朝中知妖 The Court Discerns the Fiend
此時朝中已知他是個妖怪了。原來他夜裡吃了一個宮娥，還有十七個脫命去的，五更時奏了國王，說他如此如此。又因他不辭而去，越發知他是怪。那國王即著多官看守著假老虎不題。此时朝中已知他是个妖怪了。原来他夜里吃了一个宫娥，还有十七个脱命去的，五更时奏了国王，说他如此如此。又因他不辞而去，越发知他是怪。那国王即着多官看守着假老虎不题。
逐句解 Line by line
By this time the court already knew him for a fiend.
朝中, cháo zhōng, at court. The narrator steps sideways for a moment to close an account.
For it turned out that in the night he had devoured a palace maid, and that seventeen more had escaped with their lives and at the fifth watch reported to the king, telling him thus and thus.
宮娥, gōng é, a palace waiting-maid; 脫命, tuō mìng, to escape with one's life; 五更, wǔ gēng, the fifth night-watch, the small hours before dawn — 更 read gēng, the watch, not gèng, "still more." Seventeen witnesses and one victim: the son-in-law ate a girl at his own banquet.
And because he had gone off without taking leave, the more surely did they know him for a monster.
不辭而去, bù cí ér qù, to leave without taking leave; 越發, yuè fā, all the more. The bad manners settle it.
The king thereupon set the many officers to guard the false tiger — of which no more for now.
不題, bù tí, "no more of this for now," is the storyteller's formula for putting one thread down to pick another up. Note the two different 著 in this line: 即著, jí zhuó, "thereupon ordered," is the plain verb, while 看守著, kān shǒu zhe, "guarding," is the "-ing" form, zhe. Same character, two jobs, one sentence.
The chapter leaves the demon on the road for a moment and goes back to tidy up the court he has just walked out of — and the tidying turns out to be the other half of the trap. Three facts arrive in quick retrospect: a palace maid eaten in the night, seventeen more who got away and told the king at dawn, and a son-in-law who left without saying goodbye. Any one of them might have been explained away. Together they settle it, and the handsome scholar stands revealed to everyone except himself.
The detail of the false tiger set under guard keeps the transformed Tripitaka in view, a mute reminder of the stakes, and the closing formula hands the narrative back to the cave, where the demon is hurrying toward the disguised Great Sage. The double movement, court and cave, is managed with the ease of a tradition long practised at weaving two threads into one knot.