Now those monks who had escaped with their lives, hearing of the proclamation recalling the monks, were each of them overjoyed, and all came into the city to seek out the Great Sage Sun and return his hairs in thanks.

那 points — nà; 都 is dōu, "all." 毫毛 are the hairs Wukong pulled from his own body and planted among the monks as bodyguards. He wants them back, and he counts.

When the elder had risen from the banquet, the king exchanged the travel-rescript and, with the queen, the palace consorts, and the two ranks of officials, saw them out beyond the court gate.

長老, elder, takes 長 as zhǎng — senior in years, not cháng, long. 散 is sàn, to break up: 散了宴 is the banquet dispersing. 那 points — nà.

There they saw those monks kneeling in worship by the roadside, crying out: "Grandfather Great Sage Equal to Heaven, we are the monks who escaped with our lives on the sand-flats.

傍 is páng here, the noun "side" — 道傍, at the roadside. (It reads bàng when it is a verb, to lean against something.) 那些 points — nà. 齊天大聖, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is the title Heaven handed Wukong early in the book to keep him quiet, and he has never once stopped using it.

Learning that Your Reverence had swept away the demon-brood and delivered us, and that our king had further posted a proclamation to recall the monks, we have come expressly to return your hairs and knock our heads in thanks for Heaven's grace."

妖孽 is the demon-brood, 孽 carrying the sense of something bred wrong. 救拔 saves by hauling out — the picture is an arm reaching down into a pit. 叩謝天恩, knock the head in thanks for Heaven's grace, is the formula a subject uses to an emperor, aimed here at a monkey.

Pilgrim laughed and asked: "How many of you have come?"

汝等 is the bookish "you lot"; 幾何 is "how many."

The monks said: "Five hundred, and not the half of one missing."

半個不少 — not half a man missing. All five hundred are there.

Pilgrim gave his body a shake and drew his hairs back in.

將 is jiāng, the small word that swings the object round in front of the verb: 將身一抖, gave his body a shake. One shake and the whole detail of hairs comes home.

To ruler and subject, monk and layman, he declared: "These monks — it was truly old Sun who set them free;

君臣僧俗 gathers the entire audience into four characters — ruler and subject, monk and layman. 老孫, "old Sun," is what Wukong calls himself when he is pleased with himself, which is often.

the carts — it was old Sun who wheeled them through the double pass, hauled them over the ridge-spine, and dashed them to pieces;

雙關 and 夾脊 are the passes where the enslaved monks had to drag the carts. 運轉 is to wheel a thing round; 捽碎 is to seize it and dash it to bits. 夾脊 is also the name of a gate along the spine in inner-alchemy practice — this book likes a road that doubles as a body.

and those two demon-Daoists — it was old Sun, too, who beat them to death.

那兩個 points back at the corpses — nà. He is still itemising.

Today, with the fiends destroyed, you know at last that it is the Gate of Chan that holds the Way.

禪門有道: the Chan gate holds the Way. It is a claim staked for Buddhism over the beast-adepts who had the run of the kingdom — which makes what he says two lines later rather a surprise.

Hereafter you must not again act rashly or believe blindly.

胡為 is carrying on any old how; 為 is wéi, "to do," not the wèi of "for the sake of." 亂信 is believing whatever is put in front of you, which was the king's actual sin.

I would have you make the Three Teachings one: revere the monks, revere the Daoists, and rear up men of talent alike.

And here is the turn. Having just told the court that his own side holds the Way, Wukong tells the king to 三教歸一 — make the Three Teachings one. Honour the monks, honour the Daoists, and bring on men of ability, which is the Confucian third smuggled in under 養育人才. It is the settlement the whole book keeps reaching for: not one creed winning, but all three kept in order by a sensible ruler.

So shall I warrant your realm secure forever."

江山, rivers and mountains, is the standard word for a realm — the land itself standing in for the state. 永固: made firm for good.

The king did as he was bidden, thanked them past all telling, and so escorted the Tang Monk out of the city and away.

感謝不盡, thanks without end. 盡 is jìn — this edition writes the jǐn sense as 儘, so a bare 盡 is always jìn — and because jìn falls, the 不 in front of it shifts off its ordinary bù and up to bú.