團圓會慶 The Feast of Reunion
眾官聞知，都來賀喜。丞相就令安排酒席，答謝所屬官員。即日軍馬回程。來到萬花店，那丞相傳令安營。光蕊便同玄奘到劉家店尋婆婆。那婆婆當夜得了一夢，夢見枯木開花，屋後喜鵲頻頻喧噪，想道：「莫不是我孫兒來也？」說猶未了，只見店門外，光蕊父子齊到。小和尚指道：「這不是俺婆婆？」光蕊見了老母，連忙拜倒。母子抱頭痛哭一場，把上項事說了一遍。算還了小二店錢，起程回到京城。進了相府，光蕊同小姐與婆婆、玄奘都來見了夫人。夫人不勝之喜，吩咐家僮，大排筵宴慶賀。丞相道：「今日此宴，可取名為團圓會。」真正合家歡樂。众官闻知，都来贺喜。丞相就令安排酒席，答谢所属官员。即日军马回程。来到万花店，那丞相传令安营。光蕊便同玄奘到刘家店寻婆婆。那婆婆当夜得了一梦，梦见枯木开花，屋后喜鹊频频喧噪，想道：「莫不是我孙儿来也？」说犹未了，只见店门外，光蕊父子齐到。小和尚指道：「这不是俺婆婆？」光蕊见了老母，连忙拜倒。母子抱头痛哭一场，把上项事说了一遍。算还了小二店钱，起程回到京城。进了相府，光蕊同小姐与婆婆、玄奘都来见了夫人。夫人不胜之喜，吩咐家僮，大排筵宴庆贺。丞相道：「今日此宴，可取名为团圆会。」真正合家欢乐。
逐句解 Line by line
The assembled officials, hearing of it, all came to offer congratulations.
賀喜, to offer congratulations — the same 喜 the Dragon King used underwater. 都 is dōu, every one of them.
The Chancellor ordered a banquet laid to thank the officials under him,
答謝 is to thank by giving something back: a thank-you with a dinner attached. 所屬官員 are the officials under his command, the men who supplied the troops. 丞相, 相 = xiàng.
and that same day the troops set off on the return march. Reaching the Myriad Flowers Inn, the Chancellor ordered camp to be pitched.
回程, the road home. And the road home runs through the Myriad Flowers Inn, where all of this started with a fish bought at the door and a mother left behind with her rent paid up. 丞相, 相 = xiàng.
Guangrui then went with Xuanzang to Liu's inn to seek the grandmother.
Father and son walk into the inn together to look for her. It is the first thing they do as a pair.
That night the grandmother had had a dream — she dreamed of a withered tree bursting into bloom,
枯木開花, dead wood coming into flower, is a set image for a hope that had no business surviving — you would use it today of a business everyone had written off. Another dream, and like the others in this chapter it arrives one line ahead of the thing it predicts.
and magpies chattering again and again behind the house; she thought, 'Could it be my grandson has come?'
喜鵲 is literally the joy-bird: magpies are the standard omen of good news on its way, and a magpie chattering outside the house still means a visitor in folk usage. 莫不是 again, the half-embarrassed hunch — the same phrase the Chancellor's wife used at her own gate seven passages back.
Before the words were out, there at the inn door father and son arrived together.
說猶未了, the words not yet out — the storyteller's cue that a prediction is about to be cashed in the same breath it was made. 父子, father and son, with 子 as zǐ.
The little monk pointed and said, 'Is this not my grandmother?'
俺 is a blunt northern my, a country word, out of place in a chancellor's household and exactly right here. He points at her and asks a question he already knows the answer to. Eighteen years old, and for one line he is a boy.
Guangrui, seeing his old mother, hastily bowed to the ground.
拜倒, bowing all the way down to the floor. He is a court appointment waiting to happen and she has been begging in the street, and he goes down first.
Mother and son embraced and wept aloud, and he told over the whole course of events.
抱頭痛哭, holding each other's heads and weeping, is a set phrase and still in use. 一場 takes 場 as cháng, counting one whole bout of it — the same reading and the same phrase the chapter gave his wife on the riverbank. 上項事, the above matters, is filing-cabinet language: the aforementioned.
They settled Liu the Second's inn charges and set off back to the capital.
算還, reckoned up and paid back, with 還 as huán. Three or four years of arrears, settled in four characters. The innkeeper who could not carry her forever is neither punished nor thanked. He is paid, which is all he ever wanted.
Entering the Chancellor's residence, Guangrui, with the lady, the grandmother, and Xuanzang, all came to see the Chancellor's wife.
相府, the chancellor's residence, keeps 相 as xiàng; 都 is dōu. Everyone this chapter scattered arrives at a single address.
The lady was overjoyed beyond measure, and bade the household servants set out a great feast in celebration.
不勝之喜, joy she cannot bear up under: the same 不勝 that measured the crowd's fright at the riverside, turned the other way round. 家僮 are the household's young servants; 大排筵宴, to lay out a banquet on the grand scale.
The Chancellor said, 'Today's feast may be named the Feast of Reunion.'
團圓 is round and whole — the word for a family with nobody missing. It is the word inside 團圓飯, the New Year's Eve dinner the entire country travels home for, and the standard term for the happy ending of a Chinese play. Naming the feast is the Chancellor saying out loud what kind of story he thinks this has been. 取名為 takes 為 as wéi; 丞相, 相 = xiàng.
And truly the whole family rejoiced together.
合家, the household joined up; 歡樂, gladness, with 樂 as lè — not the yuè that means music, though it is the same character. Four characters of unmixed contentment, and one passage left to go.
The chapter collects everyone it scattered, in order, each reunion announced by a sign. The grandmother dreams of dead wood coming into flower and wakes to magpies — the joy-birds, still the folk omen for a visitor at the door — and says out loud that it might be her grandson, and the words are barely out before he is standing there.
Then the small exact justice of the return journey. They stop at the Myriad Flowers Inn, where the whole thing began with a fish bought at the door, and they pay Liu the Second his three or four years of back rent. He is not punished for putting a blind old woman out, and he is not thanked for keeping her as long as he did. He is paid. It is the only thing he ever asked for, and the chapter's sense of proportion is in that.
The banquet is given a name: 團圓會, the Feast of the Round and Complete. 團圓 means a family with nobody missing from the table — it is what makes the New Year's Eve dinner what it is, and it is the standard word for the ending of a comedy on the Chinese stage. The Chancellor is announcing which genre everyone has been in. From a murder at a ford to a full table, the arc is the one this tradition likes best: the wrong avenged, the scattered gathered in, the dead handed back, the circle closed.
Which makes the next page harder, not easier.