無媒不可 No Match Without a Go-Between
驛丞又奏道：「主公之論，乃萬代傳家之好。但只是御弟三徒兇惡，不成相貌。」女王道：「卿見御弟怎生模樣？他徒弟怎生兇醜？」驛丞道：「御弟相貌堂堂，丰姿英俊，誠是天朝上國之男兒，南贍中華之人物。那三徒卻是形容獰惡，相貌如精。」女王道：「既如此，把他徒弟與他領給，倒換關文，打發他往西天，只留下御弟，有何不可？」眾官拜奏道：「主公之言極當，臣等欽此欽遵。但只是匹配之事，無媒不可。自古道：『姻緣配合憑紅葉，月老夫妻繫赤繩。』」女王道：「依卿所奏，就著當駕太師作媒，迎陽驛丞主婚，先去驛中與御弟求親。待他許可，寡人卻擺駕出城迎接。」那太師、驛丞領旨出朝。驿丞又奏道：「主公之论，乃万代传家之好。但只是御弟三徒凶恶，不成相貌。」女王道：「卿见御弟怎生模样？他徒弟怎生凶丑？」驿丞道：「御弟相貌堂堂，丰姿英俊，诚是天朝上国之男儿，南赡中华之人物。那三徒却是形容狞恶，相貌如精。」女王道：「既如此，把他徒弟与他领给，倒换关文，打发他往西天，只留下御弟，有何不可？」众官拜奏道：「主公之言极当，臣等钦此钦遵。但只是匹配之事，无媒不可。自古道：『姻缘配合凭红叶，月老夫妻系赤绳。』」女王道：「依卿所奏，就着当驾太师作媒，迎阳驿丞主婚，先去驿中与御弟求亲。待他许可，寡人却摆驾出城迎接。」那太师、驿丞领旨出朝。
逐句解 Line by line
The warden further submitted, 「Your Majesty's reasoning is a good thing that will be handed down for ten thousand generations.
傳家之好 — a good thing passed down within a house — is the language of lineage, and the warden takes the queen's dynastic argument at its own valuation before raising her objection.
Only the imperial brother's three disciples are fierce and evil to look on, and have no proper appearance.」
The first practical difficulty anyone has raised, and look what it is. 不成相貌 is idiomatic: they do not add up to a proper set of features. 相貌 takes 相 as xiàng, appearance.
The queen said, 「How did the imperial brother appear to you, minister? And how fierce and ugly are his disciples?」
模樣 is mú, the look of a thing — not the mó of 模範. 卿 is a sovereign's familiar address to a minister, something like "my dear minister."
The warden said, 「The imperial brother's countenance is noble and his bearing handsome; he is truly a son of the celestial dynasty of a superior realm, a figure out of the Middle Kingdom in the Southern Continent.
The warden is placing Tripitaka on the map of the world, not merely praising him: 南贍 is short for 南贍部洲, Jambudvīpa, the southern of the four continents of Buddhist geography, in which China lies. 天朝 takes 朝 as cháo; 中華 is huá; 男兒 takes 兒 as ér, the word for a person, not the small-and-familiar ending.
Those three disciples, however, are hideous of form, and their features are like goblins.」
如精 — like a 精, a goblin or spirit — is a lay person's word, and the irony is that it is very nearly accurate. 相貌 again takes xiàng.
The queen said, 「If that is so, issue his disciples their provisions, countersign the passport, and send them off toward the Western Heaven; keep only the imperial brother here. What objection can there be?」
The queen's solution is administrative: the disciples are a paperwork problem and are disposed of with the paperwork. It is also, as she does not say, the removal of Tripitaka's entire protection. 領給 again takes 給 as jǐ, the issue of travel rations and funds; 倒換 takes 倒 as dǎo.
The officials bowed and submitted, 「Your Majesty's words are entirely apt; we your servants receive and obey them.
極當 takes 當 as dàng, apt or fitting — against the dāng it takes in 知當 and 當駕 nearby. 欽此欽遵 is the set formula of compliance that closes a received imperial order.
Only in the matter of a match, it cannot be done without a go-between.
匹配 is the formal word for a marriage pairing. Note that the objection is procedural, not moral, which is the comic method of the whole passage: every step toward Tripitaka's ruin is taken correctly.
From of old it has been said: A marriage bond is joined upon the token of the red leaf; the Old Man of the Moon binds husband and wife with a scarlet cord.」
Two of the standard authorities for a destined match. 紅葉, the red leaf, points to the story of the palace lady who floated a poem on a leaf down the moat and married the man who found it; 月老, the Old Man of the Moon, is the god who ties the ankles of destined couples together with a scarlet cord — the Chinese equivalent of a matchmaking Cupid, and still the word reached for today when a friend sets two people up. 繫 is xì, the literary "to bind." The couplet is a proverb quoted inside a speech, which is why it is not marked as verse.
The queen said, 「It shall be as my ministers submit. Let the Grand Preceptor in attendance act as go-between and the warden of the Posthouse of Welcomed Yang preside over the match; let them go first to the posthouse and ask the imperial brother for his hand.
求親 is to ask formally for a marriage, and the direction of the asking is the joke: it is the woman's court that sues. 就著 takes 著 as zhuó, the reading that means setting someone to a task. 當駕 takes 當 as dāng, in attendance on the imperial carriage; 驛中 takes 中 as zhōng.
When he has consented, We shall set forth the imperial equipage and go out of the city to receive him.」
擺駕 is to marshal the sovereign's carriage and train. She assumes consent and plans the procession in the same sentence, which is characteristic: it has not once occurred to her that the answer might be no.
The Grand Preceptor and the warden received the edict and left the court.
領旨 is to receive an imperial command; 出朝 takes 朝 as cháo, the court. The sentence closes the audience and sends off the embassy that the next passage follows back to the posthouse.
The objection the warden raises is the funniest thing in the chapter so far, because of what it is not. Presented with a proposal to detain a foreign monk and marry him to the sovereign, her single reservation is that his companions are unsightly. Nobody at this court asks whether Tripitaka wishes to be married. The question does not come up, and its absence is the sharpest satire in the passage.
The queen's remedy is worth attending to as policy. She separates the man from his escort by giving the escort exactly what it came for — provisions, a stamped passport, safe conduct west — and keeps the one person she wants. It is elegant, entirely lawful, and it would work. That the disciples are the only thing standing between Tripitaka and the rest of his life in Western Liang is a fact the queen has grasped and Tripitaka has not.
Then the ministers raise the procedural point, and the episode shows its shape. No match without a go-between; so a go-between is appointed, along with an officer to preside, and a proverb is produced to authorise the whole arrangement. The red leaf and the scarlet cord are the standard furniture of Chinese marriage lore, invoked here to lend the abduction of a celibate monk the dignity of destiny. The novel lets the quotation stand without comment, which does more damage than mockery would.
The passage ends with two officials walking out of a throne room carrying an order, and that image is the real threat. Tripitaka has faced demons who wanted to eat him and sorcerers who wanted to steal his powers, and he has survived them all with a disciple's help. What is coming for him now is a marriage proposal with a functioning state behind it, and there is nothing in it for Wukong to hit.