門懸綵繡 The Doors Hung With Embroidery
三藏又謝了恩，招呼他三眾，都到閣內觀看。果是中華大國，比尋常不同。你看那：三藏又谢了恩，招呼他三众，都到阁内观看。果是中华大国，比寻常不同。你看那：
逐句解 Line by line
Sanzang gave thanks for the favour again, called his three over, and they all went into the pavilion to look.
招呼他三眾 — he called the three of them over. A small gesture and the first time in the chapter that their master has physically gathered them to him. 又謝了恩 — thanked him again. That is the third time. It is becoming a tic, and the novel is letting it.
It was indeed the great country of China, and not like ordinary places.
中華大國 — the great central-flowering country, China's oldest name for itself. And the comparison being made is with everywhere the pilgrims have just been. They have eaten in India, in a kingdom of women, in a monastery on the Spirit Mountain and at the Buddha's own table. The novel says Chang'an beats all of it, and it is about to spend nineteen lines of verse proving it with vegetables.
Now look at this:
你看那 — the storyteller turning to the room and pointing. It is one of the seven verse cues in this chapter and it is used twice, here and at the very end. What it introduces is the longest single set piece in the chapter.
Doors hung with coloured embroidery; the floor laid under with red felt.
The long, unrhymed set piece that follows opens on the room rather than the food. 綵繡 is embroidered silk; 紅氈 is red felt, the carpet of a Tang official interior. Four-character phrases, two to a line. The metre will hold that shape for the next eight lines and then start stretching.
Rare scents thick in the air; strange dishes fresh from the kitchen.
馥郁 — a heavy, rich fragrance, a word used almost only of incense and flowers. It is doing the work of a stage direction: you are meant to smell the room before you see the plates.
Amber cups, glass bowls, inlaid with gold and touched with kingfisher blue;
The line breaks into threes and the rhythm changes. 點翠 is a real Tang and Ming craft — kingfisher feathers glued onto gilt metal to make an unfading blue. It was ruinously expensive and the birds paid for it. 玻璃, glass, was an import in the Tang and rarer at that table than the gold beside it.
Yellow gold dishes, white jade bowls, set with brocade and wound about with flowers.
The matching line, built the same way — three, three, four. Gold against amber, jade against glass, brocade against kingfisher. And not one word yet about what is on any of it.
The Tang monk calls his three over — the first time in the chapter he has gathered them to him — and they walk into the East Pavilion together. What they see, the novel says, beats anywhere else on earth.
Which is a considerable claim, because these four have eaten in India, in a kingdom of women, on the Spirit Mountain, and at the Buddha's own table. Chang'an is going to win the comparison with vegetables, and the novel takes nineteen lines of verse to do it.
It opens on the room, not the plates: embroidered doors, red felt underfoot, and then a run of gold, jade, amber and glass, with kingfisher-feather blue inlaid into the metal. Glass was an import in the Tang and rarer at that table than the gold beside it. Four lines in, nothing has been served.