不待宣召 He Did Not Wait To Be Summoned
揭諦聞言,即著六丁神保護著唐僧,六甲神看守著金鐃,眾伽藍前後照察。他卻縱起祥光,須臾間,闖入南天門裡。不待宣召,直上靈霄寶殿之下,見玉帝,俯伏啟奏道:「主公,臣乃五方揭諦使。揭谛闻言,即着六丁神保护着唐僧,六甲神看守着金铙,众伽蓝前后照察。他却纵起祥光,须臾间,闯入南天门里。不待宣召,直上灵霄宝殿之下,见玉帝,俯伏启奏道:「主公,臣乃五方揭谛使。
逐句解 Line by line
When the Guardian heard this he set the Six Ding gods to protect the Tang Monk, the Six Jia gods to keep watch over the golden cymbals, and the protectors of the faith to patrol front and back.
著 stands three times in one sentence and the first is the odd one out: zhuó, the causative — to set somebody to a task — while the two that follow are the ordinary aspect particle zhe. 看 is kān in 看守, the custodial reading, not the kàn of merely looking.
Then he sprang up on an auspicious light and in a moment came bursting in at the Southern Gate of Heaven.
闖 is a horse coming through a gateway, which is most of the word's force: to burst in without ceremony. The next sentence admits as much outright.
Without waiting to be summoned he went straight up beneath the Divine Mists Treasure Hall, saw the Jade Emperor, prostrated himself and reported: "Lord, your servant is the Guardian Envoy of the Five Quarters."
He breaks protocol and apologises for it in the same breath — 不待宣召, without waiting to be summoned, and then a full prostration and a formal self-identification. Asserting the urgency and making up for it at once.
The Guardian's first act is to leave everybody where they are. Six gods on the master, six on the cymbals, the temple protectors walking the perimeter. The arrangement is competent and it changes nothing, because this is not a problem that guarding solves.
Then he goes over everyone's head, which is what the passage is really about. Pilgrim summoned him and could not use him; he goes to the Jade Emperor without being summoned at all. Authority in this chapter keeps working perfectly and keeps failing to help.