扇落現形 The Fan Falls, the Form Appears
老君念個咒語，將扇子搧了一下，那怪將圈子丟來，被老君一把接住。又一搧，那怪物力軟筋麻，現了本相，原來是一隻青牛。老君將金鋼琢吹口仙氣，穿了那怪的鼻子，解下勒袍帶，繫於琢上，牽在手中。至今留下個拴牛鼻的拘兒，又名賓郎，職此之謂。老君辭了眾神，跨上青牛背上，駕彩雲，徑歸兜率院；縛妖怪，高昇離恨天。老君念个咒语，将扇子扇了一下，那怪将圈子丢来，被老君一把接住。又一扇，那怪物力软筋麻，现了本相，原来是一只青牛。老君将金钢琢吹口仙气，穿了那怪的鼻子，解下勒袍带，系于琢上，牵在手中。至今留下个拴牛鼻的拘儿，又名宾郎，职此之谓。老君辞了众神，跨上青牛背上，驾彩云，径归兜率院；缚妖怪，高升离恨天。
逐句解 Line by line
Lord Lao recited a spell and fanned once with his fan; the fiend flung the ring at him, and Lord Lao caught it in one hand.
The plainest possible statement of who the ring belongs to: he catches it one-handed. Both 將 (將扇子, 將圈子) are jiāng, and both 子 are the bare ending zi; 搧了: 了 is le; 那怪 points, so nà. 搧 (shān) is the verb belonging to the noun 扇 (shàn) — to fan, and a fan.
He fanned once more, and the monster's strength went soft and his sinews slack; he showed his true form, and it turned out to be a blue ox.
那怪物 points, so 那 is nà; 現了: 了 is le; 本相: 相 is xiàng, appearance or form, not the xiāng that marks a thing done mutually. 又一搧: 一 is yì before a first tone. Two waves of a fan, and the arc is over.
Lord Lao breathed a divine breath on the diamond snare, ran it through the creature's nose, took off his own robe-belt, tied it to the ring and led him by the hand.
The Sìdétáng text writes 金鋼琢 here with 鋼, steel, where its other three occurrences read 金剛琢 with 剛, adamant. The two look almost identical and differ by a single element on the left. The reading is encoded exactly as printed and the variant noted rather than tidied away. 琢 is zhuó in both places; 穿了: 了 is le; 鼻子 takes the bare ending zi; 解下: 解 is jiě; 繫於: 繫 is jì, physical tying, not the xì of connection in the abstract; 手中: 中 is zhōng.
And to this day there remains the little ring for tethering an ox by the nose, which is also called a bīnláng — that is what the name refers to.
And then, out of nowhere, an origin story for a piece of farm tackle. 拘兒 takes the ending er — it is the nose-ring or nose-peg of a working ox. 職此之謂, "this is what is meant by it," is the formula that closes an explanation of where a name came from. The device that swallowed the Great Sage's cudgel is being offered as the reason cattle wear nose-rings.
Lord Lao took his leave of the assembled gods, mounted the blue ox's back, rode his coloured cloud and went straight home to the Tuṣita court; and with the fiend bound he ascended to the Heaven of Parted Sorrows.
The two halves are joined at the semicolon. 辭了: 了 is le; 背上: 背 is bèi; 兜率院: 率 is shuài. 跨上 is worth setting beside the rare character used for the same action in the fire passage: both mean to mount and bestride, and the shared sound is the ground for reading the rare one kuà.
Two waves of a plantain-leaf fan. The first makes the demon throw the ring away — and Lord Lao catches it one-handed, which is the plainest possible statement of whose it is. The second takes the strength out of the creature's limbs, and he stands revealed as a blue ox. Nothing is fought. The narrative gives the entire capture forty-eight characters, against the several thousand it has spent on assaults that failed.
Then comes the origin story, and it is a strange and lovely thing to find here. Lord Lao breathes on the diamond snare, runs it through the ox's nose, unties his own belt for a halter — and the narrator pauses to explain that this is why oxen have nose-rings to this day, and why the ring bears the name it does. The implement that swallowed the cudgel of the Great Sage, the six weapons of Nezha, an entire fire-armoury and eighteen grains of the Buddha's golden sand ends the chapter as a nose-ring on a working animal, and the novel offers it in passing as the reason a bit of farmyard hardware is called what it is called.