The Great Sage was on the cliff, casting about for a path, when he saw four men driving three sheep down from the western slope, all of them hollering together, "Kāitài!"

The oddest entrance in the chapter, and it is a riddle in costume. Four men, three sheep, and a shout of 開泰 — which is not a word anybody shouts at livestock. A reading: 喝 is hè, to holler, not hē, to drink; the two are separate words sharing a character.

The Great Sage flashed his fiery eyes and golden pupils, looked carefully, and recognised the Four Sentinels of the year, the month, the day and the hour, come in disguise and altered shape.

The 四值功曹 are Heaven's duty officers — one each for the year, month, day and hour — the celestial equivalent of whoever is on shift. They have been assigned to this pilgrimage since early in the novel and they turn up when there is something Pilgrim needs to know. A reading: 仔 in 仔細 is zǐ, as chapter 1 seals it at 仔細再看.

The Great Sage at once drew out his iron cudgel, gave it a shake till it was as thick as a bowl and some twelve chǐ long,

The cudgel's party trick, performed here as a threat rather than in a fight. 丈二長短 is one zhàng and two chǐ — twelve chǐ in all, the measures this edition leaves in Chinese rather than converting to feet. A reading: 長 is cháng, physical length, and the automatic reading takes zhǎng, to grow.

leapt down from the cliff and shouted, "Where are you all off to, hiding your heads and pulling in your necks like that?"

A reading that turns on sense rather than sound: 那 in 那裡走 is nǎ, the interrogative "where" — chapter 4 uses the same construction at 那裡有十數年 — and not the nà that points at something. 藏頭縮頸 is a wonderfully physical insult: hiding the head and drawing in the neck, the posture of a man who does not want to be recognised.

When the Four Sentinels heard him name the wind's dying, they were so flustered that they hollered the three sheep away, resumed their proper forms, slipped aside to the roadside and made their bow, saying, "Great Sage, forgive our fault, forgive our fault."

Caught, and instantly. What gives them away is that Pilgrim mentions the wind dying — which only somebody who had been tracking it could know. A reading: 傍 in 路傍 is páng, which stands in for the character meaning "beside."

Pilgrim said, "I have not had occasion to use you lately, and seeing old Monkey easy-going, every one of you has grown slack — you never even come to see me. What do you say to that?

Pilgrim as a bad-tempered line manager, which is one of his most reliable modes. A reading worth marking: 著 in 用著 is zháo — the reading for something reached or attained, so 用著 is "had occasion to use" rather than "was using." That is a third reading of this character in nineteen units, after the zhe of continuing action and the zhuó of 著實.