The fiend got out through his gate, and behind him came a hundred and more little demons, every one whirling a spear or brandishing a sword, drawn up in two files.

出得門來: 得 dé, the "managed to" form. 兩哨 is two files or pickets — the household turning out as a guard detail.

He said to Eight Rules: "From which monastery are you, monk?

那寺裡 asks: 那 nǎ, "which."

And why do you come here raising an uproar?"

為甚: 為 is wèi, the "for the sake of, on account of" reading, and 甚 is shén, "what" — together, "what for." Hold on to that 甚: six segments from here the same character turns up as shèn, meaning "extremely."

Eight Rules bellowed: "You rascally thing that will not die!

我把你這 is a swear left hanging. 把 normally sets up what you are going to do to something, and here the sentence never gets round to saying — it is exactly the English "why, you —".

The night before last you traded words with me. How is it that today you push it off as not knowing, and question me?

推不知, to shove a thing aside as none of your business, to play dumb. 前夜 refers to the sacrifice at Chen Village back in chapter 47, where Bajie took the girl's place and the demon got a rake across the hand.

I am a disciple of the holy monk of the Great Tang in the Land of the East, bound west to worship the Buddha and seek the scriptures.

The standing self-introduction, repeated with barely a word changed all through the novel — the pilgrims' equivalent of showing a badge. 佛 is always fó.

You work your mystifications, set yourself up as some Great King Numinous Response, and do nothing in Chen Village but demand boys and girls to eat.

假做甚麼靈感大王: the 甚麼 here is dismissive — "setting yourself up as some so-called Great King." 甚 shén. 專在, to do nothing but.

I myself was Chen Qing's Weight-of-Gold. Do you not know me?"

一秤金, A Full Weight of Gold, is the name of Chen Qing's daughter from chapter 47 — the child Bajie impersonated at the sacrifice. He is claiming the identity as a taunt. 秤 chèng; 認得 keeps 得 as dé.

The monster said: "You monk are entirely without reason.

And here is the promised second reading. 甚沒道理: this 甚 is shèn, "extremely" — the same character that was shén, "what," twice already in this quarrel. 沒 méi.

You changed yourself into Weight-of-Gold, and that alone earns you the crime of false name and substitution.

冒名頂替 is legal boilerplate — taking another person's name and standing in another person's place. The demon is not swearing back at Bajie; he is charging him under a statute. That is the register he means to keep for the rest of the argument.

I never did eat you. On the contrary, it was you who wounded me on the back of the hand.

倒 is dào, the "on the contrary" word, not dǎo, "to topple over" — which is what the same character will mean in the rake's poem a few lines further on. 手背: 背 bèi, the noun.

With that I let you off. Why do you come seeking my gate again?"

已此 is written for 以此, "and with that." The demon has been keeping an account, and as far as he is concerned it was settled and closed.

Eight Rules said: "If you let me off, why then did you work a cold wind, bring down a great snow, freeze the ice hard, and do my master this harm?

The whole scheme of chapter 48 is read back to him as a charge sheet, in four short clauses: made a cold wind, brought down snow, froze the ice hard, harmed my master.

Send my master out this instant and all is settled;

萬事皆休, "and all of it is over" — the standard offer of terms before a fight starts.

but let half a 'no' burst out between your teeth, and you may look at the rake in my hand: I'll not spare you."

牙迸半個不字, "let half a no burst out between your teeth" — a wonderfully physical threat, and still the sort of thing spoken Chinese does well. There is a small technical prize here too. The 不 inside the quotation marks is not doing any negating; it is a character being named, like saying "the letter N." So it keeps its own dictionary tone, bù. In ordinary running speech, 不 standing before a falling tone like 字 would shift up to bú, and here it does not. 手中 中 zhōng; 看看 kàn.

Hearing this, the fiend gave a thin cold laugh: "This monk peddles a long tongue and brags with a great mouth.

長舌: 長 cháng. 胡誇大口, bragging with a big mouth. Note what the demon does with a death threat: he criticises its style. That is entirely in character.

It was indeed I who made the cold, sent down the snow, froze the river, and carried off your master.

攝 is to seize and carry off by magic rather than by hand. The confession comes without hesitation, because his defence was never that he is innocent — only that he was provoked first.

Now you come bawling to my gate, thinking to demand him back. But I fear this time will not be like the last. On that occasion I was going to a banquet and had brought no weapon, so I took my wound from you by mischance;

誤中你傷: 中 here is zhòng, "to be hit, to take a blow" — not the zhōng, "inside," of 手中 three lines back. 思量 keeps 量 as liáng; 那一番 and 那時節 both point, 那 nà.

Today you had better not think of running. I'll meet you in three bouts.

三合, three bouts — a wager with a fixed count. He proposes it because he expects to win it. The chapter will bring that number back three separate times, and never once in his favour.

Hold out against me for three bouts and I'll give your master back;

還你師父: 還 is huán, the verb "to give back," not the adverb hái, "still." 敵得我過 keeps 得 as dé.

fail, and I'll eat you along with him."

一發, "in one go, the whole lot together." He states the terms of eating them as calmly as he would state the terms of a bet, and that calm is the point.