登殿辭行 Ascending the Throne, Taking Leave
那國王苦讓不過，只得上了寶殿，南面稱孤，大赦天下，封贈了寶林寺僧人回去。卻才開東閣，筵宴唐僧。一壁廂傳旨宣召丹青，寫下唐師徒四位喜容，供養在金鑾殿上。那師徒們安了邦國，不肯久停，欲辭王駕投西。那皇帝與三宮妃后、太子、諸臣，將鎮國的寶貝、金銀緞帛，獻與師父酬恩。那三藏分毫不受，只是倒換關文，催悟空等背馬早行。那國王甚不過意，擺整朝鑾駕請唐僧上坐，著兩班文武引導，他與三宮妃后並太子一家兒，捧轂推輪，送出城廓，卻才下龍輦，與眾相別。國王道：「師父啊，到西天經回之日，是必還到寡人界內一顧。」三藏道：「弟子領命。」那皇帝閣淚汪汪，遂與眾臣回去了。那国王苦让不过，只得上了宝殿，南面称孤，大赦天下，封赠了宝林寺僧人回去。却才开东阁，筵宴唐僧。一壁厢传旨宣召丹青，写下唐师徒四位喜容，供养在金銮殿上。那师徒们安了邦国，不肯久停，欲辞王驾投西。那皇帝与三宫妃后、太子、诸臣，将镇国的宝贝、金银缎帛，献与师父酬恩。那三藏分毫不受，只是倒换关文，催悟空等背马早行。那国王甚不过意，摆整朝銮驾请唐僧上坐，着两班文武引导，他与三宫妃后并太子一家儿，捧毂推轮，送出城廓，却才下龙辇，与众相别。国王道：「师父啊，到西天经回之日，是必还到寡人界内一顾。」三藏道：「弟子领命。」那皇帝阁泪汪汪，遂与众臣回去了。
逐句解 Line by line
The king, unable to decline any further despite his earnest pleading, had no choice but to ascend the Precious Hall, face south and style himself sovereign, grant a general amnesty to the realm, and confer honors and rewards on the monks of Precious Grove Monastery before sending them back.
The coronation gets one clause and no ceremony at all. 那國王 takes the pointing nà. 只得, "had no choice but to," is a fixed pair in which 得 keeps its full weight, dé, "to get" — quite distinct from the light de that ran through the dressing scene a moment ago. Facing south is not decoration either: the ruler sat facing south and everyone else faced him, so "to face south" simply means "to reign."
Only then did he open the Eastern Hall and set out a banquet in Tripitaka's honor.
筵宴 — to lay on a banquet, here in Tripitaka's honour.
At the same time he sent out an edict summoning portrait-painters, to have the likenesses of the four pilgrims painted and set up for veneration in the Hall of the Golden Bells.
A charming sidelong detail. 丹青 means "cinnabar and blue-green" — the two costliest pigments on a painter's table — and the trade took its name from its materials, the way we might say "the brushes" and mean the artists.
The master and his disciples, having settled the realm, were unwilling to linger long, and wished to take leave of the royal presence and press on westward.
Business concluded, they will not linger. 那師徒們 takes the pointing nà.
The king, together with the three consorts of the palace, the crown prince, and all his ministers, would have offered the master the state's own treasures — gold, silver, and fine silks — in gratitude.
The state offers its treasury and gets nowhere. 那皇帝 takes the pointing nà, and 將 once more, jiāng, holds up the thing being offered ahead of the verb.
But Tripitaka would not accept so much as a hair's worth of it, and only had his travel rescript renewed, urging Wukong and the others to saddle the horse and set off early.
The refusal is total — 分毫不受, not so much as a hair's breadth accepted — and the one thing Tripitaka does want is paperwork. 那三藏 takes the pointing nà; 藏 is zàng. In 倒換關文, "to have the travel papers renewed," 倒 is dào, settled that way across the whole project. The 關文 is a transit permit that each kingdom stamps in turn, and Tripitaka never once passes a border without getting it done.
The king, greatly unwilling to let them go, had the court carriage made ready and invited Tripitaka to sit within it, had the two ranks of civil and military officials lead the way, and himself, together with the three consorts and the crown prince and the whole royal household, escorted the wheels in person out beyond the city walls, and only then descended from the dragon-carriage to take his leave of them all.
The send-off brings out the whole machinery of state. 那國王 takes the pointing nà. In 甚不過意, 甚 means "extremely" and is read shén. The 著 of 著兩班文武引導 is the order-giving one, zhuó. 一家兒, "the whole household," takes the light toneless er. And 相別 has the mutual 相, xiāng — they part from each other, not one from the other. The lovely phrase is 捧轂推輪, "cupping the hub and pushing the wheel": the king walks his guests' carriage out of the city with his own hands on it.
The king said: "Master, on the day you return with the scriptures from the Western Heaven, you must be sure to look in once more within this unworthy one's borders."
Come back this way. 是必還到 — 還 is hái, and here it presses the promise rather than merely stating it: mind you do come.
Tripitaka said: "Your disciple receives the charge."
A formula of acceptance, and no more. 藏 is zàng.
The king, tears welling in his eyes, then returned with his assembled ministers.
The chapter's last glimpse of Wūjī, and it is of a man in tears. 那皇帝 takes the pointing nà.
The king finally takes the throne, and the narrative gives it a single clause — 只得上了寶殿, "had no choice but to ascend the Precious Hall" — where another book would have staged a whole coronation. What the story does linger over is odder and better: portraits of the four travellers, commissioned on the spot and hung in the throne room for veneration. It is a small, telling touch. A cult is already forming around these four, the way shrines spring up behind them all through the novel, and it marks the end of the Wūjī business more eloquently than any crowning would.
The farewell is built out of refusals answering refusals. The offer of the state treasury is turned down exactly as the throne was turned down two passages back, and in the same terms — 分毫不受, not a hair's worth taken. The only thing Tripitaka will accept is a stamp on his travel papers. Then the king asks them to call in again on the way home, a courtesy the book never gets round to honouring, and walks their carriage out of his own city gate with his hands on the wheel. It is a genuinely affectionate ending, formal as it is — and the party turns west into a chapter title that has already promised chaos.