家家設香案 Every House Set Out Incense
已此情真罪當，再有甚講？」四星道：「天蓬帥近來知理明律，卻好呀。」八戒道：「因做了這幾年和尚，也略學得些兒。」眾神果推落犀牛，一簇彩雲，降至府堂之上。諕得這府縣官員、城裡城外人等，都家家設香案，戶戶拜天神。少時間，慈雲寺僧把長老用轎擡進府門，會著行者，口中不離「謝」字道：「有勞上宿星官救出我等。因不見賢徒，懸懸在念，今幸得勝而回。然此怪不知趕向何方才捕獲也？」已此情真罪当，再有甚讲？」四星道：「天蓬帅近来知理明律，却好呀。」八戒道：「因做了这几年和尚，也略学得些儿。」众神果推落犀牛，一簇彩云，降至府堂之上。諕得这府县官员、城里城外人等，都家家设香案，户户拜天神。少时间，慈云寺僧把长老用轿抬进府门，会着行者，口中不离「谢」字道：「有劳上宿星官救出我等。因不见贤徒，悬悬在念，今幸得胜而回。然此怪不知赶向何方才捕获也？」
逐句解 Line by line
The facts being true and the guilt established, what more is there to say?"
情真罪當 — the circumstances true, the guilt fitting. Four characters of courtroom formula, and Eight Rules has it word-perfect. 再有甚講 uses 甚 alone for "what", the blunt older form.
The four stars said, "The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds has lately come to understand principle and know the statutes. Very good indeed!"
The stars are teasing him and admiring him at once. 知理明律 — knows the principle and is clear on the code — is praise you would give a competent magistrate. Applied to Eight Rules it is very funny and not entirely undeserved.
Eight Rules said, "From having been a monk these several years, I have picked up a little of it too."
The reply is perfect. 略學得些兒 — learnt a bit, picked up a little. He is pleased and pretending not to be, and 得 there is the full verb dé, to gain: he has gained a little learning.
The gods duly pushed the rhinoceroses down, and in a cluster of coloured cloud came down onto the prefectural hall.
降至 has 降 as jiàng, coming down — the descending sense, not the subduing one. It is the last of only four sites in the chapter to take that reading, and the contrast is pointed: real gods descend onto the hall where false ones used to descend onto the bridge.
It frightened the prefecture and county officials and the people inside the walls and out, till every family set out an incense table and every household bowed to the heavenly gods.
諕得 is the frightened-so-that shape once more, with the older written form of the everyday word for a fright, read xià. And 家家設香案，戶戶拜天神 is a matched pair built on doubling — family by family, household by household. The town that that false gods cheated for years now prostrates itself before real ones on sight, and the novel reports it without a flicker.
In a little while the monks of the Cloud-of-Compassion Monastery carried the elder in a sedan chair through the prefectural gate, and he met Pilgrim, with the word "thanks" never off his lips: "I am much obliged to the star officers of the lodges above for getting us out.
The Tang Monk arrives by sedan chair, which is how a person of standing arrives, and thanks everybody. 會著 is the achieved zháo — met. 擡 is an older written form of the everyday word for carrying, and the simplified mirror has to be told to keep it rather than convert it into a different character entirely.
Not seeing my worthy disciple, my mind was hanging on it; and now happily you have won and come back.
懸懸在念 — hanging, hanging on the mind. The doubling makes it a state rather than a thought: he has been suspended in worry. 得勝 is the one site in the whole chapter where the reading machinery makes the opposite mistake and gives the light sound to a full verb; 得 here is dé, to gain — gained a victory.
But where did these fiends have to be chased to before they could be caught?"
And there is the master's real interest, which is the story. He has been rescued, carried in a chair and reunited with his disciple, and what he wants is the account.
The prefecture's reaction is the chapter's sharpest joke and it is delivered completely straight. A cluster of coloured cloud comes down onto the prefectural hall, and every family in the city sets out an incense table and bows. These are the same people who spent fifty thousand taels a year bowing to three rhinoceroses in costume, and their response to being told so is to bow harder at the next thing that descends from the sky.
The novel does not moralise about it, and the restraint is the point. It has just spent ninety lines establishing that the townspeople could not tell a false Buddha from a real one, and it declines to say the obvious thing about what they are doing now. It simply reports the incense tables.
Meanwhile four constellations congratulate Eight Rules on knowing the law, and he takes the compliment with a straight face. From having been a monk these several years, he says, I have picked up a little of it too. It is the most likeable thing he does in the chapter.