原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
將狀子呈上 He Handed Up The Plaint
行者將牌位、香爐放下，朝上禮畢，將狀子呈上。葛仙翁接了，鋪在御案。行者将牌位、香炉放下，朝上礼毕，将状子呈上。葛仙翁接了，铺在御案。
逐句解 Line by line
行者將牌位、香爐放下，朝上禮畢，將狀子呈上。
行者将牌位、香炉放下，朝上礼毕，将状子呈上。
Pilgrim set down the tablets and the incense burner, made his bow to the throne, and handed up the plaint.
Three actions in order: exhibits down, obeisance made, document submitted. It is the correct sequence for presenting a case, and Pilgrim performs it without being told. 朝 is cháo, to face toward — facing the throne — not the zhāo of morning. Both 將 are the disposal marker jiāng, taking each object and putting it in front of its verb.
葛仙翁接了，鋪在御案。
葛仙翁接了，铺在御案。
The Immortal Ge received it and spread it out on the imperial desk.
One of the four patriarchs from the previous passage, now acting as clerk of the court. Heaven in this novel is staffed entirely by people who used to be somebody else.
Twenty-seven characters, and they are all procedure. The novel slows to the pace of a court record precisely at the moment when its hero has stopped fighting and started filing.
Nobody in the scene finds this odd. That is the joke: a monkey who once wrecked this building is now going through its procedures correctly.