Then he said to Taizong: “If Your Majesty wishes the true scriptures to be handed on throughout the empire, fair copies must first be made, and only then may they be distributed.”

⚠ 謄錄副本 — to transcribe duplicate copies. It is administrative vocabulary, and the Tang monk produces it without a blink. 佈散 — to spread abroad, to distribute. Its second character is read sàn, the verb of scattering out, not sǎn, loose or strewn. He has been home two days and he is already thinking about circulation policy.

“The originals ought further to be treasured away, and must not be lightly handled.”

⚠ 珍藏 — to treasure and store. Its second character is read cáng here, to hide away — and it is the same graph that reads zàng, a canon, in the Tang monk's own name and in every mention of the scriptures as a collection. Two words, one shape, four characters apart from a use of the other. ⚠ 不可輕褻 — must not be treated lightly or profaned. So the plan is: copy the books, circulate the copies, and lock the originals up. Which means the scriptures the pilgrims carried a hundred and eight thousand lǐ are never to be read by anybody.

Taizong laughed again and said, “What my royal brother says is very apt. Very apt.”

⚠ 甚當 — most fitting. The second character is read dàng here, apt or appropriate. Read dāng it means at the time of, a different word altogether. And it is doubled, as everything in this chapter is doubled — Guanyin's granted, granted, the emperor's no blame to them, no blame to them, and the very good, very good still to come.