卻見你師父 Now You See Your Master
天王掣開洞口,迎著行者道:「今番卻見你師父也。」行者道:「多謝了,多謝了。」就引三藏拜謝天王,次及太子。天王掣开洞口,迎着行者道:「今番却见你师父也。」行者道:「多谢了,多谢了。」就引三藏拜谢天王,次及太子。
逐句解 Line by line
The Heavenly King pulled the cave mouth open and came to meet Pilgrim. "This time you do see your master."
著 is zhe, going out to meet him and still going. 今番 is this time round, against the 前番 of before — and the Heavenly King is being generous, since he personally contributed nothing to the finding.
Pilgrim said, "My thanks, my thanks."
Eight characters, doubled, and no joke in them anywhere. It is the only unqualified thing Pilgrim says to the Heavenly King in the whole chapter.
So he brought Tripitaka forward to bow his thanks to the Heavenly King, and after him to the prince.
子 takes zǐ in 太子. 次及 is and next to — the order of thanks follows rank exactly, which after everything that has happened is a small comic formality.
Two men who spent the middle of this chapter trying to behead and to sue each other exchange thanks in sixteen characters, and neither refers to any of it.
Tripitaka appears here for the first time since the opening passages, and he has one function: to bow. He has been the object of the entire chapter and never once its subject.