今現真相 Now She Shows Her True Form
這個玉兔兒卻是你家的假公主，今現真相也。」那國王急召皇后、嬪妃與宮娥、綵女等眾朝天禮拜，他和唐僧及多官亦俱望空拜謝。滿城中各家各戶，也無一人不設香案，叩頭念佛。这个玉兔儿却是你家的假公主，今现真相也。」那国王急召皇后、嫔妃与宫娥、彩女等众朝天礼拜，他和唐僧及多官亦俱望空拜谢。满城中各家各户，也无一人不设香案，叩头念佛。
逐句解 Line by line
"And this Jade Hare is the false princess of your household — she is showing her true form now."
The sentence the whole chapter has been working towards, delivered in eleven characters from a cloud. 真相 — the true form — takes xiàng, an appearance. Six of this chapter's fifteen are this reading and the bare chain gets two of the six right; the identical word 現相 goes wrong at three separate sites while 現真相 here comes out right, which is a good illustration of why every site has to be read rather than counted. 你家的 — of your household — is quietly cruel and entirely accurate. She was not merely in the palace; she was family.
That king hastily called the queen and the consorts and the palace women and serving-maids and all the rest to bow towards Heaven, and he and the Tang monk and the many officers all likewise bowed their thanks towards the sky.
The whole court on its knees in a courtyard, facing up. The chapter has been arranging this since the first passage, when Wukong perched on a hat and looked where his master would not. 朝天禮拜 is the full ceremonial obeisance made towards Heaven rather than towards a person — the form used for gods and for the emperor in his capacity as Heaven's deputy. Nobody is bowing to the monkey, but he arranged it.
Throughout the whole city, in every house and every family, there was not one who did not set out an incense table, knock his head on the ground and call on the Buddha's name.
The camera goes up and out over the rooftops, and it is the widest shot in the chapter. 香案 is the incense table, set out in a courtyard or doorway to receive a divine visitation — the ordinary household equipment of Chinese religion, kept ready and used at short notice. 佛 is fó, without exception in this project. And note what they are calling on: the whole city is invoking the Buddha at the appearance of a Daoist star officer. The book has never seen a difficulty in that and nor did the people it was written for.
Eleven characters settle the chapter's public business: this is your false princess, and she is showing her true form now. Everything since the wedding procession has been building to somebody with enough standing to say that out loud and be believed.
What follows is a piece of staging the book does perhaps a dozen times in a hundred chapters — the whole population of a city out of doors at once, on its knees, facing the same direction. It works because the storyteller earns it: the reader has been inside the palace all afternoon and now gets to see the roofs.
The last detail is the one to keep. Every household knocks its head on the ground and calls the Buddha's name, and the being in the sky is a star officer of the Daoist heavens with a train of moon fairies. Nobody in the story notices any tension in this, because for the audience this book was written for there was none.