牒文 The Passport Is Read
那國王道：「長老，你到我國中何事？」三藏道：「小僧是唐朝釋子，承我天子敕旨，前往西方取經。原領有文牒，到陛下上國，理合倒換。故此不識進退，驚動龍顏。」國王道：「既有唐天子文牒，取上來看。」三藏雙手捧上去，展開放在御案上。牒云：南贍部洲大唐國奉天承運唐天子牒行：切惟朕以涼德，嗣續丕基，事神治民，臨深履薄，朝夕是惴。前者失救涇河老龍，獲譴於我皇皇后帝，三魂七魄，倏忽陰司，已作無常之客。因有陽壽未絕，感冥君放送回生，廣陳善會，修建度亡道場。感蒙救苦觀世音菩薩金身出現，指示西方有佛有經，可度幽亡，超脫孤魂。特著法師玄奘，遠歷千山，詢求經偈。倘到西邦諸國，不滅善緣，照牒放行。須至牒者。大唐貞觀一十三年秋吉日，御前文牒。（上有寶印九顆）那国王道：「长老，你到我国中何事？」三藏道：「小僧是唐朝释子，承我天子敕旨，前往西方取经。原领有文牒，到陛下上国，理合倒换。故此不识进退，惊动龙颜。」国王道：「既有唐天子文牒，取上来看。」三藏双手捧上去，展开放在御案上。牒云：南赡部洲大唐国奉天承运唐天子牒行：切惟朕以凉德，嗣续丕基，事神治民，临深履薄，朝夕是惴。前者失救泾河老龙，获谴于我皇皇后帝，三魂七魄，倏忽阴司，已作无常之客。因有阳寿未绝，感冥君放送回生，广陈善会，修建度亡道场。感蒙救苦观世音菩萨金身出现，指示西方有佛有经，可度幽亡，超脱孤魂。特着法师玄奘，远历千山，询求经偈。倘到西邦诸国，不灭善缘，照牒放行。须至牒者。大唐贞观一十三年秋吉日，御前文牒。（上有宝印九颗）
逐句解 Line by line
The king said, 'Elder, on what business have you come to my kingdom?'
長老 (長 = zhǎng) is the courteous term for a senior monk; 國中 (中 = zhōng) is "within my country." The king asks the obvious question, and gets a document for an answer.
Tripitaka said, 'This humble monk is a disciple of Śākya from Tang. Bearing the edict of my Son of Heaven, I journey westward to fetch the scriptures. I carry from the first a travel-rescript, and coming to Your Majesty's high realm, it is only proper that it be renewed. And so, not knowing the bounds of decorum, I have disturbed the dragon countenance.'
釋子 (子 = zǐ) is "a son of Śākya," a Buddhist monk; 天子 (also zǐ) is the Son of Heaven, the emperor — the same character, two very different sons. 敕旨 is an imperial edict, 倒換 (倒 = dào) the renewal of the rescript, and 龍顏, "the dragon countenance," is the emperor's face, which Tripitaka apologises for having troubled.
Said the king, 'Since you have the travel-rescript of the Tang Son of Heaven, bring it up that I may see it.' Tripitaka lifted it up in both hands, spread it open, and laid it on the royal desk. The rescript read:
天子 (子 = zǐ) again, 御案 is the royal desk, and 牒云, "the rescript reads," is the narrator handing over to the document itself.
The Son of Heaven of Great Tang, of the Southern Jambū Continent, who by Heaven's warrant carries on the imperial course, issues this rescript: Humbly do We consider that We, of scant virtue, have succeeded to the great foundation. In serving the spirits and governing the people, We are as one who nears a deep abyss or treads upon thin ice, anxious from dawn to dusk.
The passport speaks chancery Chinese, and it is worth hearing how thick the layers are. 南贍部洲 is Jambudvīpa, the southern continent of Buddhist cosmology — so Tang is being located on a Buddhist world-map. 奉天承運, "in reverent receipt of Heaven, carrying on its course," is the fixed opening of an imperial edict; 朕 is the imperial "We"; 涼德, "meagre virtue," is the ritual self-deprecation every emperor performed. And 臨深履薄 (薄 = bó) compresses two lines from the 詩經 — 如臨深淵, as if facing an abyss, and 如履薄冰, as if treading thin ice. That second one is still in daily use in Chinese, and English arrived at the same picture independently: walking on thin ice. 朝夕 (朝 = zhāo) is from morning to night.
Some while ago, having failed to save the old dragon of the Jing River, We drew the reproach of the august Sovereign on High. Our three cloud-souls and seven white-souls were carried off in a moment to the offices of the shades, and We were already become a guest of impermanence. But because Our earthly span was not yet spent, the Lord of the Netherworld took pity and sent Us back to life; whereupon We set forth a great assembly of good works and raised an altar for the deliverance of the dead.
This paragraph is the whole frame-story of the novel, filed as officialese. It recaps the opening Chang'an chapters: Tàizōng failed to save the 涇河老龍, the old Dragon of the Jing River, was summoned below for it, and was sent back. 三魂七魄, the three cloud-souls and seven white-souls, is Daoist anatomy — a person is a committee, and at death it disbands. 陰司 is the offices of the shades, government departments staffed by the dead; 無常 is impermanence walking about as a death-messenger; 冥君, "Lord of the Dark Realm," is Yama. 度亡道場 (度 = dù) is the ritual arena for ferrying the dead across, the Grand Mass of Land and Water.
It was Our good fortune that the Bodhisattva Guanyin, Reliever of Suffering, made manifest her golden body and revealed that in the West there are Buddhas and there are scriptures, by which the dead in darkness may be delivered and lonely souls set free. We therefore specially charged the Dharma-master Xuanzang to pass afar over a thousand mountains and to seek out the scriptures and gāthās.
And here is why anybody is walking to India at all. 救苦觀世音菩薩 (觀 = guān) is Guanshiyin, the bodhisattva who relieves suffering, and 金身 her golden body made visible. 度幽亡 (度 = dù) is to ferry the dead out of the dark. 特著 takes 著 as zhuó, the plain verb "to depute, to charge with" — one of the four values this busy character carries. 玄奘 (奘 = zàng) is Xuánzàng, the historical pilgrim behind the novel's Tripitaka; 經偈 is sūtras and gāthās, scriptures and verses.
Should he come to the several kingdoms of the West, let the bond of good affinity not be cut off, but suffer him to pass on the warrant of this rescript. Such is the rescript, to be complied with. Issued before the throne on an auspicious autumn day, in the thirteenth year of the Zhenguan reign of the Great Tang.
不滅善緣, "do not cut the good affinity," asks for safe passage in Buddhist terms rather than diplomatic ones; 照牒放行 is "let him travel on the authority of this document." 須至牒者 is the fixed sign-off of an official dispatch — "this being the document to be acted upon" — the Tang equivalent of a form ending in its own file number. 貞觀 (觀 = guàn) is the Zhenguan reign, 627 to 649, so its thirteenth year is 639.
(Nine treasure-seals were impressed above.)
The narrator steps in for one line to count the seals. 顆 is the measure-word for a seal-impression, and nine of them is a lot — this document is meant to look unanswerable.
The passport read out at the Baoxiang court is the novel's own frame-story in miniature, rendered in the language of an imperial rescript. It rehearses the whole chain that set the pilgrimage going: Tàizōng's fatal failure to save the Dragon of the Jing River, his summons to the underworld and reprieve, the great mass for the dead, and Guanyin's revelation that only the scriptures of the West can release the souls still in the dark — ending in the commission of Xuánzàng. Reproduced here, hundreds of pages into the journey, it reminds the reader that this trudge through demon country rests on a mandate issued in Chang'an, and that somebody is expecting a delivery.
The document's texture is characteristically mixed. Its cosmology is Buddhist (南贍部洲, scriptures that 度幽亡, Guanyin's golden body); its anatomy of the soul is Daoist (三魂七魄, the 陰司, the 冥君); and its prose is pure Confucian chancery (奉天承運, 朕以涼德, 臨深履薄, 須至牒者). That layering is the novel's own idiom in small. Functionally the rescript re-authorises Tripitaka at each new threshold, and its nine seals, noted in the closing aside, vouch for him before a throne that is about to ask him for a great deal more than a stamp.