萬千之喜 A Thousand Joys For My Lord
當分了四個太監、六個校尉,更不待宣召,徑入朝,當階奏道:「主公萬千之喜。」那國王正與三藏膳畢清談,忽聞此奏,問道:「喜自何來?」当分了四个太监、六个校尉,更不待宣召,径入朝,当阶奏道:「主公万千之喜。」那国王正与三藏膳毕清谈,忽闻此奏,问道:「喜自何来?」
逐句解 Line by line
So four eunuchs and six guardsmen were told off, and without waiting to be summoned they went straight into court and reported at the foot of the steps: "A thousand thousand joys for our lord!"
當 appears twice with the same reading dāng doing different work — first 'thereupon', then 'at' the steps. 分 is fēn here, to divide a body of men, and not the fèn share the officials offered a passage ago.
The king had just finished the meal and was talking quietly with Tripitaka when he heard the report, and asked, "Whence comes this joy?"
The narrative picks up the thread it closed some two thousand two hundred characters back, and finds the two of them exactly where it left them: still at the table, still talking.
更不待宣召 — they do not wait to be summoned. A palace runs on being summoned, and ten men have just walked past that rule because a monkey told them to fetch their king.
And the king is mid-conversation. The chapter shut the door on that meal deliberately, and reopens it to show that nothing has happened there at all while a proclamation was stolen, a pig arrested and a delegation sent across the city.