Below, the Heavenly Master, Immortal Elder Ge, came forward and memorialized: 'Your Majesty, King Qinguang of the underworld offices respectfully presents a memorial from the Lord of the Dark Realm, the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha.'

The second complaint arrives on the same morning, and it is filed in the name of a Bodhisattva. 葛仙翁天師 is the Heavenly Master, Immortal Elder Ge — 葛仙翁, the deified Ge Xuan — with 葛 the surname gě and 翁 wēng. 冥司 is the offices of the underworld; 賫奉 is "to present respectfully," 賫 (= 齎) read jī, "to carry up"; and 幽冥教主地藏王菩薩 is "the Lord of the Dark Realm, the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha," with the 教 of 教主 read jiào and 地藏 taking 藏 as zàng.

Beside him a herald jade-maiden took up the memorial, and the Jade Emperor likewise read it through from the start. The memorial said:

傳言玉女 is a herald jade-maiden; 傍 is páng, the same as 旁; 亦 is "likewise"; 表曰 is "the memorial said."

'The realm of darkness is the shadow-office of the earth. Heaven has its gods and Earth its ghosts; yin and yang revolve in turn. Birds have their birth and beasts their death; male and female alternate again and again.'

This petition does not begin with a grievance. It begins with a short lecture on how the universe works — the natural order Wukong is accused of breaking. 陰陽輪轉 is "yin and yang revolve," 輪轉 read lún zhuàn with 轉 as zhuàn, "to revolve, to cycle"; 反復雌雄 is "male and female alternate again and again," 雌 read cí. The balanced 而-clauses (天有神而地有鬼, 禽有生而獸有死) set the frame of prose built out of matched pairs of lines.

'Generation upon generation, transformation upon transformation, conceiving females and forming males — this is the order of nature, and it cannot be altered.'

And there is the doctrinal premise stated flat: birth and death are the law, and the law cannot be altered. 生生化化 is "endless generation and transformation," a phrase of cosmic process; 孕女成男 is "conceiving females and forming males"; and 此自然之數，不能易也 is "this is the order (數) of nature, and it cannot be changed."

'Now there is one Sun Wukong, a Heaven-born demon-monkey of the Water-Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, who indulges in evil and works violence and will not submit to summons.'

天產妖猴 is "Heaven-born demon-monkey," 產 read chǎn; 逞惡行兇 is "indulges in evil and works violence," 逞 read chěng and 行 xíng; 不服拘喚 is "will not submit to summons," 不 read bù and 服 fú.

'He worked his magic and killed off the ghost-runners of the Nine Shades; relying on his power, he terrified the Ten Merciful Kings; he raised an uproar in the Hall of Darkness and forcibly erased the names.'

The charges, in matched pairs. 打絕九幽鬼使 is "killed off the ghost-runners of the Nine Shades," 絕 read jué and 九幽 naming the underworld; 恃勢力 is "relying on his power," 恃 read shì; 十代慈王, "the Ten Merciful Kings," is a courtly way of writing 十代冥王, 慈 read cí; 大鬧森羅 is "raised an uproar in the Hall of Darkness," 鬧 read nào; and 強銷名號 is "forcibly erased the names," 銷 read xiāo.

'Thereby he has caused the monkey-kind to go unbound and the macaque beasts to be long-lived, the cycle of birth-and-death extinguished, each of them without life or death.'

Here is the precise harm as the underworld understands it: not a broken law but a broken machine. An entire species has been lifted out of the cycle of rebirth. 致使 is "thereby causing"; 猴屬之類無拘 is "the monkey-kind to go unbound"; 獼猴之畜多壽 is "the macaque beasts to be long-lived," 獼 read mí and 畜 chù, "beast"; and 寂滅輪迴 is "the round of saṃsāra extinguished," 輪迴 (lún huí, with 迴 = 回) being the Buddhist cycle of rebirth.

'This humble monk submits this memorial, presuming to offend the celestial majesty, and humbly begs that divine troops be dispatched to subdue this demon, to set yin and yang in order and forever secure the nether courts. Respectfully submitted.'

The memorial speaks throughout in Kṣitigarbha's own voice, which is why it signs itself "this poor monk." 貧僧 is that humble self-designation; 具表 is "submits a memorial"; 冒瀆天威 is "presuming to profane the celestial majesty," 瀆 read dú; 調遣神兵 is "to dispatch divine troops," 調 read diào, "to deploy"; 收降此妖 is "subdue this demon," 降 read xiáng, "to subdue, to accept a surrender"; 永安地府 is "forever secure the nether courts"; and 謹奏, "respectfully submitted," closes it.

The Jade Emperor finished reading and issued a decree: 'Let the underworld lord return to the nether courts; We shall at once dispatch generals to seize him.' King Qinguang too kowtowed his thanks and withdrew.

The same reading, the same decree, the same kowtow: Heaven processes the underworld exactly as it processed the sea. 覽畢 is "finished reading," 覽 read lǎn and 畢 bì; 著冥君回歸地府 is "ordered the underworld lord back," 著 the ordering zhuó; 朕 is the imperial "We"; 遣將擒拿 takes 將 as jiàng; and 亦頓首 is "too kowtowed."