原來還在 “Still Here, After All”
那國王道：「國師，朕未曾奉請，今日如何肯降？」老道士云：「有一事奉告，故來也。那四個和尚是那國來的？」國王道：「是東土大唐差去西天取經的，來此倒換關文。」那三道士鼓掌大笑道：「我說他走了，原來還在這裡。」那国王道：「国师，朕未曾奉请，今日如何肯降？」老道士云：「有一事奉告，故来也。那四个和尚是那国来的？」国王道：「是东土大唐差去西天取经的，来此倒换关文。」那三道士鼓掌大笑道：「我说他走了，原来还在这里。」
逐句解 Line by line
The king said, “Preceptors, I had not sent to invite you — how is it you have deigned to come today?”
那國王: 那 = nà. 未曾奉請 "I had not sent to invite you." 肯降: 降 = jiàng, "deign to come down" -- the king is using the language you would use to a god who had condescended to visit.
The old Daoist said, “There is a matter we come to report, and so we are here.
有一事: the falling tone of 事 pulls 一 to yí. 奉告 "to report respectfully."
Those four monks — what country are they from?”
Here is the pairing to enjoy. 那四個 has 那 = nà, pointing -- "those four monks." 那國 has the same character as nǎ, asking -- "which country?" One written form, two readings, two jobs, in a single breath of speech.
The king said, “They are ones dispatched from the Great Tang in the east to fetch scriptures from the Western Heaven, come here to have their rescript re-stamped.”
差去: 差 = chāi, to send someone on an official errand -- not chà, wrong or amiss, which is the reading the same character took back at 差錯. 倒換: 倒 = dào.
The three Daoists clapped their hands and laughed aloud, saying, “We said he had run off — so he was here all along!”
那三道士: 那 = nà. 還在這裡: 還 = hái, "still here." 原來 "so that's how it is" -- the word you use when a thing you had wondered about suddenly explains itself.
Two plot lines snap together. The immortals have come to court to complain about a burglary; the burglars are standing in front of the throne holding their travel papers.
The clapping and laughing is not amusement, it is triumph. They had assumed the culprit was long gone, and here he is, delivered to them inside their own palace, with the king already inclined to have him killed. From this moment a document-stamping becomes a trial.
The old Daoist's question also happens to be a small lesson in reading Chinese. 那四個 and 那國 put the pointing nà and the asking nǎ side by side, one clause apart.