三藏袖裡 The Letter In His Sleeve
行者道：「你且去請他出來。」八戒急上殿，點點頭。三藏即便起身下殿，迎著行者。行者將一封戰書揣在三藏袖裡道：「師父收下，且莫與國王看見。」行者道：「你且去请他出来。」八戒急上殿，点点头。三藏即便起身下殿，迎着行者。行者将一封战书揣在三藏袖里道：「师父收下，且莫与国王看见。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said: "Go and ask him to come out."
且 is for now, for the moment — the same word that opened the chapter's first line, where Wukong for the moment did not give chase. The instruction comes with no reason attached to it.
Bajie hurried up into the hall and gave a nod.
Eight characters for the whole errand, and the message is delivered by 點點頭 — a doubled nod and nothing said. Whatever else Bajie is, he understood immediately that this was not to be announced.
Tripitaka rose at once, came down out of the hall and went to meet Pilgrim.
藏 is zàng in the monk's name, against the cáng of hiding that the same character took twice a couple of passages ago. 即便 is immediately: he asks nothing before coming.
Pilgrim tucked the sealed declaration of war into Tripitaka's sleeve and said: "Keep this by you, Master, and do not let the king see it yet."
揣 is to stuff something into a fold of clothing, and it is done before the instruction is given. The war letter has now been in a courier's pack, a sleeve of Wukong's and a sleeve of the monk's, and the king it is addressed to has still not been told that it exists.
Four sentences, and nobody asks a question in any of them. Wukong gives an instruction without a reason; Bajie carries it without a word; the monk comes without asking why; and the letter is inside his sleeve before he is told what it is. The obedience is complete and entirely unexplained.
This is the chapter's third concealment. The war letter came off a corpse, travelled in a sleeve and is now hidden in another one; the flag and gong are in the grass beside a road; and the king, who is the person the declaration is actually addressed to, is still inside the hall making conversation. Wukong is managing what the kingdom is allowed to know, and this is the first time he does it to his own master as well.