原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
敬以潔禮 A Pure Rite Of Invitation
不多時，禮拜畢，分班啟奏道：「上告神僧孫長老：我等俱朱紫國王之臣，今奉王旨，敬以潔禮參請神僧，入朝看病。」不多时，礼拜毕，分班启奏道：「上告神僧孙长老：我等俱朱紫国王之臣，今奉王旨，敬以洁礼参请神僧，入朝看病。」
逐句解 Line by line
不多時，禮拜畢，分班啟奏道：「上告神僧孫長老：我等俱朱紫國王之臣，今奉王旨，敬以潔禮參請神僧，入朝看病。」
不多时，礼拜毕，分班启奏道：「上告神僧孙长老：我等俱朱紫国王之臣，今奉王旨，敬以洁礼参请神僧，入朝看病。」
Before long the obeisances were done, and they divided into ranks and made their report: "We address the Divine Monk, the Elder Sun. We are all ministers of the king of Purpuria, and by his order we respectfully invite the Divine Monk with a pure rite to enter the court and look at his sickness."
分 is fēn, to divide into ranks, and not the fèn share offered in this same room a few passages back. 參 is cān in 參請 as it was in 參拜, and 長 is zhǎng in 孫長老.
Forty-three characters of pure officialese, and every clause is a formal instrument: the address, the identification of the petitioners, the authority they act under, the request, the purpose. This is a state memorial delivered on the floor of a guest house.
神僧 twice inside one sentence. The title the king invented is now being used as though it were the man's rank, by his own ministers, to a monkey who has said nothing since asking whether they were the notice-keepers.