降妖之廟 A Shrine to the Four Stars
府縣官留住他師徒四眾，大排素宴，遍請鄉官陪奉。一壁廂出給告示，曉諭軍民人等，下年不許點設金燈，永蠲買油大戶之役。一壁廂叫屠子宰剝，犀牛之皮硝熟燻乾，製造鎧甲；把肉普給官員人等。又一壁廂動支枉罰無礙錢糧，買民間空地，起建四星降妖之廟，又為唐僧四眾建立生祠，各各樹碑刻文，用傳千古，以為報謝。師徒們索性寬懷領受。府县官留住他师徒四众，大排素宴，遍请乡官陪奉。一壁厢出给告示，晓谕军民人等，下年不许点设金灯，永蠲买油大户之役。一壁厢叫屠子宰剥，犀牛之皮硝熟熏干，制造铠甲；把肉普给官员人等。又一壁厢动支枉罚无碍钱粮，买民间空地，起建四星降妖之庙，又为唐僧四众建立生祠，各各树碑刻文，用传千古，以为报谢。师徒们索性宽怀领受。
逐句解 Line by line
The prefectural and county officers kept master and disciples, laid out a great meatless feast, and invited the local gentry all round to keep them company.
素宴 is a plain or meatless banquet — the kind you give monks. 鄉官 are the local worthies, retired or serving officials with standing in the district. This is a civic reception, correctly staged.
On one side they put out a proclamation making it known to soldiers and people that in the coming year the golden lamps were not to be set up, and the duty laid on the great households who bought the oil was remitted for ever.
The tax abolished in writing, which is what makes it real. 永蠲 — remitted in perpetuity. 蠲 is a specific word of fiscal administration meaning to cancel a levy, and it is the sort of character that turns up in county gazetteers rather than in stories about monkeys.
On another side they had the butchers cut up and flay, and the rhinoceros hide was cured with saltpetre and smoke-dried and made into armour;
The demons become military equipment. 硝熟 is to cure a hide with saltpetre, 燻乾 to dry it over smoke; both are trade terms and the novel uses them correctly. 乾 is gān, dry — not the qián it takes in the phrase for heaven-and-earth two batches back. Rhinoceros-hide armour was a real and prized thing, named in the Book of Songs.
and the meat was given out generally to the officials and the rest.
Eight characters, and the last of the three kings is distributed as food.
On yet another side they drew on the funds from unclaimed fines and unencumbered revenue, bought a piece of open ground from the people, and put up a shrine to the four stars who subdued the fiends; and they set up a living shrine to the Tang Monk and his three as well, and raised a stone tablet at each and cut an inscription, to hand it down for a thousand years, by way of thanks.
The accounting is exact, which is what makes it funny. 枉罰無礙錢糧 is money from fines wrongly levied and revenue under no other claim — the discretionary fund a local government could spend without asking. And a 生祠 is a living shrine: a temple erected to somebody who is not yet dead, which was a real and slightly embarrassing honour in imperial China, usually voted to a departing official by people who wanted to be remembered voting it.
Master and disciples, for their part, accepted it all with an easy mind.
索性寬懷領受 — went the whole way and received it with a loosened heart. The pilgrims settle in. It is the word 寬 again, the one Pilgrim used against his master before the throne of heaven: he let his discipline go slack. Here all four of them do it, on purpose, at a banquet.
The town's thanksgiving, and it is rendered entirely in the language of local government: a proclamation, a permanent remission of a levy, a disbursement from the discretionary fund, land bought, two shrines and two inscribed stones. This is what gratitude looks like when a prefecture feels it.
The living shrine is the detail worth knowing. A shrine to somebody still alive was a genuine institution, usually voted to a magistrate on his departure, and it carried a faint whiff of flattery even at the time. Jinping erects one to four monks who are about to leave, which is precisely the occasion for it.
And the three demon kings finish the chapter as a hide, some armour and a distribution of meat. The novel has been steadily converting them from gods to creatures to commodities since the moment they dropped onto four hooves, and here the conversion completes. The last mention of the Great King of the Dark-Blossom Cave is a note that the meat was given out generally.