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.
放下心 — "set his mind at ease." 日逐 — "day after day." 騰雲駕霧 — "riding clouds and driving mist." 行樂 — "to take one's pleasure, make merry"; 行 xíng, 樂 lè.
He displayed his martial skills and sought out heroes everywhere; he worked his magic and made friends far and wide.
遍訪英豪 — "sought out heroes everywhere." 廣交賢友 — "made worthy friends widely." The pair of parallel clauses sketches Wukong's expansive socializing.
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.
七弟兄 — "seven sworn brothers." The six demon-kings: 牛魔王 (Bull Demon King), 蛟魔王 (Jiao-Dragon King, 蛟 a flood-dragon), 鵬魔王 (Roc/Peng King, 鵬 the great peng bird), 獅駝王 (Lion-Camel King; 駝 tuó), 獼猴王 (Macaque King; 獼 mí), and 𤟹狨王 (the Yu-Rong King). 𤟹 (U+247F9) is an astral-plane graph, 犭+禺, the 世德堂 form of 禺; punctuated editions write the name 禺狨王, glossed as a golden snub-nosed monkey (金絲猴, the same beast as 狨). 禺 in this animal sense reads yú (per 《說文》「母猴屬」 and 《廣韻》遇俱切); some popular references miswrite it yù (the reading of 禺's "corner / late-morning" senses). 連自家 — "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.
講文論武 — "discoursing on letters and on arms." 走斝傳觴 — "passing the winecups round"; 斝 (jiǎ) and 觴 (shāng) are both ancient wine-vessels. 絃歌吹舞 — "strings and song, piping and dance"; 絃 (= 弦) xián. 朝去暮回 — "off at dawn, back at dusk"; 朝 reads zhāo ("morning"), not cháo ("court"). 無般兒不樂 — "no kind of pleasure was lacking"; 般兒 ("sort, kind") carries the er-suffix, and 不 takes bú (before fourth-tone 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.
把那萬里之遙 — "the distance of ten thousand 里"; 里 (lǐ) untranslated. 只當庭闈之路 — "counted it as merely the path to the home courtyard"; 當 reads dàng ("to regard as, treat as"), and 庭闈 (tíng-wéi) is "the inner courtyard / parental quarters," i.e. home. 點頭徑過三千里，扭腰八百有餘程 — "a nod of the head carries one past three thousand li, a twist of the waist eight hundred and more": a couplet-like flourish on the somersault cloud's speed; 程 (chéng) "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 — that the novel will draw on for many later episodes (the Bull Demon King above all, whose family Wukong will fight at length on the journey). The brotherhood marks Wukong's entry into a wider demon-society of equals: no longer merely a mountain-king, he is now a peer among the great spirits of the world, a status that both 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 graphs — 𤟹 (犭+禺), the astral-plane 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 graph that modernized editions normalize (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 abiding 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 carrying one past three thousand li. 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 yields to his ease. The chapter has now reached the apex of his terrestrial freedom; the next movement — the summons to the underworld — will begin to close that boundless world around him.