玉階之下 Below the Jade Steps
唐僧下馬，同眾進朝。唐僧將龍馬與經擔，同行者、八戒、沙僧，站在玉階之下。太宗傳宣御弟上殿，賜坐。唐僧又謝恩坐了，教把經卷擡來。行者等取出，近侍官傳上。唐僧下马，同众进朝。唐僧将龙马与经担，同行者、八戒、沙僧，站在玉阶之下。太宗传宣御弟上殿，赐坐。唐僧又谢恩坐了，教把经卷抬来。行者等取出，近侍官传上。
逐句解 Line by line
The Tang monk dismounted and went in to court with the rest.
Ten characters to end a fourteen-year journey. He gets off a horse and walks into a building. 同眾 — together with the others. After all the flying, the arrival is on foot and in company.
The Tang monk, with the dragon-horse and the scripture-load, and with Monkey, Pigsy and Sha Monk, stood below the jade steps.
⚠ 同行者 is a trap the machine falls into. Read as a word it would mean fellow travellers, and the bare chain duly reads its middle character as the one for a rank or a row. It is not that: it is 同, together with行者, the Pilgrim — Monkey's own title. Read xíng. ⚠ 經擔 again, and again the noun, dàn — the shoulder-pole load, not the act of shouldering. 玉階之下, below the jade steps. Horse, luggage and three disciples, standing at the bottom of the stairs. Nobody has offered them a seat.
Taizong sent word for his royal brother to come up into the hall, and granted him a seat.
⚠ 上殿 — up into the hall. One of the four goes up the steps. 賜坐, a seat granted. In a Tang audience almost nobody sits; being given a chair in front of the emperor is a considerable honour, and it is extended to exactly one man.
The Tang monk gave thanks for the favour again and sat, and had the scripture-scrolls carried up.
又謝恩 — thanked him again. That is twice in two passages; the Tang monk's whole conduct at court is thanking people. ⚠ 教把經卷擡來 — had the scrolls carried up. 教 is the ordering verb here, read jiào, and the character for carrying is the old form the simplified script abolished in favour of another with the same sound and sense.
Monkey and the others brought them out, and the attendant officers passed them up.
⚠ Note the chain of hands. The disciples take the scrolls out at the bottom of the steps; palace attendants carry them up. The three who guarded this cargo across the world do not go up with it. 傳上 — passed up. The scriptures enter the hall; the men who fetched them stay below.
The greatest journey in Chinese literature ends with a man getting off a horse. Ten characters, no ceremony, and then the four of them standing at the bottom of a staircase with the luggage.
⚠ Then the party divides, and nobody remarks on it. The Tang monk is called up into the hall and given a chair — a real honour, granted to one man. The other three stay below the jade steps with the horse.
⚠ And the scriptures go up without them. The disciples unpack at the bottom of the stairs and palace attendants carry the scrolls the rest of the way. After a hundred and eight thousand lǐ, somebody else does the last twenty feet.