四木禽星 The Four Wood Beast Stars
都是一孔三毛二角，行於江海之中，能開水道。似那辟寒、辟暑、辟塵都是角有貴氣，故以此為名而稱大王也。若要拿他，只是四木禽星見面就伏。」行者連忙唱喏問道：「是那四木禽星？煩長庚老一一明示明示。」金星笑道：「此星在斗牛宮外，羅佈乾坤。你去奏聞玉帝，便見分明。」行者拱拱手稱謝，徑入天門裡去。不一時，到於通明殿下，先見葛、丘、張、許四大天師。都是一孔三毛二角，行于江海之中，能开水道。似那辟寒、辟暑、辟尘都是角有贵气，故以此为名而称大王也。若要拿他，只是四木禽星见面就伏。」行者连忙唱喏问道：「是那四木禽星？烦长庚老一一明示明示。」金星笑道：「此星在斗牛宫外，罗布干坤。你去奏闻玉帝，便见分明。」行者拱拱手称谢，径入天门里去。不一时，到于通明殿下，先见葛、丘、张、许四大天师。
逐句解 Line by line
"All of them have one nostril and three hairs and two horns, and travel in the rivers and the seas, and can open a road through water.
能開水道 — able to open a road through water. Remember this: two hundred lines from now Pilgrim splits the sea open to follow them down, and the character he does it with is a near-twin of one this chapter also uses for a plain path.
As for those Cold-Averting, Heat-Averting and Dust-Averting, it is because their horns have a noble property that they take the name and style themselves Great Kings.
The names explained outright. The horn was believed to keep off cold, keep off heat, keep off dust — three virtues, three kings. 以此為名 has 為 as wéi, to be or take as, rather than the wèi that means "because of". The chapter uses that character thirteen times and it splits eight to five.
If you want to take them, it is only the Four Wood Beast Stars whose face they will submit to on sight."
And here is the answer, in fourteen characters. 見面就伏 — see the face and at once submit. No fight is necessary; the whole business is a matter of rank.
Pilgrim hurriedly made his salutation and asked, "Which are the Four Wood Beast Stars?
唱喏 is a greeting made with a sound as well as a gesture — the bow with a spoken word thrown in. The character is read rě, which is unlike anything else it does. Pilgrim, who fought heaven, is being punctilious because he wants something. And 那 is nǎ here, asking which — not the nà that points. The character appears fifty-five times in this chapter and asks "which" at nine of them; nothing but the sentence tells you which is which.
Trouble the old Gold Star to make it plain to me, plain to me, one by one."
Two doublings in one short line. 明示明示 repeats the verb the way English repeats "tell me, tell me", and 一一 is one-by-one, item by item. 長庚 is Venus by another of its names — the Long-Bright, the evening star — and 長 is cháng there, long, not the zhǎng of the Deva King of Growth four passages back. And the first 一 shifts its tone because of the second, which has itself already shifted: a small collision that has to be settled twice over before it comes to rest.
The Gold Star said with a smile, "These stars are outside the Palace of the Dipper and the Ox, spread out over heaven and earth.
斗牛宮 is the Palace of the Dipper and the Ox — two of the twenty-eight lodges the Chinese sky is divided into. 斗 is dǒu, the Dipper, and the automatic reading gives the sound that means to fight, which would be a different word altogether. And 乾坤 here is qián kūn, heaven-and-earth, taking its name from the first two figures of the Book of Changes — the same character that was gān, dry, seven lines ago.
Go and lay it before the Jade Emperor, and you will see it plainly."
便見分明 — and you will see clearly. The old official declines to answer the question and sends him up the chain instead, which is the most bureaucratic thing anybody does in the chapter.
Pilgrim cupped his hands in thanks and went straight in at the heavenly gate.
拱拱手 is the salute made by folding one hand over the other fist — doubled here, as a hurried courtesy. 徑入 means straight in, and the character used for "straight" differs by one component from another this chapter uses for a water-path. Both are ordinary characters; nothing but the eye tells them apart.
Before long he came below the Hall of Universal Brightness, and first saw the Four Great Heavenly Preceptors, Ge, Qiu, Zhang and Xu.
不一時 means in no time at all, and it hides the second of this passage's small tone collisions: 不 settles against 一, which is itself already shifted, so the pair has to be worked out twice. The 四大天師 are the Four Heavenly Preceptors, historical Daoist patriarchs promoted to celestial office — Ge Hong, Qiu Hongji, Zhang Daoling and Xu Xun. They are heaven's private secretaries, and nobody reaches the Jade Emperor without going through them.
The passage where the chapter's problem gets its solution, and the solution is an appointment. Nobody suggests fighting harder. Venus names the correct authority — the Four Wood Beast Stars — and explains that the demons will submit the moment they see them, and then declines to say who they are and sends Pilgrim up a level to ask.
The Four Wood Beast Stars are four of the twenty-eight lodges, the constellations the Chinese sky was divided into along the path of the moon. Each lodge has an animal and an element; these four share wood. That they can overpower three rhinoceroses on sight is not a matter of strength but of position — they outrank them in the system, and the system is what runs the world of this novel.
Two of the chapter's smallest technical problems live in this passage, and both concern one syllable leaning on the next. Chinese shifts the tone of certain words depending on what follows them, and when two such words meet — one-by-one, or a negative in front of a number — the shift has to be worked out in both directions before it settles. It is invisible in the written text and audible in speech, and a ruby reading has to choose.