洞悉裝法 Learning the Bottling-Spell
那怪道：「師父，不須你助功。我二大王有些法術，遣了三座大山，把他壓在山下，寸步難移，教我兩個拿寶貝來裝他的。」行者道：「是甚寶貝？」精細鬼道：「我的是紅葫蘆，他的是玉淨瓶。」行者道：「怎麼樣裝他？」小妖道：「把這寶貝的底兒朝天，口兒朝地，叫他一聲，他若應了，就裝在裡面；貼上一張『太上老君急急如律令奉敕』的帖子，他就一時三刻，化為膿了。」行者見說，心中暗驚道：「利害，利害！當時日值功曹報信，說有五件寶貝，這是兩件了。不知那三件又是甚麼東西？」那怪道：「师父，不须你助功。我二大王有些法术，遣了三座大山，把他压在山下，寸步难移，教我两个拿宝贝来装他的。」行者道：「是甚宝贝？」精细鬼道：「我的是红葫芦，他的是玉净瓶。」行者道：「怎么样装他？」小妖道：「把这宝贝的底儿朝天，口儿朝地，叫他一声，他若应了，就装在里面；贴上一张『太上老君急急如律令奉敕』的帖子，他就一时三刻，化为脓了。」行者见说，心中暗惊道：「利害，利害！当时日值功曹报信，说有五件宝贝，这是两件了。不知那三件又是甚么东西？」
逐句解 Line by line
The imps said: "Master, there's no need for your help. Our Second King has some magic arts: he's sent three great mountains to pin him beneath them, so he can't budge an inch, and he's had us two bring treasures to bottle him."
寸步難移 (cùn bù nán yí), "cannot shift by so much as a step," 難 read nán, "hard." 裝他 (zhuāng tā), "to bottle him" -- the plain verb for packing something into a container, doing duty as the chapter's word for annihilation.
Pilgrim said: "What treasures are these?"
甚寶貝 (shén bǎo bèi), "what treasures?" -- the question-word shén. Asked with the mild curiosity of a man making conversation.
Fine-and-Keen said: "Mine is the red gourd, his the jade vase."
Each imp names his own: the red gourd and the jade vase, which the reader last saw being handed over in the cave. Pilgrim now has the inventory.
Pilgrim said: "And how do you bottle him?"
怎麼樣 (zěn me yàng), "and how does it work?" One question, and they tell him the operating instructions for the weapon aimed at him.
The imps said: "You turn the treasure's bottom skyward and its mouth to the ground, call his name once, and if he answers he's sealed inside; then paste on a label reading 'By command of Lord Lao, quick as the statutes decree,' and in a trice he'll melt into pus."
They repeat the demons' instructions almost word for word, which is how the reader knows Pilgrim now has the whole thing: vessel inverted, 底兒 up and 口兒 down, the name called, and -- the crucial part -- 他若應了 (tā ruò yìng le), "if he answers," 應 read yìng. Then the sealing-slip and 化為膿 (huà wéi nóng), "melt into pus," 為 read wéi. The interval named is 一時三刻: it has the shape of a measurement, one 時辰 and three quarter-hours, but it is a fixed phrase for hardly any time at all, and the imps are bragging about how fast it works.
Hearing this, Pilgrim was secretly alarmed: "Formidable, formidable! When the Day-Duty Merit-Officer brought word, he said there were five treasures — these are two of them. I wonder what the other three might be?"
日值功曹 (rì zhí gōng cáo) is the Merit-Officer on day duty, one of a rota of celestial staff assigned to report on the pilgrims -- more office vocabulary, and note it is the same word, 值, that so enraged Pilgrim a few scenes ago. 五件寶貝, five treasures: he has just accounted for two and does the sum in public. Pilgrim being genuinely alarmed is rare, and the storyteller spends it here to remind the reader that this episode is bigger than one chapter.
Completely won over, the imps hand Pilgrim the one thing the demons meant to keep from him -- the working of the gourds, in full. Invert the vessel, call the name, and if he answers he is drawn in and sealed to dissolve. The irony of the scene is that they explain, patiently and in detail, exactly how to destroy Sun Pilgrim, to Sun Pilgrim, who files every word.
His private alarm is a rare admission that the danger is real, and it widens the frame: a celestial informant had warned of five treasures, and only two are accounted for. The unanswered question about the other three reaches past this chapter toward the longer contest with the Gold- and Silver-Horned Kings. Even at the height of his own confidence trick, Pilgrim is doing arithmetic.