The king, finding here some awkwardness, thereupon issued a decree of inquiry: "Monk — my National Preceptor would wager you at Manifesting Sainthood on the Cloud-Ladder, a contest of meditation. Which of you can do it?"

The king puts the challenge to the monks, and the sentence hands us both sounds of 那 in a row. 那和尚 points — nà, "that monk over there." 那個會麼 asks — nǎ, "which of you can?" Same character, opposite jobs. 難處 is the awkward spot he is in: 難 = nán, 處 = chù, "a point, an aspect."

The Pilgrim, hearing this, brooded and gave no answer.

沉吟不答 is to chew a thing over in silence — the pause of somebody who has just been asked the one question he cannot bluff.

Eight Rules said: "Brother, why so tongue-tied?"

怎麼不言語 — "why the silence?" Bajie has never seen his brother stuck for an answer.

The Pilgrim said: "Brother, I'll not hide it from you truly.

實不瞞你說 is "in plain truth, I'll keep nothing back from you" — the phrase that flags a confession coming.

Kicking the sky and stirring up wells, churning the seas and overturning rivers, shouldering mountains to chase down the moon, swapping the Dipper and shifting the stars — all such cunning feats I can bring off;

Four boasts in eight characters, and every one of them a set phrase: kicking the sky and stirring wells, churning seas and upending rivers, shouldering mountains to chase the moon, swapping the Dipper and shifting the stars. 擔 is dān, "to shoulder"; the 斗 of 換斗移星 is dǒu, the Dipper. 我都幹得: 都 = dōu, "the lot of them," and 得 = dé, "can, am able."

and hacking off heads and mincing brains, splitting bellies and gouging hearts, all manner of uncanny sleights — those too I do not fear;

The list turns grisly, and note what he is casually promising here — heads hacked off, bellies opened, hearts cut out. Every item will be performed on stage before the chapter ends. In 異樣騰那, 那 is nuó: 騰挪 is to leap and shift and work transformations, nothing to do with the pointing nà.

but speak of sitting in meditation, and I've already lost.

但說坐禪，我就輸了 — name the meditation and I have lost already. The joke lands because it is the one thing on the list that costs nothing and requires nothing.

Where should I find the patience to sit?

Here 那 asks a question it does not want answered: nǎ, "where should I find…" 坐性 is a sitting temperament, the knack of staying put — and it is precisely what the mind-monkey does not have.

Even were you to chain me to an iron pillar, I'd still be scrambling up and down and could never sit still."

鐵柱子 takes the light 子 = zi. 爬蹅 is to clamber about. 坐得住 joins verb to result with 得 = de: to sit and make it stick. Chain him to an iron pillar and he would still be climbing it.

Tripitaka suddenly spoke up: "I can sit in meditation."

The quietest line in the passage and the turn of the whole scene. 三藏 — sān zàng, the Three Baskets of scripture, and the name Tripitaka carries because he is going to fetch them; 藏 = zàng. He has said nothing for two pages, and now says the one thing nobody expected.

The Pilgrim said gladly: "Splendid, splendid.

卻好，卻好 — "just so, just so." Relief, doubled.

And how long can you sit?"

坐得多少時: 得 = de, joining the sitting to how long it can be kept up.

Tripitaka said: "In my young years I met a wandering Chan monk who expounded the Way; upon the very root of nature and life, in stilling the nature and preserving the spirit, within the barrier of death and birth, I once sat two or three years together."

Tripitaka's credentials, and they are real. 方上禪僧 is a Chan monk of the roving sort, one of the wandering teachers who turned up at a temple gate and moved on. 定性存神 is to still the nature and keep the spirit in place; 死生關 is the pass or barrier of death-and-life, the checkpoint every meditator is trying to hold. Two or three years at a stretch, he says. 那 = nà.

The Pilgrim said: "Master, if you sit two or three years, then we may as well not fetch the scriptures at all.

Wukong does the arithmetic and panics. 罷 at the end is the resigned ba — "we may as well not bother" — not the verb bà, "to stop."

At most two or three watches, and then come down."

不上二三個時辰 is "no more than two or three watches" — a 時辰 is a double hour, so he is offering four to six hours against his master's two years, and calling it generous.

Tripitaka said: "Disciple, ah — the trouble is I cannot get up there."

卻是不能上去 — "but the thing is, I can't get up there." The whole contest now hangs on a ladder.

The Pilgrim said: "Step forward and answer the call; I'll send you up."

應 in 答應 is yìng, "to answer, to take up the call," not the yīng that means "ought." Step forward and say yes; the transport is his problem.