重愛黎民 A Prince Who Honours Monks
此王甚賢，專敬僧道，重愛黎民。老禪師若去相見，必有重敬。」三藏謝了，那老者徑穿樹林而去。此王甚贤，专敬僧道，重爱黎民。老禅师若去相见，必有重敬。」三藏谢了，那老者径穿树林而去。
逐句解 Line by line
This prince is most worthy. He honours monks and Daoists particularly, and he holds the common people dear.
甚 is shèn here, the intensifier very — a different job from the question word what, which the same character performed twice in the last few lines. Three claims are made about the prince and all three are institutional rather than personal: he is worthy, he respects the clergy of both traditions, he values the populace. 黎民, the black-haired people, is an ancient and rather grand word for the common folk.
If the old Chan master goes to see him, he will certainly be well received."
相 is xiāng here, the little word that makes a verb mutual — to see each other, to meet. 重敬, weighty respect, picks up the same character the old man used a moment ago for holding the people dear, so the sentence pairs the prince's regard for his subjects with the regard he will show a visitor.
Tripitaka thanked him, and the old man went straight off through the trees.
He arrived out of a thicket and he leaves through one, and that is the last we hear of him. 徑 means directly, without turning aside. The novel is full of helpful strangers who turn out to be gods in disguise; this one is given no such reveal, and the absence is itself worth noticing.
The old man's summary of the prince is a job reference, and it is organised the way a Chinese official's assessment would be: worthy in himself, correct towards religion, benevolent towards the governed.
The middle claim is the useful one for the pilgrims. A ruler who honours monks and Daoists alike is a ruler who will not have four strange-looking clerics thrown out of the gate, and Tripitaka is about to walk in and present his travel papers on exactly that assumption.
Readers who have been through the Cart Slow Kingdom, where Daoists ran the state and monks were slaves, will hear the phrase about honouring both differently. The novel does not often show a place where the two traditions sit side by side without trouble, and it is about to spend a whole chapter in one.