The fiend got out through his gate, and behind him came a hundred and more little demons, every one whirling a spear or brandishing a sword, drawn up in two files.

出得門來: 得 dé, the potential. 兩哨, two pickets or files — the household turns out as a guard detail.

He said to Eight Rules: "From which monastery are you, monk?

那寺裡 is interrogative — 那 nǎ, "which."

And why do you come here raising an uproar?"

為甚: 為 wèi, the purposive-causal "for," and 甚 shén, "what" — together, "for what reason." Contrast the intensifier 甚 shèn six segments below.

Eight Rules bellowed: "You rascally thing that will not die!

我把你這 is a vernacular imprecation in which 把 governs a threat left unspoken — roughly "why, you —".

The night before last you traded words with me. How is it that today you push it off as not knowing, and question me?

推不知, "to shove it aside as not knowing," to feign ignorance. 前夜 refers to the sacrifice at Chen Village in chapter 47.

I am a disciple of the holy monk of the Great Tang in the Land of the East, bound west to worship the Buddha and seek the scriptures.

The formula of self-identification, repeated with little variation throughout the novel. 佛 invariably fó.

You work your mystifications, set yourself up as some Great King Numinous Response, and do nothing in Chen Village but demand boys and girls to eat.

假做甚麼靈感大王: 甚麼 here is dismissive — "some so-called." 甚 shén. 專在, "to do nothing but."

I myself was Chen Qing's Weight-of-Gold. Do you not know me?"

一秤金, "A Full Weight of Gold," is the name of Chen Qing's daughter in chapter 47, whose place Bajie took at the sacrifice. 秤 chèng; 認得 得 dé.

The monster said: "You monk are entirely without reason.

甚沒道理: 甚 here is the intensifier shèn, "extremely" — the same graph read shén ("what") twice earlier in this block. 沒 méi.

You changed yourself into Weight-of-Gold, and that alone earns you the crime of false name and substitution.

冒名頂替 is a legal formula — assuming another's name and taking another's place. The demon argues like a magistrate, which is the first sign of the register he means to keep.

I never did eat you. On the contrary, it was you who wounded me on the back of the hand.

倒 dào, the adversative "on the contrary" — not dǎo, "to topple." 手背: 背 bèi, the noun.

With that I let you off. Why do you come seeking my gate again?"

已此 = 以此, "with that, thereupon." The demon is keeping an account, and considers it settled.

Eight Rules said: "If you let me off, why then did you work a cold wind, bring down a great snow, freeze the ice hard, and do my master this harm?

The whole stratagem of chapter 48 is put back to the demon as a bill of charges, in four clauses of two and three characters each.

Send my master out this instant and all is settled;

萬事皆休, "and all matters are at an end" — the standard offer of terms before a fight.

but let half a 'no' burst out between your teeth, and you may look at the rake in my hand: I'll not spare you."

牙迸半個不字, "half a no spat from the teeth" — a vivid colloquial threat. The 不 inside the brackets is a graph being named rather than a negator, so it keeps its citation reading bù; mechanical sandhi would have raised it to bú before 字, and the override is registered. 手中 中 zhōng; 看看 kàn.

Hearing this, the fiend gave a thin cold laugh: "This monk peddles a long tongue and brags with a great mouth.

長舌: 長 cháng. 胡誇大口 — the demon answers a threat with a criticism of style, which is entirely in character for him.

It was indeed I who made the cold, sent down the snow, froze the river, and carried off your master.

攝, to seize and carry away by magical force. The confession is unhesitating: the demon's case is not that he is innocent but that he was provoked.

Now you come bawling to my gate, thinking to demand him back. But I fear this time is not the last time. On that occasion I was going to a banquet and had brought no weapon, so I took my wound from you by mischance;

誤中你傷: 中 here is zhòng, "to be struck, to take a hit" — not the locative zhōng of 手中 above. 思量 量 liáng; 那一番 and 那時節 both deictic nà.

Today you had better not think of running. I'll meet you in three bouts.

三合, three passages of arms — a wager with a fixed count, which the demon proposes because he expects to win it.

Hold out against me for three bouts and I'll give your master back;

還你師父: 還 huán, "to return, to give back" — not the adverbial hái. 敵得我過 得 dé, potential.

fail, and I'll eat you along with him."

一發, "at one go, the whole lot together." The terms are stated as calmly as the offer of a wager, which is the point.