That Great Sage went straight into the killing-ground, was seized by the executioner, bound into a bundle, and pressed down on a high earthen mound; and no sooner had the shout gone up — "Strike!" —

The staging is brisk and unpleasant: seized, 綑做一團, trussed into a bundle, and pressed down on a raised earthen mound so the crowd can see. Then one shout — 開刀, strike. 殺場: 場 = chǎng. 劊子手 is the executioner, with the light 子 = zi. Both 那 point: nà. 高處: 處 = chù.

than with a whoosh the head was lopped off.

颼的 is the sound of something moving fast through air — a whoosh. 砍將下來: 將 = jiāng, pointing the stroke down.

The executioner gave it a kick besides, and it rolled off like a tumbling watermelon, some thirty or forty paces away.

And then the detail that makes the scene famous: the executioner kicks the head, and it rolls 好似滾西瓜一般, just like a tumbling watermelon, thirty or forty paces off. Choosing a melon rather than anything solemn is exactly the move this novel makes when a scene threatens to turn heroic. 似 = sì; 子 = zi.

From the Pilgrim's neck-cavity not a drop of blood came out.

腔子中更不出血 — from the neck-cavity, not so much as blood. 更 = gèng, "not even"; 子 = zi; 中 = zhōng. The 血 here is xiě, the everyday spoken sound for blood you can see, as against the xuè of medical and literary usage.

Only a cry was heard from within his belly: "Head, come back!"

只聽得肚裡叫聲 — a cry from inside the belly, since the mouth has rolled away. 得 = dé, "one heard." 頭來: head, come back.

In a fluster the Deer-Power Immortal, seeing him have such a device, at once recited a spell and charged the local Earth-god and spirits: "Hold that head fast — wait till I've beaten this monk and reported to the king, and I'll have your little shrine rebuilt into a great temple, your clay image remade in true gold."

Deer-Power cheats again, and this time he bribes the civil service. 本坊土地 is the Earth-god of this particular ward — the lowest rank of the divine bureaucracy, one per neighbourhood, with a shrine the size of a kennel. The offer is a promotion: 小祠堂 rebuilt as a 大廟宇, and the clay image recast as a 正金身, a true golden body. Gods in this novel take bribes the way clerks do. 慌得: 得 = de; 教 = jiào; 將 = jiāng.

Now those Earth-god and spirits, because he commanded the Five-Thunder rite, were subject to his summons too, and in secret truly held down the Pilgrim's head.

And it works, because rank tells. 五雷法, the Five-Thunder rite, is a real Daoist ritual system of the Song and after, by which a priest commands the thunder gods and, below them, the local spirits. The Earth-god is outranked, so he obeys. 那些土地: 那 = nà; 暗中: 中 = zhōng.

The Pilgrim called out again: "Head, come back!"

又叫聲 — he calls again. Nothing.

But the head, as though it had struck root, was not to be budged.

那頭一似生根 — the head might as well have taken root. 似 = sì; 莫想得動: 得 = de, not to be budged. This is the one moment in the chapter where he is genuinely in trouble.

The Pilgrim, growing anxious, clenched his fist, gave a wrench and another, snapped clean through the binding ropes, and shouted: "Grow!"

心焦 is scorched-heart, the word for anxiety that will not sit still — and it is worth noting that the Great Sage does get anxious. Then the ropes go: 掙了一掙, one wrench and another. 喝聲: 喝 = hè, shouted. 長 = zhǎng: grow. 捻著拳: 著 = zhe; 將 = jiāng; 子 = zi.

With a whoosh a head grew out of his neck-cavity.

颼的 again, the same whoosh that took the head off, now running in reverse. 長出一個頭來: 長 = zhǎng. If the old head will not come, grow a new one.

So frightened were they that every executioner's heart quailed and every man of the Plumed-Forest Guard trembled in his gall.

諕得: 諕 = xià. 心驚 and 膽戰 — hearts jumping, gall trembling — are the standard pair for terror, the gall bladder being where courage was thought to live. 那劊子手: 那 = nà, 子 = zi.

The supervising officer hurried into court and reported: "Your Majesty, that little monk has had his head cut off and grown another."

The report is delivered deadpan, which is the funniest way to deliver it. 又長出一顆來了: 長 = zhǎng; 顆 counts round things, so the head is counted like fruit. 朝 = cháo; both 那 = nà.

Eight Rules laughed coldly and said: "Sha Monk — who'd have known Brother had this trick besides!"

那知: 那 asks — nǎ — "who'd have known?" 還有這般手段: 還 = hái, this trick as well.

Sha the Monk said: "He has seventy-two transformations — so he has seventy-two heads."

And Sha Monk's arithmetic, delivered with a straight face: 七十二般變化, seventy-two transformations, therefore 七十二個頭, seventy-two heads. The seventy-two are the standard tally of Wukong's shape-changing powers, learned in the novel's second chapter; treating them as a stock of spare parts is Sha Monk's driest joke in the whole book. 哩 = li.