The truth was that the tower and the house had been conjured up by the fiend, who spent his whole days there taking men.

點化, transforming a thing by pointing at it, is the same skill Wukong described back at the mirage — he had the method right and the creature wrong. 終日在此拿人 states the trap flatly, after five passages of showing it work.

He was sitting in his cave when he heard the sound of complaining. He hurried out to the door to look, and sure enough there were several people tied up.

聞得 takes 得 as dé, managing to hear. The fiend is fetched not by the theft but by the noise Tripitaka makes trying to undo it.

The fiend at once called his little demons and went across with them, and took back the shape of tower and buildings.

收了 … 之形 — he gathers the shape back in, the way you furl a banner. The house is not destroyed. It is put away, ready for next time.

They took Tripitaka in hand, led off the white horse, shouldered the baggage, and carried Bajie and Sha Monk together into the cave.

挑了行李 has 挑 as tiāo, to carry on a shoulder pole, not tiǎo, to lift or pick. 將 is the jiāng that takes hold of the object. The party is itemised — monk, horse, baggage, two disciples — exactly like goods being carried in from a cart.

The old fiend climbed his dais and sat high on it, and the little demons pushed Tripitaka up to the edge of it, where he knelt prostrate on the ground.

登臺高坐 gives the fiend a bench to sit on, which turns his cave into a courtroom. 跪伏於地 puts the master in the posture of a prisoner at the bar, which is how the questioning that follows is framed.

The fiend demanded: "What quarter do you come from, monk? How is it you are so bold as to steal my clothes in broad daylight?"

那方 is a question, so 那 reads nǎ. 白日裡偷盜 — theft in broad daylight. The charge is accurate. The fiend has the better case, and the chapter does not flinch from it.

Tripitaka let fall his tears and said: "This poor monk is one sent by the Great Tang in the Eastern Land to fetch scriptures from the Western Heaven. Because my belly was empty with hunger I sent my eldest disciple off to beg food, and he had not come back; we failed to keep to his instruction, and blundered into your holy court to get out of the wind."

欽差 is chāi, on commission. 著大徒弟去 has 著 as zhuó, to set someone to a task. 依得 takes 得 as dé. 仙庭, an immortal's courtyard, is flattery applied to a cave. The master reports the failure with complete accuracy: they were told to sit, and they did not.

It was beyond expectation that these two disciples of mine, being fond of small gains, should bring out these garments.

愛小 repeats the master's own rebuke from two passages back, word for word. He is quoting himself in his own defence, which is at once true and entirely useless.

This poor monk certainly meant no wrong, and told them to send them back where they belonged.

當教送還本處 packs four readings into six characters: 當 is dāng, at that time; 教 is jiào, to make someone do something; 還 is huán, to give a thing back; and 處 is chù, a place. Every word of the sentence is true, and none of it helps him.

He would not hear what I said, but would wear it to warm his back, and so fell in with your majesty's device, and I was taken along with him.

中了 … 機會 has 中 as zhòng, to be hit by or to fall into, not the zhōng of "within". 機會 here is a contrivance or a device — a trap — and not the modern sense, an opportunity.

I beg your mercy: spare what is left of my life, let me seek the true scriptures, and your majesty's kindness will be recorded for ever and told through a thousand ages when I return to the Eastern Land."

永註 is to enter something permanently in a record. The master offers the one currency he has, which is fame, and it is exactly what this particular fiend has no use for. He has left a palace behind and has not come down here to be written about.

The fiend laughed and said: "I have often heard it said hereabouts that if a man eats a piece of the Tang Monk's flesh, white hair turns black again and fallen teeth grow anew.

聽得 takes 得 as dé. 髮白還黑 has 還 as huán, to revert. 更生 takes 更 as gèng, again, not gēng, a night watch. The great motive of the entire novel — eat the Tang Monk, live for ever — is produced here as something he picked up from the neighbours.

And by good luck today you have come without being asked — and still you look to be let off."

還指望 has 還 as hái, still. 不請自來, to come without being invited, is the ordinary phrase for an unwanted guest — used here of dinner walking in through the door on its own legs.

What is that eldest disciple of yours called? And which way did he go to beg?"

甚麼 is shén me. The fiend has been listening closely. Out of that whole speech, the one detail he takes is that somebody is missing.

Hearing this, Bajie at once opened his mouth and declared: "My elder brother is Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who five hundred years ago made havoc in the Halls of Heaven."

稱揚 is chēng, to proclaim in praise. Bajie answers a question nobody put to him, at length and with obvious relish, and it is the single most useful thing he does in the chapter.