託夢正宮 A Dream Sent to the Queen
三藏道：「此物何如？」那人道：「全真自從變作我的模樣，只是少變了這件寶貝。他到宮中，說那求雨的全真拐了此珪去了。自此三年，還沒此物。我太子若看見，他睹物思人，此仇必報。」三藏道：「也罷，等我留下，著徒弟與你處置。卻在那裡等麼？」那人道：「我也不敢等。我這去，還央求夜遊神，再使一陣神風，把我送進皇宮內院，託一夢與我那正宮皇后，教他母子們合意，你師徒們同心。」三藏點頭應承道：「你去罷。」三藏道：「此物何如？」那人道：「全真自从变作我的模样，只是少变了这件宝贝。他到宫中，说那求雨的全真拐了此珪去了。自此三年，还没此物。我太子若看见，他睹物思人，此仇必报。」三藏道：「也罢，等我留下，着徒弟与你处置。却在那里等么？」那人道：「我也不敢等。我这去，还央求夜游神，再使一阵神风，把我送进皇宫内院，托一梦与我那正宫皇后，教他母子们合意，你师徒们同心。」三藏点头应承道：「你去罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, “What of this object?”
此物何如 — "what about this object?" Tripitaka still does not see it.
The man said, “Ever since the Quanzhen adept took on my likeness, this one treasure alone he failed to counterfeit.
And here is the flaw in the perfect copy. The fiend could reproduce a man; he could not reproduce this. 少變 has 少 as shǎo, to lack or fail to do. Why the tablet defeated him the text never says, which is part of its power.
Come into the palace, he gave out that the rain-summoning Quanzhen adept had made off with this tablet.
So he covered the gap with a story — the rain-adept ran off with it — and thereby, without knowing it, made the tablet into evidence against himself. 拐了 is to abscond with; 宮中 takes the locative zhōng; 那 is the pointing nà.
For three years since, the thing has still been wanting.
Three years missing, three years of everyone knowing it is missing. 還沒 has 還 as hái, still.
Should my crown prince see it, then, the object recalling the man, this wrong will surely be avenged.”
The recognition mechanism, named exactly: 睹物思人 dǔ wù sī rén, "see the thing, think of the person" — still the phrase for the ache of finding a dead relative's belongings in a drawer. Here it is being weaponised. 此仇必報 is "this wrong must be requited"; 太子 takes 子 as zǐ.
Tripitaka said, “Very well; let me keep it, and set my disciple to deal with the matter for you.
He agrees. 也罷 is the sigh of a man giving in — "well, all right then." 著徒弟 has 著 as zhuó, setting someone to a task; 處置 has 處 as chǔ, the verb "deal with," not chù, a place.
But where shall I await him?”
A practical question, asked in the middle of a supernatural audience: where do I wait? 那裡 here is nǎ lǐ, the question word.
The man said, “I dare not wait, either.
Even the ghost is on a schedule. 不敢 — dare not, because dawn is coming.
Going now, I shall further entreat the Night-Roaming Spirit to raise once more a gust of divine wind and send me into the inner courts of the palace, there to lodge a dream with my own principal queen — that mother and son may be brought to one mind, and you, master and disciples, to one heart.”
He is not finished for the night: a second dream, this one for the queen, so that mother, son and pilgrims all wake into the same plan. It is a murdered man running his own investigation. 教 is jiào, the causative; 母子們 takes 子 as zǐ; 那正宮 takes the pointing nà; 還 is hái, further.
Tripitaka nodded in assent and said, “Go, then.”
Two characters of dismissal — 你去罷 — and the audience is over. 應承 has 應 as yìng, to assent, against the yīng of 想應 back at the start of the previous passage.
The tablet's logic is completed here, and it is neat. It is the one thing the impostor could not counterfeit, so he explained its absence with a lie — the rain-adept stole it — and in doing so turned it into the perfect proof. When it reappears in the prince's hands, it does not merely identify the dead king; it convicts the living one. "See the thing, think of the person" is the exact mechanism the plot needs.
Then the ghost leaves to plant a second dream on his wife, so that mother and son and pilgrims will all be working to the same design by morning. It is worth pausing on how strange this is: the murdered man is not haunting anyone. He is organising. Tripitaka's nod ends the long night audience and hands the chapter over to Wukong.