六十里路 It Is Sixty Li
國王見說此詳細，放聲大哭。早驚動三宮六院，都來問及前因，無一人不痛哭者。良久，國王又問：「布金寺離城多遠？」三藏道：「只有六十里路。」國王遂傳旨：「著東西二宮守殿，掌朝太師衛國。朕同正宮皇后帥多官、四神僧，去寺取公主也。」當時擺駕，一行出朝。国王见说此详细，放声大哭。早惊动三宫六院，都来问及前因，无一人不痛哭者。良久，国王又问：「布金寺离城多远？」三藏道：「只有六十里路。」国王遂传旨：「着东西二宫守殿，掌朝太师卫国。朕同正宫皇后帅多官、四神僧，去寺取公主也。」当时摆驾，一行出朝。
逐句解 Line by line
When the king heard this account in full he cried aloud, and it startled the three palaces and six courts, who all came to ask what had gone before; and there was not one of them who did not weep bitterly.
The whole household in tears, and the storyteller says so in one clause without elaborating. 三宮六院 — the three palaces and six courts — is the standing phrase for the whole of an emperor's harem and household. It is the same population that was sprawling and scattering in terror four thousand characters ago and doing the deduction from a pile of clothes soon after. 不 here takes the rising bú before a departing tone. The machinery applies that itself now; before this chapter it read the tone too early to see what it should react to.
After a long while the king asked again: "How far is the Jetavana monastery from the city?" Tripitaka said: "Only sixty li."
Sixty lǐ, about twenty miles, and the number lands like a blow. 里 keeps its own name in this project rather than being turned into miles, with the distance explained in the note. A lǐ was roughly a third of a mile, though it varied. 良久 — after a long while — is the storyteller giving the king time. He has been crying, his court has been crying, and the first thing he manages to ask is how far away she is. His daughter has been twenty miles up the road for a year.
So the king gave the order: "Let the two palaces east and west keep the hall, and the Grand Preceptor of the court guard the kingdom. We ourself, with our principal queen, will lead the officers and the four holy monks and go to the monastery to fetch the princess." And with that the carriage was made ready and the whole party set out from court.
He organises a state journey in one breath, and it is the first competent thing he does in the chapter. 著 here is zhuó, the reading for ordering somebody to a duty. This chapter has twenty-four of this character over three readings and four sites take this one, three of them royal commands. 一行 is yì xíng, a travelling party — not a row or a rank. The project's scan for the other reading found none anywhere in this chapter's fifty-three sites, and this phrase is the trap that has caught earlier chapters.
Sixty li. Twenty miles. The king cries out, his whole household comes running and weeps with him, and when he can speak again the question he asks is the distance — and the answer is that she has been a morning's ride away for a year.
It is the second time in two passages that the chapter has quietly measured what this man did not know. He has never been out of his own city gate; his daughter was twenty miles outside it. The old monk came to the capital several times and could not bring himself to speak. Nobody in this story is stupid or wicked. They were all just close enough to each other to make the gap unbearable.
And then he takes charge. Two palaces to hold the hall, the Grand Preceptor to mind the kingdom, the queen and the officers and the four monks to come with him. After four thousand characters of being clutched at, frightened and led, the king of India issues a competent order and gets into his carriage.