風清月霽 A Night Of Clear Wind
卻說那老者同鬼使，把長老擡到一座煙霞石屋之前，輕輕放下，與他攜手相攙道：「聖僧休怕。我等不是歹人，乃荊棘嶺十八公是也。因風清月霽之宵，特請你來會友談詩，消遣情懷故耳。」那長老卻才定性，睜眼仔細觀看。却说那老者同鬼使，把长老擡到一座烟霞石屋之前，轻轻放下，与他携手相搀道：「圣僧休怕。我等不是歹人，乃荆棘岭十八公是也。因风清月霁之宵，特请你来会友谈诗，消遣情怀故耳。」那长老却才定性，睁眼仔细观看。
逐句解 Line by line
The story turns to the old man and the demon runner, who carried the elder to a stone house among mist and rosy cloud, set him gently down, and taking him by the hand to steady him, said, "Holy monk, do not be afraid.
The kidnapper's first act on setting his captive down is to steady him by the arm. 相攙 takes xiāng, mutual, and the compound means to support somebody by the elbow; the automatic reading gives xiàng here, the value for outward appearance.
"We are no ruffians. I am none other than the Eighteenth Duke of Bramble Ridge.
Here is the best riddle in the chapter, and it is given away in the moment it is set. 松, a pine, is written with 木 beside 公, and 木 is conventionally taken apart into 十 and 八 — so "the Eighteenth Duke" is the character for pine, disassembled and handed over as a title. He has told Tripitaka exactly what he is while appearing to give a name. The chapter confirms it in its closing passage.
"On a night of clear wind and a moon washed bright, I have asked you here on purpose to meet friends and discourse of poetry, and to divert the feelings — no more than that."
霽 is properly the clearing of rain, transferred here to a moon shining after the cloud has passed. 故耳 closes the speech on a bookish flourish — "and that is all". The whole way of talking has changed from the local god's.
Only then did the elder collect himself; he opened his eyes and looked carefully about.
仔 is fixed at zǐ across the corpus; the automatic reading gives zǎi. 卻才 is the timing word again, "only at that moment", the same construction that recalled the tiger hairs early in the chapter.
Everything about the abduction is revised in this passage. The old man sets his captive down gently, takes him by the arm to steady him, tells him not to be afraid, disclaims any ill intent, gives a name, and states his purpose — which is to talk about poetry. Nothing in it threatens the captive at any point.
The name he gives is a joke that is also a confession. The Eighteenth Duke is the character for pine taken apart and reassembled as a title, so he has told Tripitaka exactly what he is in the act of appearing not to. Nobody in the story catches it, and the chapter waits until its final passage to explain the trick.
What has changed most is the language. The local god spoke in the flat courtesy of a minor official offering food; the Eighteenth Duke speaks of a night of clear wind and a washed moon, of meeting friends and discoursing on poetry, and ends on a flourish out of literary prose. The disguise has been dropped and something more elaborate has replaced it.