朗朗念道 The Rescript Read Aloud
沙僧又近前仔細再看，原來是孫行者高坐石臺之上，雙手扯著一張紙，朗朗的念道：沙僧又近前仔细再看，原来是孙行者高坐石台之上，双手扯着一张纸，朗朗的念道：
念了從頭又念。念了从头又念。
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk went nearer still and looked carefully again — and there was Sun Pilgrim, seated high on a stone terrace, holding a sheet of paper in both hands and reading it out in a clear ringing voice:
He is not gloating over loot. He is reading. 石臺 takes 石 at shí, stone. 仔細 takes 仔 at zǐ. 朗朗的 is again 的 standing in where a modern text would write 地, describing how he reads: clearly, ringingly, out loud. What follows is a spoken document rather than a poem, and it is marked with the chapter's verse label by ruling rather than because it scans.
“Li, King and Emperor of the Great Tang in the Land of the East. By command given before the throne, Our sworn younger brother the holy monk Chen Xuanzang, Master of the Law, goes up to the Great Thunderclap Monastery on Sahā Spirit Mountain in the country of India in the west, expressly to do reverence to the Buddha Tathāgata and to seek the scriptures.
The register changes completely, from storyteller's vernacular to court chancery, and the translation follows it. 玄奘 takes 奘 at zàng, as 三藏 does. 娑婆 spells out Sahā, the Buddhist name for the world we inhabit -- the one that has to be endured. 御弟 is the title the Emperor conferred in the early chapters: sworn younger brother to the throne.
“Whereas We were beset by a sudden sickness and Our soul wandered in the courts of the dead; and whereas it was Our good fortune that the years allotted Us were found to run long, so that by the favour of the Lord of the Shades We were sent back to the living; We thereupon spread a great assembly of merit and set up a rite for the deliverance of the departed.
The Emperor's own story, in one sentence. 陽數 takes 數 at shù -- the numbered span of a life among the living -- and 臻長 takes 長 at cháng, running to its full length. 度亡道場 takes 度 at dù, to ferry across, which is the standard verb for delivering the dead. The episode being summarised is the Emperor's descent to the underworld in Chapters 10 and 11.
“And whereas We were greatly favoured by the Bodhisattva Guanshiyin, who saves from bitterness and saves from calamity, appearing in her golden body and showing that in the west there are Buddhas and there are scriptures able to ferry over the shades of the dead and set them free: We have therefore charged the Master of the Law, Xuanzang, to pass over a thousand mountains and seek out the scriptures and their gathas.
盛蒙 takes 盛 at shèng -- greatly, in the polite sense of being much favoured -- the same reading as 陰氣盛 in the previous passage, and not the chéng of ladling rice. 救難 takes 難 at nàn, disaster. 特著法師 is 著 setting somebody to a task, zhuó. 偈 is jì, the verse summary that closes a section of scripture.
“Should he pass through the several states of the west, let them not cut off this good affinity, but act upon this rescript.
照牒施行 -- act in accordance with this document -- is the closing formula of a real travel permit, and 施行 keeps 行 at xíng. 善緣 is the Buddhist term for a connection between people that works toward salvation: not merely goodwill, but a karmic thread worth not cutting.
“Given on an auspicious day in autumn of the thirteenth year of the Zhenguan reign of the Great Tang. Rescript of the imperial presence.”
貞觀 takes 觀 at guān. 一十三 is the everyday spoken form of thirteen and takes the ordinary tone change to yì -- it is a plain number, not an ordinal, so the exception that protects ordinals does not reach it.
“Since parting from the great country, and passing through its several states, I have taken along the way a first disciple, Sun Wukong the Pilgrim; a second disciple, Zhu Wuneng, called Bajie; and a third disciple, Sha Wujing, the monk.”
The speaker changes here with no marker at all. The rescript proper ended at 文牒; this last sentence is Tripitaka's own endorsement, added along the road -- which is exactly what a real travel document accumulates as it is carried. 經度 takes 度 at dù, to pass through; 收得 is attainment 得, dé.
Having read it through, he began again from the top.
Six characters of prose close the reading, and they carry the whole second half of the chapter: 念了從頭又念. Having read it through, he began again from the top. He is committing it to memory.
This is what the theft was for. The two blue felt bundles held the travel rescript, and the figure on the stone terrace is not gloating over plunder -- he is reading the document aloud, and then reading it again from the beginning. 念了從頭又念 is the smallest possible sentence and it carries the chapter's whole second movement.
The document itself is the fullest statement of the pilgrimage's warrant anywhere in these chapters, and the novel reproduces it in proper chancery style -- the imperial We, the recital of causes, the operative clause, the date, the seal formula. It sums up the Emperor's descent to the underworld, the Bodhisattva's appearance and the commission; and its final sentence, added later and in a different voice, names the three disciples picked up along the road.
That final sentence is the dangerous one. A rescript naming Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing as the authorised party is a specification, and anyone who can read it and change shape has everything he needs to assemble a replacement company. The chapter's second title line says as much. And Sha Monk is standing close enough to hear the whole of it read out twice.