Guanyin brought down her cloud and came forward to ask: "What manner of wild boar-spirit are you, from what quarter this old hog turned demon, that you dare to block me here?"

She opens with an insult and two words for pig. 那裡 is the question word here, 那 read nǎ. 野豕 is a wild boar and 老彘 an old hog — she is not asking politely.

The monster said: "I am no wild boar, nor any old hog; I was once Marshal Tianpeng of the Heavenly River.

He corrects her on both counts, and the correction is a promotion. 天蓬元帥, Marshal Tianpeng, commanded the naval forces of the Heavenly River — the Milky Way — and that was his rank. Each 不是 takes bú before 是.

Only because, in my cups, I made sport of Chang'e, the Jade Emperor had me beaten two thousand mallet-blows and banished to the mortal dust.

嫦娥 is Chang'e, the goddess who drank the elixir and floated up to live on the moon; China named its lunar probes after her. Getting drunk and making a pass at her is, in every version of the story, the reason Bajie fell.

My single sentient nature came straight to seize a lodging and enter a womb, but missing the road by mischance, I lodged in a sow's belly and was changed into this shape.

奪舍投胎 is seizing a lodging and dropping into a womb — a rebirth that went to the wrong address. In 一靈 the 一 takes yì, and 變得 uses the light de. He is explaining that the pig body is a clerical error.

I bit the sow to death, slew the whole litter, seized this mountain ground, and live by eating men.

處 is chù, 占 is zhàn, 度 is dù, and 場 in 山場 is chǎng — a holding of ground, so the place-sense reading. He killed the sow that bore him and everything else in the litter, and he reports it as a property claim.

I never thought to run into the Bodhisattva — I beg you, deliver me, deliver me!"

撞著 is ran straight into; the 著 that marks a thing actually hit or reached is read zháo.

The Bodhisattva said: "What is this mountain called?"

甚 is the intensifying shèn. She cuts across the confession to ask the name of the mountain, which is the one detail she actually needs.

The monster said: "It is called Mount Fuling. In the mountain is a cave called Cloud-Path Cave.

福陵山, Mount Fuling, and 雲棧洞, Cloud-Path Cave, are his address. In 一洞 the 一 takes yí.

In the cave there was once one Second Sister Luan; seeing I had some skill at arms, she took me as her householder — what is called a "back-tread door" match.

家長 is head of the household, 長 read zhǎng. 倒蹅門 is the arrangement where the man moves into the woman's house instead of bringing her into his — an inversion of the normal order, and never quite respectable. The phrase is still in use.

In less than a year she died, and the whole cave's estate passed to me to enjoy.

In 不上 the 不 takes bú before the falling tone of 上; 一年 takes yì and 一洞 takes yí; 將 is the disposal jiāng. A wife of under a year, and he goes straight to the inventory.

Dwelling here through long days and deep years, with no livelihood to keep myself, I simply do as my kind does and live by eating men.

依本等 is doing what my sort does. He is pleading his own nature as the reason, which is precisely the plea Guanyin will refuse.

I beg the Bodhisattva to forgive my sin."

萬望 is the strongest form of pleading the language offers — ten thousand hopes. It closes a speech in which he has just admitted to eating travellers and killing his own mother.