The good Great Sage rode his somersault cloud again and went straight to the outside of the Northern Gate of Heaven.

觔斗雲 takes 觔 jīn, the old form of 筋, and 斗 dǒu, the measure reading — never dòu, in this chapter or anywhere in the corpus. This is the fourth ascent, and it is the first by somersault rather than by cloud: he is in a hurry now.

Raising his head of a sudden, he saw the Deva King Vaiśravaṇa come forward and salute him: "Where is the Great Sage bound?"

多聞天王 is Vaiśravaṇa, guardian of the north, as 廣目 was Virūpākṣa of the west in the third passage. The greeting is word for word the one Virūpākṣa gave, and the whole northern gate sequence runs as a deliberate reprise of the southern.

Pilgrim said, "I have a matter that takes me into the Wuhao Palace to see the Star Lord of Water Virtue. What are you doing here?"

作甚 takes shén, "what", and 一事 is yí by mechanical sandhi. He asks the same question he asked Virūpākṣa, in the same words, and gets the same answer.

Vaiśravaṇa said, "Today the round of patrol falls to me."

輪該巡視 repeats Virūpākṣa's reply exactly. Heaven's rota does not vary by quarter.

While they were speaking, the four Grand Heavenly Generals Pang, Liu, Gou and Bi came up with their courtesies and invited him to tea.

正說處 takes chù, the point reached; 那龐 takes nà; 四大天將 takes jiàng. The four northern marshals invite him to tea exactly as Ma, Zhao, Wen and Guan did at the southern gate.

Pilgrim said, "No trouble, no trouble — my business is urgent."

Both 不勞 are bù by mechanical sandhi. At the southern gate he answered 有事哩; here he does not even manage that much politeness.

So he parted from the gate gods and went straight to the Wuhao Palace, having the assembled gods of the water office announce him at once.

著水部眾神 takes zhuó, the dispatching reading with a person as its object — the same construction as 著太子出師 and 著孫悟空挑選.

The gods reported: "The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, has come."

來了 takes le.

The Star Lord of Water Virtue heard it and at once dismissed the dragon kings of every place, whom he had been checking over — of the four seas, the five lakes, the eight rivers, the four watercourses, the three streams and the nine branches.

即將查點 takes the coverb jiāng and 各處 takes chù. The list is the water office's own register, and the Star Lord is in the middle of the same audit the fifth passage ordered — the paperwork of that inquiry is still working its way through Heaven four passages later.

He straightened his cap and belt, came out of the palace gate to receive him, brought him inside and said, "Yesterday the Keeper of the Han Office made inquiry of this small palace, for fear some god of my own office had gone down out of longing and turned fiend. I am still at the checking of the gods of river and sea and watercourse, and it is not finished yet."

The Star Lord of Fire Virtue opened with the same self-clearing in the fifteenth passage. Two departments in a row report their own audits unprompted, which tells the reader how the fifth passage's inquiry was received across Heaven.

Pilgrim said, "That demon king is no god of river or stream. He is a spirit of some larger kind.

那魔王 takes nà and 不是 is bú by mechanical sandhi. 廣大之精 is vague on purpose — nobody in this chapter can say what the fiend is, and Ch.52 will have to tell them.

First the Jade Emperor despatched Heavenly King Li and his son and two thunder lords to the lower world to seize him; and he played a ring on them and took six divine weapons away in it.

玉帝差 takes chāi, despatched on commission. 父子 takes zǐ, the literary noun, and 圈子 takes zi, the suffix — the same graph, both readings, twelve graphs apart in one sentence, so both are pinned positionally. 將六件神兵 takes the disposal jiāng.

Old Monkey had no help for it, so he went up again to the Tong-hua Palace and asked the Star Lord of Fire Virtue to lead the gods of the fire office and set a blaze; and again the fire-dragons and fire-horses and the rest went off in one ring.

彤華宮 takes huá, 又將 the disposal jiāng, 圈子 the suffix zi; 一圈子 is yì by mechanical sandhi. He is giving the water office a case history, and it is the plot of the chapter so far in thirty-four graphs.

It came to me that since the thing has no fear of fire it must fear water, and I am come expressly to ask the Star Lord to set out a flood of water and catch the fiend for me, so that the weapons may go back to the heavenly generals and my master be saved from his calamity as well."

歸還 takes huán, to give back, and 天將 takes jiàng; 吾師之難 takes nàn, the noun. 那妖精 takes nà and 既不怕 is bú by mechanical sandhi. Note that this time the weapons come before the master in the sentence and no override is needed on 之難, since 之 stands between it and any 一.

The Water Virtue heard him out and gave the order at once to the Divine King and Water Earl of the Yellow River: "Go with the Great Sage and lend your work."

No argument at all. The fire office spent a whole speech explaining why it would be no use; the water office simply detaches a subordinate.

The Water Earl took a small white jade bowl out of his sleeve and said, "I have this thing to hold water in."

衣袖中 takes zhōng and 盂兒 takes the suffix er. 一個 is yí by mechanical sandhi. After the fire office's spears, blades, bows, arrows, crows, horses, rats and dragons, the water office produces one small bowl.

Pilgrim said, "Look at this bowl — how much can it hold? How is a fiend to be drowned with it?"

看這 takes kàn, 盂兒 the suffix er, and 渰得 takes dé, the potential. The two units are joined here (rule J2). Wukong has spent the chapter asking for larger and larger forces and is being handed something he can palm.

The Water Earl said, "I will not deceive you, Great Sage. This bowl of mine is water of the Yellow River. Half a bowl is half the river; a whole bowl is the whole river."

All three 一 are yì by mechanical sandhi, 盂 and 河 both being second tone. The answer is the best line in the passage and the exact inversion of everything that has failed: not a larger force in a larger vessel, but the whole of a river in a thing that fits in a sleeve.

Pilgrim said gladly, "Half a bowl will be enough."

He does not ask for the whole. Having twice watched the ring take everything that was thrown at it, he takes the smallest quantity that will serve.

So he took his leave of the Water Virtue and slipped away from the gates of Heaven with the god of the Yellow River.

躲離天闕 is to slip away rather than to depart formally — after four ascents the book stops giving him ceremonies to sit through.