The tale tells how the king, seeing that Sun the Pilgrim commanded the art of summoning dragons and compelling the sacred powers, at once pressed the imperial seal upon the travel-rescript and made ready to hand it back to the Tang Monk and let them pass to the road west.

We open in the middle of things. The rain has fallen, the king is convinced, and the paperwork is all but done: 放行 (fàng xíng) is what a border post still does today — stamp the document and wave the traveller on. 行 is xíng, "to go." The 將 of 即將關文 is jiāng, the small word that picks the document up and hands it to the verb. 那國王 points at him: 那 = nà.

But the three Daoists, in a fluster, threw themselves down in prostration before the Hall of Golden Chimes and made their plea.

Three men hit the floor. 慌得 uses 得 (de) to join the fluster to what it produced — so flustered that they fell. 倒 is dǎo here, "to topple over"; hold that reading, because far later in the chapter the same character turns up as dào, "on the contrary." 那 = nà.

The emperor stepped down at once from his dragon-seat and, hurrying to steady them with his own hands, said: "National Preceptors, why perform so great an obeisance this day?"

Good stagecraft: the king does not call them up, he comes down and lifts them himself. 攙 (chān) is the exact verb for taking somebody under the arm to steady him. 行 in 行此大禮 is xíng in its other job, "to perform" a rite rather than to walk. 那皇帝: 那 = nà.

The Daoists said: "Your Majesty — we came here to shore up the altars of the realm, to guard the state and settle its people; twenty bitter years we have laboured, and now this monk with his tricks of magic has snatched it all away and cast it off, ruining our good name.

Their case is pure court politics — twenty years of service weighed against one stranger's afternoon. 社稷 are the altars of soil and grain, the state's two oldest sacrifices, so 匡扶社稷 means propping up the dynasty itself, the way a minister today would say he had kept the country running. 苦歷二十年 is twenty years endured the hard way. The two 了 here are the light le that marks a thing as done, in 抓了丟去 and in the ruining of their name.

For a single spell of rain Your Majesty would remit the guilt of a man's slaughter — is that not to hold us all too cheap?"

Now a reading worth watching all chapter. 場 counts bouts and spells, and in that job it is cháng: 一場之雨 is one fall of rain, not the chǎng of a ground or arena — which this chapter will need soon enough, for the execution field. 恕殺人之罪 is to pardon the crime of killing a man.

We beg Your Majesty to hold back his travel-rescript a while and let us brothers wager against him once more — and see how it falls out."

The ask, stripped down: hold the paperwork, give us one more round. 再賭一賭 doubles the verb the way English says "have another go." 且留住 is "keep him back for now"; 看 in 看是何如 is kàn, "and see how it falls out."

The king was utterly muddled — swaying east when east was spoken, west when west was urged — and truly took back the rescript, saying: "National Preceptor, in what will you wager against him?"

The narrator delivers his verdict on the king and does not soften it. 東說向東，西說向西 — east when east is urged, west when west is — is a man with no opinion of his own. 著實 is "downright, utterly," and its 著 is zhuó; this one character carries three different sounds in this chapter alone, and the other two are coming. 真個 is "in very truth."

The Tiger-Power Immortal said: "I shall wager him a contest of seated meditation."

The eldest of the three speaks first. 虎力大仙 is the Tiger-Power Immortal — and the name gives the plot away, since a tiger is exactly what is under the robe. 賭坐禪 is to stake the match on 坐禪, sitting meditation.

The king said: "National Preceptor, you are mistaken.

差 is chà here, "off the mark, mistaken" — not the 差 of sending a man on an errand. 差矣 is the courtier's way of telling a king he has blundered.

That monk is of the Chan school by his very training; he must first be versed in the meditative mystery before he dared take up the decree to fetch the scriptures — how will you wager him at this?"

The king's objection is the shrewd one: you are challenging a Chan monk at Chan. 教 in 禪教出身 is jiào, the teaching or school he was trained in. 禪機 is the trigger-point of Chan awakening, the catch that releases. 奉旨求經 is to fetch scriptures under imperial orders. 那 = nà.

The Immortal said: "This meditation of mine is not the common kind — it goes by a rare name, and is called Manifesting Sainthood upon the Cloud-Ladder."

Rather than answer, the Immortal rebrands. 比常不同 is "not like the usual kind"; 教做 is "is called," with 教 again jiào. And the title he has ready — 雲梯顯聖, Manifesting Sainthood on the Cloud-Ladder — is marketing: a plain sitting contest dressed in Daoist finery.

The king said: "What is Manifesting Sainthood upon the Cloud-Ladder?"

何為 is "what is meant by…" — 為 is wèi here, the "for, why" sound, not the wéi that means "to be, to become."

The Immortal said: "It wants a hundred tables — fifty stacked to make one meditation-terrace, sheet upon sheet piled up, with no leave to climb by hand nor to mount by ladder or stool: each rides a single wisp of cloud to the terrace-top, sits down, and holds there, unstirring, for a set number of watches."

The rules, absurd on purpose: a hundred tables, fifty to a tower, and no climbing. 一張一張 is "sheet by sheet" — 張 counts flat things, so the tables go up like paper. 疊將起去 carries 將 (jiāng) along with the verb to point the action up and away. 桌子 takes the light zi ending. 駕一朵雲頭 is to ride a single puff of cloud to the top.