掃塔去來 I Go To Sweep The Pagoda
三藏沐浴畢，穿了小袖褊衫，束了環絛，足下換一雙軟公鞋，手裡拿一把新笤帚，對眾僧道：「你等安寢，待我掃塔去來。」行者道：「塔上既被血雨所污，又況日久無光，恐生惡物；一則夜靜風寒，又沒個伴侶：自去恐有差池，老孫與你同上如何？」三藏道：「甚好，甚好。」三藏沐浴毕，穿了小袖褊衫，束了环绦，足下换一双软公鞋，手里拿一把新笤帚，对众僧道：「你等安寝，待我扫塔去来。」行者道：「塔上既被血雨所污，又况日久无光，恐生恶物；一则夜静风寒，又没个伴侣：自去恐有差池，老孙与你同上如何？」三藏道：「甚好，甚好。」
逐句解 Line by line
When Tripitaka had finished bathing he put on a narrow-sleeved short gown, tied a ringed sash about him, changed into a pair of soft slippers, took a new broom in his hand, and said to the monks, "Get you to your rest. I am going up to sweep the pagoda."
Five clauses of getting dressed before one clause of speech, which is unusual care from a novel that normally moves a character in a phrase. 褊衫 is the short monastic gown and 環絛 the sash with a ring on it. The whole outfit is chosen for climbing and working in.
Pilgrim said, "The pagoda has been fouled by the rain of blood, and it has been without light a long while besides; there may be evil things bred in it.
恐生惡物 is the first suggestion in the chapter that anything might be living up there, and it turns out to be right. Pilgrim reasons from neglect to danger, which is precisely the step nobody at court managed to take.
"For one thing the night is still and the wind cold, and you have no companion. Going alone there might be a mishap. Suppose old Sun goes up with you?"
一則 is a word rather than a number and holds yī, the second such site in the chapter. 差池 takes chā, a slip or a mishap — worth marking, because every other 差 in this stretch is the chāi of being sent somewhere, including one two segments further on.
Tripitaka said, "Very good, very good."
甚 is the intensifier at both occurrences here, shèn, very. Set it against 甚事 and 甚時分 earlier in the chapter, where the same character stands before a noun and is the question-word shén instead — and against 甚麼, where it is shén again. Which reading applies turns on what the character is standing next to, and nothing in the writing shows it.
Pilgrim invites himself along and gives three reasons, only the first of which is about danger. Cold, solitude, and the chance of a stumble: he is managing his master rather than warning him, and Tripitaka agrees in four characters without an argument.
The dressing is the memorable part. A man who wept in a cold hall a few hours ago bathes, changes into working clothes and soft shoes, and picks up a broom. The chapter has been assembling a religious act out of domestic materials since the monks went out to beg for that broom, and this is where it comes together.