假充欽差 Posing as the Imperial Envoy
三藏道：「呀！他的軍令大，真個殺了我，怎麼好？」行者道：「沒事，有我哩，若到那緊關處，我自然護你。他若問時，你說是東土欽差上西天拜佛取經進寶的和尚。他道：『有甚寶貝？』你卻把錦襴袈裟對他說一遍，說道：『此是三等寶貝。還有頭一等、第二等的好物哩。』但問處，就說這匣內有一件寶貝，上知五百年，下知五百年，中知五百年，共一千五百年過去未來之事，俱盡曉得。三藏道：「呀！他的军令大，真个杀了我，怎么好？」行者道：「没事，有我哩，若到那紧关处，我自然护你。他若问时，你说是东土钦差上西天拜佛取经进宝的和尚。他道：『有甚宝贝？』你却把锦襕袈裟对他说一遍，说道：『此是三等宝贝。还有头一等、第二等的好物哩。』但问处，就说这匣内有一件宝贝，上知五百年，下知五百年，中知五百年，共一千五百年过去未来之事，俱尽晓得。
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, “Aiya!
One character of pure alarm. 呀 is the noise a person makes on realising what has just been proposed.
His military authority is great; should he really kill me, what then?”
And the objection is a good one. 軍令 is military authority — a prince on campaign can have a man executed on the spot, and Tripitaka has just been told to provoke him.
Pilgrim said, “No matter — I am here; when it comes to the truly critical moment, I will of course protect you.
The reassurance is three words long and entirely characteristic: 有我哩, "I am here." 那緊關處 is the critical juncture, with the pointing nà.
Should he ask, say you are a monk sent by imperial commission from the Eastern Land, going up to the Western Heaven to worship the Buddha, fetch the scriptures, and present treasures.
The cover story, which is the literal truth dressed as diplomacy. 欽差 qīn chāi is an imperially commissioned envoy, 差 read chāi, to dispatch, not chà, to differ. 佛 is always fó.
He will say, ‘What treasures have you?’
Wukong scripts the prince's line for him — and gets it right, as the later scene shows. The edition marks the imagined speech with its citation brackets 『』. 有甚 has 甚 as shén.
You then take the brocade cassock and tell him of it at length, saying, ‘This is a treasure of the third grade.
The bait is graded. Show the cassock, call it third-rate. 錦襴袈裟 is the brocade cassock, the great gift the pilgrimage set out with; 三等 is third grade.
There are yet finer things of the first grade and the second grade.’
The hook: there are better ones. Any prince told that the third-best thing is a wonder will ask about the first. 頭一等 keeps 一 as yī, the ordinal; 還有 has 還 as hái.
And whenever he asks, say that within this casket is a treasure that knows five hundred years above, five hundred years below, and five hundred years between — one thousand five hundred years of things past and to come, all fully known.
And the fantastic claim that will do the actual work: a thing in the box that knows five hundred years above, below and between — fifteen hundred years of past and future. Note the order Wukong gives here, up-down-middle; when Tripitaka repeats the pitch to the prince later he shuffles it to up-middle-down, which is either a good ear for how people garble a sales patter or a copyist's slip preserved as printed. 俱盡曉得 has 盡 as jìn, wholly, and 曉得 as dé; 中知五百年 takes the locative zhōng.
Tripitaka's alarm at being volunteered as bait for a prince's summary justice is entirely reasonable, and Wukong's answer — "no matter, I am here" — is the pilgrimage's standing rhythm in miniature: the frightened master steadied by the unbothered disciple.
The cover story recasts the pilgrims as an imperial embassy carrying treasures, and the graded pitch — this cassock is only the third-best thing we have — builds to the casket's outrageous boast of fifteen hundred years of knowledge. Wukong is setting himself up as an oracle for hire, baiting the prince's curiosity so that the hidden monkey can be formally consulted and tell him what he came to say.