴王七個。日逐講文論武，走斝傳觴，絃歌吹舞，朝去暮回，無般兒不樂。把那萬里之遙，只當庭闈之路；所謂點頭徑過三千里，扭腰八百有餘程。他放下心，日逐腾云驾雾，遨游四海，行乐千山。施武艺，遍访英豪；弄神通，广交贤友。此时又会了个七弟兄，乃牛魔王、蛟魔王、鹏魔王、狮驼王、猕猴王、𤟹狨王，连自家美猴王七个。日逐讲文论武，走斝传觞，弦歌吹舞，朝去暮回，无般儿不乐。把那万里之遥，只当庭闱之路；所谓点头径过三千里，扭腰八百有余程。
逐句解 Line by line
Now, his mind at ease, day after day he rode the clouds and drove the mist, roaming the four seas and taking his pleasure over the thousand mountains.
騰雲駕霧, "riding clouds and driving mist," is still the everyday phrase for someone gloriously off the ground — and here it is meant literally. 放下心 is "set his mind at ease"; 日逐 is "day after day"; 行樂 is "to take one's pleasure, to make merry," with 行 read xíng and 樂 lè.
He displayed his martial skills and sought out heroes everywhere; he worked his magic and made friends far and wide.
Two matched clauses sketch an expansive social life: 遍訪英豪, "sought out heroes everywhere," and 廣交賢友, "made worthy friends widely."
At this time he fell in with seven sworn brothers — the Bull Demon King, the Jiao-Dragon Demon King, the Roc Demon King, the Lion-Camel King, the Macaque King, and the Yu-Rong King — who, with his own Handsome Monkey King, made seven.
The famous fraternity of seven. Six demon-kings join him: 牛魔王, the Bull Demon King, who will matter enormously later; 蛟魔王, the Jiao-Dragon King (蛟 is a flood-dragon); 鵬魔王, the Roc King (鵬 is the giant péng bird); 獅驼王, the Lion-Camel King, whose second character is tuó, "camel"; 獼猴王, the Macaque King (獼 mí); and 𤟹狨王, the Yu-Rong King. That last name's first character, 𤟹, is 犭 plus 禺, the 世德堂 way of writing 禺, and punctuated editions print the name as 禺狨王, glossed as the golden snub-nosed monkey (金絲猴, the same beast as 狨). In this animal sense 禺 reads yú — so 《說文》「母猴屬」 and 《廣韻》遇俱切 — though some popular references miswrite it yù, which belongs to the character's "corner" and "late morning" senses. 連自家 is "together with his own."
Day after day they discoursed on letters and on arms, passed the winecups round, played strings and sang, piped and danced — off at dawn and back at dusk, and there was no kind of pleasure they did not taste.
Letters and arms by day, wine and music by night, home at dusk — the gentleman-bandit's ideal week. 走斝傳觴 is "passing the winecups round," 斝 (jiǎ) and 觴 (shāng) both being ancient wine vessels. 講文論武 is "discoursing on letters and on arms"; 絃歌吹舞 is "strings and song, piping and dance," 絃 (= 弦) read xián. In 朝去暮回, "off at dawn, back at dusk," 朝 is zhāo, "morning," not cháo, "court." 無般兒不樂 is "no kind of pleasure was lacking," 般兒 carrying the er ending and 不 taking bú before the falling tone of 樂 (lè).
They counted the distance of ten thousand li as no more than the path to one's own courtyard gate; as the saying goes, a nod of the head carried them straight past three thousand li, a twist of the waist eight hundred li and more.
A flourish on the somersault cloud's speed: a nod of the head covers three thousand li, a twist of the waist eight hundred more. 把那萬里之遙 leaves 里 (lǐ) untranslated; 只當庭闈之路 is "counted it as merely the path to the home courtyard," with 當 read dàng, "to regard as," and 庭闈 (tíng wéi) the inner courtyard or parental quarters, that is, home. In 點頭徑過三千里，扭腰八百有餘程, 程 (chéng) is a stage of a journey.
With his kingdom settled, Wukong ranges abroad and forms the famous fraternity of seven — the Bull Demon King and the rest — which the novel will draw on for many later episodes, the Bull Demon King above all, whose family Wukong fights at length on the journey. The brotherhood marks his entry into a wider society of demon equals: no longer merely a mountain-king, he is now a peer among the great spirits of the world, a status that flatters his self-importance and deepens the alarm his name is causing in Heaven.
The roster preserves another of the 世德堂 text's rare characters: 𤟹, 犭 plus 禺, the rare form of 禺 that names the Yu-Rong King, glossed as a golden snub-nosed monkey. As with 𤜱 in the beast-catalogue, the base text keeps a character that modernized editions normalize away (to 禺狨王); the project follows the same fidelity rule, preserving the form and noting the reading. That two of the seven brothers — the Macaque King and the Yu-Rong King — are themselves monkeys quietly underscores the chapter's standing interest in Wukong's own kind.
The passage closes on a small set-piece of vernacular hyperbole: ten thousand li reckoned as a step to the courtyard gate, a nod of the head carrying one past three thousand. Plaks notes how such flourishes of boundless, frictionless motion belong to the same expansive register as the cosmic-giant transformation just past — the early Wukong inhabits a world without limits, where space itself gives way to his ease. The chapter has now reached the peak of his earthly freedom. The next movement, the summons to the underworld, begins to close that boundless world around him.