葷素兩樣 Two Tables, Meat and Meatless
那些文武官見主公與長老同登鳳輦，並肩而坐，一個個眉花眼笑，撥轉儀從，復入城中。孫大聖才教沙僧挑著行李，牽著白馬，隨大駕後邊同行。豬八戒往前亂跑，先到五鳳樓前，嚷道：「好自在，好現成呀。這個弄不成，這個弄不成，吃了喜酒進親才是。」諕得些執儀從引導的女官，一個個回至駕邊道：「主公，那一個長嘴大耳的，在五鳳樓前嚷道要喜酒吃哩。」女主聞奏，與長老倚香肩，偎並桃腮，開檀口，俏聲叫道：「御弟哥哥，長嘴大耳的是你那個高徒？」三藏道：「是我第二個徒弟。他生得食腸寬大，一生要圖口肥，須是先安排些酒食與他吃了，方可行事。」女主急問：「光祿寺安排筵宴，完否？」女官奏道：「已完，設了葷素兩樣，在東閣上哩。」女王又問：「怎麼兩樣？」女官奏道：「臣恐唐朝御弟與高徒等平素吃齋，故有葷素兩樣。」女王卻又笑吟吟，偎著長老的香腮道：「御弟哥哥，你吃葷吃素？」三藏道：「貧僧吃素，但是未曾戒酒。須得幾杯素酒，與我二徒弟吃些。」那些文武官见主公与长老同登凤辇，并肩而坐，一个个眉花眼笑，拨转仪从，复入城中。孙大圣才教沙僧挑着行李，牵着白马，随大驾后边同行。猪八戒往前乱跑，先到五凤楼前，嚷道：「好自在，好现成呀。这个弄不成，这个弄不成，吃了喜酒进亲才是。」諕得些执仪从引导的女官，一个个回至驾边道：「主公，那一个长嘴大耳的，在五凤楼前嚷道要喜酒吃哩。」女主闻奏，与长老倚香肩，偎并桃腮，开檀口，俏声叫道：「御弟哥哥，长嘴大耳的是你那个高徒？」三藏道：「是我第二个徒弟。他生得食肠宽大，一生要图口肥，须是先安排些酒食与他吃了，方可行事。」女主急问：「光禄寺安排筵宴，完否？」女官奏道：「已完，设了荤素两样，在东阁上哩。」女王又问：「怎么两样？」女官奏道：「臣恐唐朝御弟与高徒等平素吃斋，故有荤素两样。」女王却又笑吟吟，偎着长老的香腮道：「御弟哥哥，你吃荤吃素？」三藏道：「贫僧吃素，但是未曾戒酒。须得几杯素酒，与我二徒弟吃些。」
逐句解 Line by line
The civil and military officers, seeing their sovereign and the elder mount the phoenix palanquin together and sit shoulder to shoulder, were every one of them wreathed in smiles; they wheeled the ceremonial train about and went back into the city.
眉花眼笑 — brows in flower and eyes laughing — is a four-character formula of open delight. The court's satisfaction is total and entirely misplaced, which the previous passage has just made sure the reader knows. 城中 takes 中 as zhōng; in 一個個 the 一 shifts to yí before the falling tone of 個.
Only then did the Great Sage Sun set Sha Monk to shoulder the luggage and lead the white horse, and follow along behind the great equipage.
The escape is already being staged. 才 — only then — marks Pilgrim waiting until the procession has turned before quietly getting the party's baggage and mount into position behind it. Nobody notices. 挑 is tiāo, to carry on a shoulder-pole; 著 occurs twice, both the zhe that holds an action in place; 同行 here means to travel in company and takes 行 as xíng, not the háng that belongs to the sense of a fellow tradesman.
Zhu Eight Rules went scampering on ahead, reached the front of the Five-Phoenix Tower first, and bawled out, 「Very comfortable! Very convenient!
好自在, 好現成呀 is sarcastic: everything has been made easy for everybody except him. 呀 is the everyday exclamation.
This won't do, this won't do. The wedding wine should be drunk before the bride is taken in — that is the proper way.」
進親 is to bring the bride home, the concluding act of a wedding. Eight Rules is arguing procedure, and he is right on the procedure, which is exactly why it works.
He so startled the women officials who carried the regalia and led the way that they came back one and all to the carriage and said, 「Your Majesty, that one with the long snout and the big ears is bawling in front of the Five-Phoenix Tower that he wants wedding wine to drink.」
The report is delivered in the flat manner of officials reporting a disturbance, which is what makes it funny. 諕 is xià and 諕得 takes the linking dé; 長嘴 takes 長 as cháng, long; 哩 is li; in 一個個 the 一 shifts to yí before the falling tone of 個.
Hearing the report, the sovereign lady leaned her fragrant shoulder against the elder's, pressed her peach-blossom cheek to his, opened her sandalwood mouth and called prettily, 「My dear imperial brother, which of your worthy disciples is the one with the long snout and the big ears?」
She conducts an administrative enquiry about a disorderly pig without once letting go of her bridegroom, and the novel reports both halves in the same sentence. 檀口 — a sandalwood mouth — is a set poetic phrase for red lips. 長 occurs twice with different readings: 長老 is zhǎng, senior, and 長嘴 is cháng, long.
「That is my second disciple,」 said Tripitaka. 「He was born with a wide gullet and has spent his whole life seeking a full mouth. Some wine and food must be set out for him to eat first; only then can anything be done.」
食腸寬大 — a broad food-gut — is Eight Rules' standing epithet in the novel. 生得 takes 得 as dé; in 一生 the 一 shifts to yì before the flat tone of 生. This is the first time in the chapter Tripitaka has volunteered anything, and what he volunteers moves the plan forward.
The sovereign lady asked at once, 「Has the Court of Imperial Entertainments finished setting out the banquet?」
急問 — asked at once, urgently. Told there is an obstacle, her first instinct is to clear it, which is the same administrative reflex that produced the whole match: identify the blockage, task somebody with it, move on.
A woman official reported, 「It is finished. Two kinds have been laid, meat and meatless, in the Eastern Pavilion.」
葷 covers meat and also the pungent onion-family plants forbidden to monks, so 葷素兩樣 is not simply meat and vegetables but defiling food and permitted food. 哩 is li.
「Why two kinds?」 the queen asked again.
Eight characters. The queen has never in her life had occasion to feed a monk.
The woman official reported, 「Your servant feared that the imperial brother of the Tang and his worthy disciples habitually keep a meatless diet, and so there are two kinds, meat and meatless.」
吃齋 is to keep the monastic abstinence. The official has anticipated a requirement her sovereign did not know existed, which is the same competence this whole civil service has shown all chapter. 唐朝 takes 朝 as cháo.
The queen, smiling and smiling again, pressed close to the elder's fragrant cheek and said, 「My dear imperial brother, do you eat meat, or meatless?」
She asks the man she has married what he eats, which is an ordinary domestic question and, in the circumstances, an unanswerable one. 偎著 takes the zhe that holds an action in place; 長老 is zhǎng; 笑吟吟 is a doubled sound-word and keeps its ordinary readings.
「This poor monk keeps a meatless diet,」 said Tripitaka, 「but I have never taken a vow against wine.
未曾戒酒 — has never sworn off wine — is technically true and practically a concession. It is the second thing Tripitaka has volunteered in this passage after a chapter of silence, and both have served Pilgrim's plan.
A few cups of the meatless wine will be wanted, so that my second disciple may drink a little.」
素酒 is wine a monk may drink: unfortified, and brewed without animal products. Tripitaka is now arranging the drink for the disciple whose demand for it created the banquet at which the passport will be sealed. 須得 takes 得 as dé.
The procession turns for home and the chapter's tension quietly changes hands. Until now the danger has been to Tripitaka and the initiative has been the queen's; from here the plan is running, and the first sign of it is a single word. 才 — only then — marks the Great Sage waiting until the whole train has turned before setting Sha Monk to shoulder the luggage and take the horse. Nobody notices a party getting its baggage into position behind an imperial carriage, and that is exactly why it is done now.
Eight Rules then produces the chapter's second useful piece of gluttony. His objection is procedural — the wedding wine is drunk before the bride is taken in — and it is correct, which is why a court of officials who have spent the chapter insisting on correct form cannot refuse it. He wanted a drink at the posthouse and got one promised; he wants one here and gets a banquet. The plan needs exactly that banquet, and he has now supplied it twice without knowing it once.
The two tables are the passage's real subject. 葷素兩樣 — meat and meatless — is the country meeting the pilgrims halfway on a point of religious observance it has no experience of, and the official who thought of it did so unprompted. The queen has to ask why there are two. She has married a monk without knowing what monks eat, and that small domestic ignorance is more affecting than the grand deception, because it is the sort of thing a real marriage would have to work out.
Tripitaka speaks twice here, and both times he helps. He explains his disciple's appetite; he allows that he has never sworn off wine. After a chapter of 低頭不語 and 不敢擡頭 these are his first volunteered words, and both are in service of the fraud. Whatever the plan has cost him, he is now inside it and working.