At that time the Heavenly King Li passed his orders, had the celestial troops pitch their camp, and ringed the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit so tight that not even water could leak through; above and below he spread the eighteen frames of sky-net and earth-snare, and first sent out the Nine Bright Fierce Stars to give battle.

The order is carried out to the letter: the Jade Emperor called for eighteen frames of 天羅地網 two passages ago, and here they go up, above and below. The phrase stands three times in the chapter. 圍得水泄不通 is a verb with its complement, so 得 takes the light linking de — ringed so tight that not even water gets out, which is still the standard Chinese phrase for a perfect cordon. 著眾天兵 takes 著 at zhuó, the causative: to order someone to do a thing.

The Nine Luminaries led their troops straight to the cave-mouth, and there saw the monkeys, big and small, leaping and frolicking outside.

跳躍頑耍: leaping and larking about. A hundred thousand troops have surrounded the mountain and the monkeys are still playing outside the door. The passage opens on that gap.

A star-officer cried out in a stern voice: 'You little fiends! Where is that Great Sage of yours? We are celestial gods dispatched from the upper realm, come to subdue this rebel Great Sage. Bid him come quickly and surrender; and should he utter half a "no," you will all be put to the sword.'

降 is xiáng here — to subdue, to make someone surrender, as in 收降 and 歸降. 在那裡 reads nǎ lǐ, the question word: where.

The little fiends hurried in to report: 'Great Sage — disaster! Disaster! Outside there are nine fierce gods, calling themselves celestial gods sent from the upper realm to take the Great Sage captive.'

收降 takes 降 at xiáng, to make surrender — the other band of the character from the 降凡塵 of the rhapsody, where it simply meant to come down.

The Great Sage was just then sharing immortal wine with the kings of the seventy-two caves and the Four Stalwart Generals; hearing the report, he paid it no heed at all, and said: 'Today there's wine — today get drunk; never mind the rights and wrongs at the gate.'

Both of Monkey's throwaway lines of defiance — 今朝有酒今朝醉, today there is wine so today get drunk, and the couplet below, 詩酒且圖今日樂，功名休問幾時成 — are stock sayings of cheerful recklessness. The first is still current in Chinese, and still means what it means here: deal with tomorrow tomorrow.

Before he had finished, a band of little fiends came leaping in again: 'Those nine fierce gods, with foul words and abusive tongues, are hurling challenges at the gate.'

說不了 takes 了 at liǎo, to finish. 罵戰 — to hurl abuse as a formal challenge — gives the passage its heading, and the 哩 at the end is the same toneless vernacular flourish again.

The Great Sage said with a laugh: 'Take no notice of him. With poems and wine let's seek today's pleasure; as for rank and fame, ask not when they'll be won.'

莫採他: pay him no mind, with 採 standing in for 睬, to take notice of. The couplet he answers with is the one quoted in the note above — and he is still drinking as he says it.

He had hardly spoken when yet another band came to report: 'Sire! Those nine fierce gods have already broken down the gate and are fighting their way in.'

說猶未了: he had not done speaking. That is the third interruption in three segments, each one cutting off the last, and the stacking is how the passage builds its pace. 爺爺 takes a neutral second syllable, as doubled terms of address always do.

The Great Sage said in anger: 'These churlish hair-gods — what gross insolence! I had meant not to bother with them, but how dare they come to my very door to bully me?'

潑毛神: churlish hair-gods, with 潑 doing duty as an abusive prefix — roughly the force of a snarled "damned." 老大無禮 is grossly discourteous, 老大 being a plain intensifier. And note what actually offends him: not the attack, but the attack being brought to his door.

He gave the order at once to the One-Horned Demon King: 'Lead the kings of the seventy-two caves out to battle. Old Sun will follow with the Four Stalwart Generals.'

領帥: 帥 is working as a verb here, to lead, exactly as 率 does, and reads shuài either way. 四健將 takes 將 at jiàng, the generals.

The Demon King swiftly led the fiend-soldiers out of the gate to meet the foe, but the Nine Bright Fierce Stars fell on them all at once and pinned them at the head of the Iron-Plank Bridge, so that none could get out.

疾帥: swiftly led — 帥 as a verb again, two segments running. 掩殺 is to fall on an enemy without warning. In 莫能得出 the 得 heads a clause of its own and keeps the full dé.