撞天婚招駙馬 A Marriage Flung at Heaven
近因國王的公主娘娘年登二十青春，正在十字街頭高結綵樓，拋打繡毬，撞天婚招駙馬。今日正當熱鬧之際，想我國王爺爺還未退朝，若欲倒換關文，趁此時好去。」三藏欣然要走，只見擺上齋來，遂與驛丞、行者等吃了。時已過午。三藏道：「我好去了。」行者道：「我保師父去。」八戒道：「我去。」沙僧道：「二哥罷麼，你的嘴臉不見怎的，莫到朝門外裝胖。近因国王的公主娘娘年登二十青春，正在十字街头高结彩楼，抛打绣毬，撞天婚招驸马。今日正当热闹之际，想我国王爷爷还未退朝，若欲倒换关文，趁此时好去。」三藏欣然要走，只见摆上斋来，遂与驿丞、行者等吃了。时已过午。三藏道：「我好去了。」行者道：「我保师父去。」八戒道：「我去。」沙僧道：「二哥罢么，你的嘴脸不见怎的，莫到朝门外装胖。
逐句解 Line by line
"Lately, because the king's daughter the princess has reached the green spring of twenty, a coloured tower has been built high at the crossroads, where she throws down an embroidered ball, flinging a marriage at heaven to choose a consort."
年登二十青春 — has reached the green spring of twenty. Green spring is the ordinary Chinese word for youth, and it is doing double duty here: her age and the season are the same word.
撞天婚 — a marriage flung at heaven. The bride throws a ball from a tower into a crowd and marries whoever it lands on, leaving the choice to fate rather than to families. It was a story motif rather than a real custom, and the novel uses it about as often as English romance uses a masked ball.
駙馬 — consort to a princess. The word originally meant the officer in charge of the emperor's spare carriage-horses, a post that came to be given to imperial sons-in-law, and the name stuck to the relationship.
"Today is just at the height of the bustle. I should think our royal sire has not yet risen from court, and if you wish to exchange the rescript, this is a good moment to go." Tripitaka was pleased and made to set off, when a meal was brought in, and he ate it with the superintendent, Pilgrim and the rest.
The advice is well meant and completely wrong, and Pilgrim will point out why in about a hundred characters.
欣然 — pleased, readily. Tripitaka's eagerness is the engine of the whole disaster. He wants his document stamped and he wants to get on, which is what he has wanted for fourteen years.
The hour was already past noon. Tripitaka said, "I had best be going." Pilgrim said, "I will go and guard Master." Eight Rules said, "I will go."
Three short lines and the whole party's politics. Pilgrim volunteers as a guard, which is his job; Eight Rules volunteers because he wants to see the ball-throwing.
The chapter has been careful about the hour all the way through — cockcrow, the hour of the Tiger, the hour of the Snake, and now past noon. It matters shortly: the ball is thrown at the third quarter of the noon hour, and they are about to walk straight into it.
Sha Monk said, "Second brother, leave off, will you. Your face is nothing much to look at, and do not go swaggering about outside the palace gate."
罷麼 — leave off, will you. ⚠ This exact pairing occurs nowhere else in the hundred chapters. The first character is the full word meaning to give over, not the light sentence-ending sound: a closing particle cannot itself take another particle after it, so this has to be the verb.
裝胖 — swaggering, literally acting fat. Sha Monk is telling his brother not to put on airs at the palace gate with a face like that. It is the second time in the chapter that Sha Monk has punctured him, and the second time he has done it in one line.
Here is the trap, and the novel lays it out in plain sight through a friendly official who thinks he is being helpful. The princess is twenty. There is a tower at the crossroads. She throws a ball into the crowd and marries whoever it hits. And the court is still sitting, so this is a fine afternoon to go and get your paperwork done.
The custom is worth understanding because everything turns on it. Flinging a marriage at heaven takes the choice away from the family and gives it to chance — which means nobody can object to the outcome, however awkward, without arguing with fate itself. That is precisely the protection the thing in the palace needs, and it is why she has arranged it this way.
Then the disciples squabble about who goes, and Sha Monk wins the argument in one line. He has now had the last word three times in this chapter: on cultivation and empty bellies, on who should escort their master, and on his brother's face. For a character usually described as the quiet one, he is running about a hundred per cent.