玉華王府 At the Gate of the Palace
行夠多時，方到玉華王府。府門左右有長史府、審理廳、典膳所、待客館。三藏道：「徒弟，此間是府，等我進去朝王，驗牒而行。」行够多时，方到玉华王府。府门左右有长史府、审理厅、典膳所、待客馆。三藏道：「徒弟，此间是府，等我进去朝王，验牒而行。」
逐句解 Line by line
They walked a good while and only then reached the palace of the Prince of Yuhua.
府 is the word for a prince's seat and its offices together, not a royal palace, which would be a different character. The distinction is exact and the novel keeps it: this man holds a granted district, so he has a 府. It appears fifteen times in the chapter.
To left and right of the palace gate stood the Administrator's Office, the Court of Judicial Review, the Office of Provisions and the Guest House.
Four bureaus named in a row, and every one of them is real. A Ming prince's household ran to an Administrator's Office under a 長史, with lesser offices for judicial matters and for the household's food, exactly as listed here. 長 is zhǎng in that title, senior, rather than the cháng that means long. The novel has dressed its Indian prince in the furniture of a Chinese imperial kinsman, and the detail is precise enough to be checked.
Tripitaka said, "Disciples, this is the palace. Wait while I go in to present myself to the prince, have the travel papers examined, and then we go on."
朝 is cháo here, to attend at court — the same character that was zhāo, morning, in the doubled opening of the poem a moment ago. 牒 is the travel document itself, the rescript from the Tang emperor that every kingdom along the road has stamped, and 驗 is to inspect and verify it. The pilgrimage runs on paperwork, and this is the errand that gets the pilgrims through every gate in the novel.
The list of four offices is the single most convincing detail in the chapter. This is not how a story furnishes an imaginary palace; it is how a Chinese reader would recognise the establishment of an enfeoffed prince.
It also settles quietly what the old man said in the thicket. A king has a court. A prince of the blood ruling a granted district has an Administrator's Office, a judicial court, a provisions office and somewhere to put visitors, and that is what stands here.
Tripitaka's plan is the same one he has used at every border for fourteen years: go in alone, be polite, get the document stamped. It has never once worked without complications, and he tries it again.