The host of spirits, every one glad to follow, at once were mustered up:

即點起, "were mustered up," is the cue: what follows is a roster, delivered as a formal descriptive set-piece. Every creature in the sea is about to be given a rank in the Ming army.

The valiant shark takes the van; the broad-mouthed catfish serves as forward-captain.

The shark leads the van and a big-mouthed catfish is forward-captain. 鱯 hù is a large catfish. The comedy is in the straight face: these are real military appointments, correctly ordered, handed out to fish.

Marshal Carp overturns the waves and vaults the billows; the bony-fish admiral spouts fog and blasts the wind.

Marshal Carp and Admiral Bonefish. 鯁 gěng is a bony fish -- the same character that gives the modern word for a fishbone stuck in your throat. 提督 was a genuine senior Ming naval command, which makes the appointment more absurd rather than less.

Grand Commandant Mackerel scouts the eastern quarter; the whitefish regional-commander hurries the western march.

Grand Commandant Mackerel scouting east, Regional Commander Whitefish hurrying the western march. 都司 is read dū sī and is short for the Ming provincial military commission -- a real office, and a mouthful of one. The poem keeps reaching for genuine bureaucratic titles and pinning them on fish.

The red-eyed horse-fish dances to the south; the black-armoured general charges down from the north.

A red-eyed horse-fish dancing south and a black-armoured general charging from the north. The general is presumably something with a shell. The couplet is built on opposed directions, which is how these rosters keep their momentum.

Squad-captain gar holds the signal in the central host; the troops of the five quarters are heroes every one.

Squad-captain gar holding the signal in the central command. 中軍 is the commander's own division, and 掌號 is holding the bugle -- the man who sounds the orders. The joke is now so committed that it has a signals corps.

Crafty and quick, the soft-shell turtle is Privy Councillor; subtle in reckoning, the tortoise is Minister-Lord.

And here the poem promotes the reptiles to civil office. The soft-shelled turtle becomes Privy Councillor, the tortoise becomes 相公, his lordship. Note the division of labour: fish get field commands, shelled creatures get ministries. Turtles have been associated with wisdom and divination in China since the oracle bones, so putting them in the cabinet is a considered joke, not a random one.

Full of schemes and wit, the alligator is Prime Minister; of many shifts and powers, the freshwater turtle is Commander-in-Chief.

The alligator is Prime Minister and the soft-shell turtle is Commander-in-Chief. 鼉 tuó is the Chinese alligator, a real and now rare animal whose hide was used for drums. By this point the sea has a complete government.

Sidling crab-knights brandish long swords; leaping shrimp-dames draw stiff bows.

The best couplet in the roster. Crab-knights brandishing long swords, and the joke is in the verb: 橫行 means to move sideways, which is what crabs do, and also means to run riot or throw your weight about. A sidling crab and a swaggering bully are the same phrase. Then shrimp-dames drawing stiff bows, which needs no help from anyone.

The catfish secretary checks the muster-rolls clear, and calls the dragon-troops forth from the waves.

The catfish clerk checks the muster-rolls before anyone may leave. After marshals, admirals and a prime minister, the last word goes to an official with a ledger and a pen -- which, given the scene two passages ago about the Jade Emperor's paperwork, is a very deliberate final touch.

There is a poem in proof of it. The poem says:

有詩為證, "there is a poem in proof of it," is a stock formula introducing a short verse that sums up what has just been described. The novel uses it constantly, usually to deliver a moral after a spectacle.

The Dragon Kings of the Four Seas gladly lend their aid; the Great Sage Equal to Heaven has begged them to attend.

The summary poem, and it is plain where the roster was elaborate: the four kings help gladly, the Great Sage asked them along. No fish, no ranks, no jokes.

All because of Tripitaka's ordeal upon the road, they fetch the water hither to quench the flaming red.

And the reason, stated flatly. All of this -- the four sovereigns, the shark, the alligator, the clerk with his rolls -- happens because a monk is in trouble on a road. 難 is nàn again, an ordeal in the counted sense. The last three characters put the fire back in front of you: quench the flaming red.