The Great Sage put away his As-You-Will cudgel, roused his spirit-might, flexed his body in a single bound, and stood in the center of the Buddha's palm; then he cried, "And out I go!" Look at him — a streak of cloud-light, gone formless and shadowless.

將身一縱: disposal-jiāng; 一縱 takes yí (before zòng, 4th tone). 一路: yí (before lù, 4th tone). The monkey launches his fabled somersault with total confidence — the comedy depends on his certainty.

The Buddha, watching with his wisdom-eye, saw the Monkey King spinning along just like a pinwheel, never stopping, pressing ever onward.

慧眼 (huì yǎn), the wisdom-eye (prajñā-cakṣus) — the Buddha simply watches, the calm counterpoint to the monkey's frantic motion. 一般: yì (before bān, 1st tone). 相似: 相 = xiāng, 似 = sì.

As the Great Sage went, he suddenly saw five flesh-pink pillars propping up a mass of blue vapor. He said: "This must be the end of the road. When I go back this time, with the Tathāgata as witness, the Hall of Divine Mists will surely be mine to sit in."

撐著: durative 著 = zhe. 一股: yì (before gǔ, 3rd tone). 盡頭路: 盡 = jìn ("the road's end"). The five pillars are, of course, the Buddha's five fingers — the monkey has gone nowhere.

Then he thought again: "Wait! Let me leave some mark, so I'll have proof when I speak to the Tathāgata." He pulled out a hair, blew on it with magic breath, cried "Change!" — and turned it into a thick-inked double-tipped brush, and on the middle pillar wrote a line of large characters: "The Great Sage Equal to Heaven was here."

一根: yì (before gēn, 1st tone); 一管: yì (before guǎn, 3rd tone); 一行: yì (before xíng, 2nd tone), and 行 = xíng (a line); 一遊: yì (before yóu, 2nd tone). The graffiti 齊天大聖到此一遊 is one of the novel's most quoted lines.

Having written it, he took back his hair, and then — most unseemly — let loose a gush of monkey-piss at the foot of the first pillar.

第一根: yì (before gēn, 1st tone); 一泡: yí (before pào, 4th tone). 不莊尊, "not solemn / undignified." The crude flourish is pure monkey — and it will become the second piece of evidence the Buddha turns against him.

He flipped his cloud-somersault over, went straight back, stood in the Tathāgata's palm, and said: "I've gone and now I'm back. Tell the Jade Emperor to yield me the Palace of Heaven."

教玉帝: 教 = jiào (to make/cause). The monkey returns utterly convinced he has won — the dramatic irony at its peak, since he never left the palm.

The Tathāgata cursed: "You piss-spirit of a monkey! You never once left my palm."

尿精猴子, "piss-spirit monkey" — the Buddha matches the monkey's vulgarity, a rare lapse into earthy scolding. 哩 = li (sentence-final). 不曾, "never once."

The Great Sage said: "You don't know. I went to the very end of the sky, saw five flesh-pink pillars propping a mass of blue vapor, and left my mark there. Dare you go with me to look?"

天盡頭: 盡 = jìn. 撐著: durative 著 = zhe. 一股: yì. 麼 = me (question-final). The monkey's bravado is total — he is sure his graffiti is at the edge of the cosmos, not on a finger.

The Tathāgata said: "No need to go — just lower your head and look." The Great Sage opened wide his fiery eyes and golden pupils, looked down, and there on the Buddha's right middle finger was written "The Great Sage Equal to Heaven was here," and in the fork of the thumb there yet lingered the rank reek of monkey-piss.

不消去, "no need to go." 中指: 中 = zhōng (the middle finger). 寫著: durative 著 = zhe. 到此一遊: 一 before 遊 (yóu, 2nd tone) is yì. 還有: 還 = hái ("still there"). The revelation lands with the comic stink of the thumb-fork — proof beyond argument.

The Great Sage was startled and said: "Can such a thing be? Can such a thing be? I wrote these words on a sky-propping pillar — how can they be on his finger? Unless he has some art of foreknowing without divining? I won't believe it! I won't! Let me go again."

一驚: yì (before jīng, 1st tone). 將此字: disposal-jiāng. 未卜先知: 卜 = bǔ (to divine) — "foreknowing without divining." His refusal to believe sets up the immediate, final defeat.