The Star-Lord of Venus led the Handsome Monkey King to the front of the Hall of Numinous Mists and, without waiting for the summons to be announced, brought him straight before the throne to make obeisance.

Straight out of the poem and into the room it described: 靈霄殿 is the throne hall the 賦 has just finished touring. 領著 takes 著 as zhe, the little marker that keeps an action running, much like English -ing — leading him along.

Wukong drew himself up at his side and, instead of performing the court bow, merely cocked an ear to listen as the Star-Lord made his report.

The first breach of protocol, and it is deliberate. He skips the 朝禮, the court bow, and merely 側耳以聽 — "cocks an ear to listen," the posture of a man overhearing something at the next table. Several more will follow.

The Star-Lord reported, "In obedience to the holy command, I have summoned the demon-immortal, and here he is."

妖仙, "demon-immortal," is Heaven's wary label for a being with real power and no sanctioned standing. Note that it is used to his face.

From behind his beaded screen the Jade Emperor asked, "Which one is the demon-immortal?"

垂簾: the Jade Emperor speaks from behind a hanging beaded screen, which is how a Chinese court staged remoteness — you hear the sovereign, you do not see him. 那個 here is the question word nǎ gè, "which one?"; a few lines further on, in 那孫悟空, the same character is nà, "that." One character, two jobs.

Only then did Wukong bend at the waist and answer, "This here is Old Sun."

老孫便是 — "This here is Old Sun." Everyone else at this court introduces themselves with some formula of self-abasement; Wukong uses 老孫, "Old Sun," the swaggering name he gives himself throughout the novel, roughly "yours truly." He also does not kneel, and that is not an oversight. 答應 takes 應 as yìng.

The immortal ministers all went pale with shock: "This wild monkey — how is it he neither prostrates himself in homage nor even kneels, yet dares answer like this, 'This here is Old Sun'? He deserves to die! He deserves to die!"

該死 survives in modern Chinese as an everyday "damn it" — but said of a man standing in front of a throne, it means exactly what it says. 參見 (cān jiàn) is the formal homage owed at an audience, which Wukong has pointedly not performed. In 不拜 the 不 becomes bú before the falling tone of 拜.

The Jade Emperor handed down his decree: "This Sun Wukong is a demon-immortal of the lower world, newly come into human form and ignorant of court ritual. We shall pardon his offense for now."

那孫悟空 takes 那 as nà, "that." And listen to the excuse: 初得人身，不知朝禮, "newly come into human form, ignorant of court ritual." It is a face-saving fiction and everyone in the hall knows it. Rebellion gets filed as country manners, because a bumpkin can be absorbed and a rebel cannot.

The immortal ministers cried out, "Our thanks for your grace."

The ministers' formulaic 謝恩, "our thanks for your grace," closes the pardon. Note who says it: they do. The man pardoned does not.

Only then did the Monkey King raise his voice in a great salute toward the throne.

唱個大喏, to "sing out a great salute." A Song-era 唱喏 was a bow made standing, with a word spoken aloud; 喏 is read rě. Where the floor was expected, Wukong offers a nod and a greeting — the smallest gesture that still counts as courtesy.

The Jade Emperor called on the ministers of the civil and military boards to find which post anywhere was short-handed, and to appoint Sun Wukong to it.

文選武選 are the civil and military selection boards: Heaven has a personnel department. 那處 is the question word nǎ chù, "which place," and 著 is zhuó, "have him go and be appointed." The instruction is not "find him a suitable post" but "find out where there is a gap."

From the side stepped the Star-Lord Wǔqū, who reported, "In the palaces and halls of Heaven, in every quarter and every office, there is no shortage of officials — only the Imperial Stable wants a supervisor for its main hall."

武曲星君 is Wǔqū, one of the star-gods of the Northern Dipper. The only gap he can name is the 御馬監, the Imperial Stable Directorate, which sits near the bottom of Heaven's organisation chart; 監 is jiàn here, an office or directorate.

The Jade Emperor decreed, "Then appoint him Bìmǎwēn, and have done."

Here is the joke the whole chapter rests on. 弼馬溫 reads as "Assistant Horse-Keeper" — but say it aloud and it is 避馬瘟, "ward off horse-plague," from the old country belief that a monkey kept in the stable protects the horses from disease. The title does not merely rank him low. It files him as livestock insurance. Wukong will spend a fortnight proud of it. 罷 is bà, "and have done."

The assembled ministers cried their thanks for the grace, and he too merely raised his voice in a great salute toward the throne.

Again only the standing 大喏. He is being rude and being insulted at the same moment, and notices neither.

The Jade Emperor further dispatched the Star-Official of Wood-Virtue to escort him to take up his post at the Imperial Stable.

木德星官, the Star-Official of Wood-Virtue — the planet Jupiter, which Chinese astronomy pairs with the element wood. 差 is chāi, "to dispatch."

At that time the Monkey King, all delight, went off with the Star-Official of Wood-Virtue straight to take up his post.

當時 takes 當 as dāng. And there is 歡歡喜喜, "all delight," doubled up for warmth — the cruellest phrase in the passage. He has no idea what he has just been handed.

The business done, the Star-Official of Wood-Virtue returned to his palace.

A beat of transition. The escort leaves, and Wukong is alone with the job.

There in the Stable he gathered the assistant and vice directors, the registrar, the grooms, and the staff great and small, looked into the affairs of the office, and found there were just one thousand heavenly horses.

The 御馬監 comes with a full staff: 監丞 assistant director, 監副 vice director, 典簿 registrar (簿 is bù), and 力士 grooms. Then 止有天馬千匹, "there were just one thousand heavenly horses." That "just" is doing a great deal of work, and the poem that follows spends its whole length demolishing it.

They were these:

乃是, "and they were these —," hands off to the horse poem; the edition keeps the lead-in whole at the end of the prose.