朝門之外 Outside the Palace Gate
急披衣而出。至西街時，早已有人傳播說：「取經的人適才方到，萬歲爺爺接入城來了。」眾僧聽說，又急急跑來，卻就遇著。一見大駕，不敢近前，隨後跟至朝門之外。急披衣而出。至西街时，早已有人传播说：「取经的人适才方到，万岁爷爷接入城来了。」众僧听说，又急急跑来，却就遇着。一见大驾，不敢近前，随后跟至朝门之外。
逐句解 Line by line
He threw on his robe and hurried out.
Five characters, all verb. 急披衣而出 — no deliberation, no gathering of the community: one man puts his clothes on and goes.
By the time he reached the west street the word was already about: “The scripture-fetchers arrived just now, and His Majesty has brought them into the city.”
He is too late to be first. By the time he is out of his own gate the street already has it, and has it right. 萬歲爺爺 — His Majesty, but literally Ten-Thousand-Years Grandpa. It is what ordinary people called the emperor, warm and enormous at once, and the doubled second word takes a light second syllable the way family words do. 適才方到, arrived only just now. The street's news is minutes old and already ahead of a man who ran.
The monks heard it, and came running in a hurry, and ran straight into them.
卻就遇著 — and ran right into them. The last character is read zháo here: the reading it takes when something is met with or hit upon, not the light one that hangs on a verb in progress. 急急跑來 — running, in a hurry, doubled for haste. The whole temple is now in the street.
At the sight of the imperial train they dared not go near, and followed on behind as far as the outside of the palace gate.
And then they stop. 不敢近前 — dared not go forward. The men who have waited fourteen years for him, whose trees told them he was coming, get within sight and cannot approach, because he is inside an imperial procession. 朝門之外 — outside the palace gate. That is as far as they get, and it is where the passage leaves them. The last two characters are the whole point. Outside.
The old disciple runs, and the street has already beaten him to it. By the time he is out of the temple the news is going round the west street, accurate and minutes old, in the affectionate name ordinary people used for the emperor.
Then the whole temple runs, and they do reach him — and stop dead. The imperial train is in the way. Men who watched a pine tree for fourteen years get close enough to see him and dare not go forward.
So they follow on behind and are left outside the palace gate. The chapter has now put three separate groups of people at the edge of the pilgrims' return — a village with an empty tower, a temple full of monks in the street, and a city that knows. None of them gets in.