原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
收拾辦齋 A Meal Is Made Ready
進方丈中，與喇嘛僧相見，分了坐次。那和尚入裡邊，引出七八十個小喇嘛來，見禮畢，收拾辦齋管待。进方丈中，与喇嘛僧相见，分了坐次。那和尚入里边，引出七八十个小喇嘛来，见礼毕，收拾办斋管待。
逐句解 Line by line
進方丈中，與喇嘛僧相見，分了坐次。
进方丈中，与喇嘛僧相见，分了坐次。
They went into the abbot's room, met the lama monks, and took their places in order.
分了坐次 — the seating was divided out. Precedence at a meal is not a small matter, and settling it is how a group of strangers becomes a household for the evening.
那和尚入裡邊，引出七八十個小喇嘛來，見禮畢，收拾辦齋管待。
那和尚入里边，引出七八十个小喇嘛来，见礼毕，收拾办斋管待。
The monk went inside and brought out seventy or eighty little lamas, and when the courtesies had been done they set about getting a meal ready.
Seventy or eighty novices is a substantial establishment — this is a working monastery with a full community, which makes the abandoned front half a policy rather than a decline.
The chapter ends in the most ordinary way imaginable: introductions, seating, and somebody putting food on. After a day of demons and legal threats and a bell that talked, the party sits down to supper.
The number is the quiet shock. Seventy or eighty novices have been living behind that wall the whole time. The ruin at the front is not what happened to this monastery; it is what this monastery decided to do.