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。那国王即著多官看守著假老虎不题。
逐句解 Line by line
By this time the court already knew him for a fiend.
朝中 (cháo zhōng), at court; 中 read zhōng, 朝 read cháo.
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, near dawn; 更 read gēng. 還 read hái.
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 depart without leave-taking. 越發 (yuèfā), all the more.
The king thereupon set the many officers to guard the false tiger — of which no more for now.
即著 (jí zhuó), thereupon directed, ordered; 著 here the causative verb, read zhuó. 看守著 (kānshǒu zhe), guarding — durative; 看 read kān, the second 著 read zhe. 不題 (bù tí), “no more of this for now,” a storyteller’s formula. 那 read nà.
The passage steps aside from the demon’s errand to close the account of the Baoxiang court, and in doing so springs the second half of the trap the previous passage set. The disclosures come in the storyteller’s brisk retrospective manner — the devoured maid, the seventeen who fled to report at the fifth watch, the abrupt departure — each confirming what the court now grasps: the handsome son-in-law was a monster all along.
The detail of the false tiger set under guard keeps the transformed Tripitaka in the reader’s eye, a mute reminder of the stakes, and the closing formula — “of which no more for now” — hands the narrative back to the cave, where the demon hastens toward the disguised Great Sage. The double movement, court and cave, is managed with the practised ease of a tradition long accustomed to weaving two threads toward a single knot.