The Monkey King looked over the records and tallied the number of horses.

查看 here is chá kàn (“look over” — 看 as kàn); 馬數 takes 數 as shù, “number.”

In the directorate, the registrar saw to requisitioning fodder; the grooms saw to currying the horses, binding straw, watering, and boiling feed; the assistant and deputy directors oversaw and pressed the work along.

The stable's offices, set down with deadpan thoroughness: 典簿 (registrar) requisitions fodder, the 力士 (grooms) curry and feed, the 監丞/監副 supervise — a whole bureaucracy for a stable.

Bìmǎwēn slept neither day nor night, nourishing the horses.

不睡 takes bú before fourth-tone 睡. Wukong throws himself in — the irony is that he does the menial job superbly before learning how menial it is.

By day his frolicking was tolerable enough, but by night he tended them with care: those that lay down he drove up to graze; those that strayed he caught and brought back to the trough.

看管 here is kān guǎn (“to watch over, tend” — 看 as kān, distinct from kàn “to look at” above). 捉將來: 將 is the verbal particle jiāng (“catch and bring back”). 慇懃 = 殷勤.

The heavenly horses, seeing him, flattened their ears and drew in their hooves.

泯耳攢蹄 — “ears laid flat, hooves drawn in”: the horses' submission, a quiet sign of his real mastery over them.

And so he kept them fat and sleek of flank.

倒 here is dào (“yet, on the contrary”) — contrast dǎo (“to topple”) in 推倒 below. 膘 (biāo), the flank-fat of a well-fed horse.

Before he knew it, a fortnight and more had passed.

不覺 takes bù before second-tone 覺 (jué, “to notice”). The contented interval the banquet is about to shatter.

One day at leisure, the directorate's officers laid out a banquet, both to welcome him and to offer congratulations.

一朝 here is yì zhāo (“one day” — 朝 as zhāo, “morning”; 一 yì before first tone). 接風, a welcoming feast for a newcomer.

In the midst of the merry drinking the Monkey King suddenly set down his cup and asked, “This Bìmǎwēn of mine — what rank of office is it?”

The question that undoes everything: 是個甚麼官銜 — “what rank of office is this?” He has worked the post a fortnight without once asking where it sat.

They said, “The office is just what its name says.”

A studiedly unhelpful reply — “the office is just its name” — that tells him nothing and everything.

He asked again, “And what grade is this office?”

He presses for the actual grade.

They said, “It has no grade at all.”

沒有品從 — “no grade at all.” In the Tang–Ming system offices ran from the first 品 down to the ninth; what came beneath is named next.

The Monkey King said, “No grade — then I suppose it must be great beyond measure?”

Wukong's hopeful misreading: surely a post beyond all grading must be supremely high. The comedy is the gap between his self-image and the truth.

They said, “Not great, not great — it's merely called ‘below the ranks.’”

不大 takes bú before fourth-tone 大. 未入流 — literally “not in the stream” of the ranked bureaucracy: unranked, the lowest of the low.

The Monkey King said, “What do you mean, ‘below the ranks’?”

He still does not grasp the phrase; the third asking is what finally drops the floor out.

They said, “The lowest grade. This is the meanest, smallest of posts — fit only for keeping horses. Even when one such as Your Honor, having taken office, tends them this diligently and feeds them fat, the most you earn is someone saying ‘good’; and if they grow at all thin and weak, you are called to account; and if they are badly hurt, you are fined, made to make it good, and charged with the crime.”

The humiliation spelled out in full: flawless service earns only a muttered 好 (“good”), while any failing brings reprimand, fines, and 問罪 (“charged with a crime”). 看馬 takes 看 as kān; 堂尊 is a deferential “Your Honor”; 尪羸 (wāng léi), “thin and weak.”

Hearing this, the Monkey King felt fire leap up in his heart, and gnashing his teeth he raged, “So this is the contempt they hold old Wukong in! On Flower-Fruit Mountain I am called king and patriarch — how dare they trick me into coming to tend their horses? Horse-tending is the base drudgery of juniors and menials — is that how I am to be treated? I'll not do it, I'll not do it — I am leaving!”

The eruption of the 心猿: 心頭火起 (“fire leaps up in the heart”) is the inner-alchemical image of the mind-fire (心火) breaking loose. 稱王稱祖 recalls his Flower-Fruit sovereignty; 我將去也 takes 將 as jiāng (“about to”) — “I am leaving.”

With a sudden whoosh he overturned the official table, drew the treasure from his ear, gave it a shake until it was as thick as a bowl, and with a flourish of his routines fought his way straight out of the Imperial Stable and on to the Southern Gate of Heaven.

推倒 takes 倒 as dǎo (“to topple”). The 寶貝 drawn from his ear is the 如意金箍棒; 一路解數, “a whole sequence of martial moves.” The three 一 here shift by sandhi (yì / yì / yí).

The heavenly troops, knowing he had received the immortal's register and was a Bìmǎwēn, did not dare bar him, and let him fight his way out through the gate and away.

Even in flight his new rank shields him: the gate-guards, knowing him a registered 弼馬溫, dare not stop him. 不敢 takes bù before third-tone 敢; 阻當 = 阻擋.