授環付書 The Ring and the Letter
小姐道：「我兒，我與你一隻香環，你徑到洪州西北地方，約有一千五百里之程，那裡有個萬花店，當時留下婆婆張氏在那裡，是你父親生身之母。我再寫一封書與你，徑到唐王皇城之內，金殿左邊，殷開山丞相家，是你母生身之父母。你將我的書遞與外公，叫外公奏上唐王，統領人馬，擒殺此賊，與父報仇，那時才救得老娘的身子出來。我今不敢久停，誠恐賊漢怪我歸遲。」便出寺登舟而去。小姐道：「我儿，我与你一只香环，你径到洪州西北地方，约有一千五百里之程，那里有个万花店，当时留下婆婆张氏在那里，是你父亲生身之母。我再写一封书与你，径到唐王皇城之内，金殿左边，殷开山丞相家，是你母生身之父母。你将我的书递与外公，叫外公奏上唐王，统领人马，擒杀此贼，与父报仇，那时才救得老娘的身子出来。我今不敢久停，诚恐贼汉怪我归迟。」便出寺登舟而去。
逐句解 Line by line
The lady said, 'My son, I give you an incense-ring. Go to the region northwest of Hongzhou,'
A 香環 is an incense-ring, a scented circlet worn as an ornament. It is being handed over as a token: something a grandmother would know on sight.
'about fifteen hundred li distant; there is a Myriad Flowers Inn,'
一千五百里, fifteen hundred li. She is sending him on a journey of weeks. 那裡 here is the pointing nà, there, rather than the nǎ that means where — same character, opposite job. And the destination is the Myriad Flowers Inn, which we last saw when a man bought a fish outside it.
'where in those days your grandmother, Madam Zhang, was left behind — she is your father's own mother.'
生身之母, the mother who bore him — she uses the same careful phrase her son used about her. Madam Zhang was left at that inn to wait for the cool of autumn, and this is the first time in eighteen years that anybody has thought about her.
'I shall write a letter for you besides. Go to the imperial city of the Tang sovereign,'
再, in addition: a second letter, written now, on top of the one in blood. Keep the two apart. The blood-letter is his identity papers; this new one is a weapon.
'to the left of the golden hall, the house of Chancellor Yin Kaishan — he is your mother's own father.'
She gives directions by throne room: to the left of the golden hall. 丞相 keeps 相 as xiàng. These are the grandparents who have never heard that they have a grandson.
'Give my letter to your grandfather, and bid him memorialize the Tang sovereign to lead out troops,'
外公 is a mother's father. Chinese marks the maternal side with 外, outside, which tells you plainly enough where a married daughter was reckoned to belong. 統領人馬 is to command men and horses. She has worked out that the way to reach Liu Hong is to route the problem through the imperial chain of command, and she is right.
'to seize and slay this villain and avenge your father — only then can your old mother be saved out of this.'
才救得, only then can be got out, with 得 as dé; 身子 keeps 子 unstressed as zi. She calls herself 老娘, your old mother, and puts her own rescue last on the list, after the capture and the revenge.
'I dare not stay long now, fearing the villain will fault me for returning late.'
賊漢, the villain, the thug. She has just set an entire revenge in motion, and what ends the conversation is a worry about getting home late.
And she left the temple, boarded, and went off by water.
登舟而去, boarded and went. Seven characters, and she is gone. The novel gives her no farewell at all.
This speech is the keystone of the chapter's second half. In a few sentences the mother sends her son on a double errand and maps out every episode that remains. Go fifteen hundred li to the region northwest of Hongzhou, to the Myriad Flowers Inn where your father's mother was left waiting, and take this incense-ring so that she will know you. Then go to the capital, to the Chancellor's house beside the palace, and give my father this letter.
The letter is a new one, written here at the temple: 我再寫一封書與你, I will write you one more. It is not the blood-letter, which stays with Xuanzang as his identity papers. The two documents do quite different jobs — one proves who he is, and this one starts a war.
The mechanism she lays out is exact. The Chancellor will memorialize the throne, the throne will release troops, the troops will take Liu Hong. She has grasped that a private wrong inside a provincial yamen is unanswerable, and that the same wrong, once it reaches the emperor's desk, becomes an administrative matter with a standard remedy. A ring for one grandparent and a letter for the other are the small human hinges that whole machine turns on.