不知是計 Not Knowing It Was a Plan
三藏道：「敢煩陛下相同貧僧送他三人出城，待我囑付他們幾句，教他好生西去，我卻回來，與陛下永受榮華，無掛無牽，方可會鸞交鳳友也。」女王不知是計，便傳旨擺駕，與三藏並倚香肌，同登鳳輦，出西城而去。滿城中都盞添淨水，爐降真香：一則看女王鑾駕，二來看御弟男身。沒老沒小，盡是粉容嬌面，綠鬢雲鬟之輩。不多時，大駕出城，到西關之外。三藏道：「敢烦陛下相同贫僧送他三人出城，待我嘱付他们几句，教他好生西去，我却回来，与陛下永受荣华，无挂无牵，方可会鸾交凤友也。」女王不知是计，便传旨摆驾，与三藏并倚香肌，同登凤辇，出西城而去。满城中都盏添净水，炉降真香：一则看女王銮驾，二来看御弟男身。没老没小，尽是粉容娇面，绿鬓云鬟之辈。不多时，大驾出城，到西关之外。
逐句解 Line by line
「Might I trouble Your Majesty,」 said Tripitaka, 「to come out of the city with this poor monk and see the three of them off? Let me lay a few charges on them and set them well on their way west; then I shall come back, and Your Majesty and I may enjoy glory together for ever, with nothing hanging on the mind and nothing pulling at it — and only so may simurgh and phoenix come together.」
This is the longest and most fluent lie Tripitaka tells. 無掛無牽 — nothing hooked, nothing tied — is Buddhist vocabulary for detachment, and he is using it to promise a wedding night. 會鸞交鳳友 is a set figure for the same thing. 相同 takes 相 as xiāng; 教 is jiào; 榮華 takes 華 as huá.
The queen did not know it was a plan. She gave the command for the equipage, leaned her fragrant flesh against Tripitaka's, mounted the phoenix palanquin with him, and went out by the western wall of the city.
女王不知是計 — she did not know it was a stratagem — is the narrator stepping in for six characters to say what the reader has known for pages. The novel very rarely does this, and it does it here because the deception is about to be completed.
Throughout the whole city the lamps were all replenished with pure water and the censers sent up true incense — first, to see the queen's imperial carriage; second, to see the imperial brother's manly person.
一則…二來 is again the set pair for counting off points, keeping 一 as yī rather than shifting to yì as an ordinary numeral would. 都 is dōu, all — not the dū of a capital city, which is what 城中都 looks like at first glance. 城中 takes 中 as zhōng; 爐降 takes 降 as jiàng, to send down, matching 添 in the answering half-line.
Old and young alike, every one of them was of the powdered complexion and the tender face, the green temples and the cloudy coils of hair.
沒老沒小 is everyday speech for "without distinction of age." The city turns out to look at a man, exactly as it did in the marketplace at the chapter's opening — same crowd, same reason, and this time in good order. 沒 occurs twice, both méi; 盡 is jìn.
Before long the great equipage had come out of the city and reached the far side of the western pass.
西關 is the barrier gate on the western road, the counterpart of the 東關廂 where the pilgrims first came in. The chapter's geography closes here: in at the eastern suburb, out past the western pass.
Tripitaka's request is the last piece of the plan and he makes it himself, at length, in the queen's own manner. Come out with me; let me charge them; then I shall come back; and we will enjoy glory together with nothing hanging on the mind. Every clause is calculated, and the last one is 無掛無牽 — nothing hooked, nothing tied — a Buddhist formula for detachment used to promise a wedding night. The man who could not speak at all when the proposal was made is now the most persuasive person in the chapter.
Then the narrator does something he has avoided all chapter: 女王不知是計, the queen did not know it was a plan. Six characters, stated flatly, in a chapter that has otherwise let every deception stand without comment. The intrusion is not for the reader's information — the reader has known since the plan was laid — but to mark the moment the deception becomes irreversible.
And the city comes out to watch. Lamps filled with pure water, censers sending up incense, the whole population on the streets to see two things: their sovereign's carriage, and a man. It is the marketplace of the chapter's opening replayed in ceremonial order — the same crowd, the same curiosity, now dressed as a state occasion. Old and young alike, and every one of them a woman. The novel has arranged for its most cheerful crowd scene to stand immediately before the theft.