Tripitaka and the four of them tethered the horse, set down the loads, and one by one pressed their palms together, bowed from the waist, and made their obeisance towards the seat above.

⚠ 歇了擔 — set down the loads. And that is the first time in the chapter anybody has put the luggage down. They carried it into the hall the first time, out again, up the mountain and back; here at last it goes on the floor. ⚠ The second character of the load is dàn, the thing carried, not the dān of carrying it — a distinction this chapter has made seven times and the ordinary chain of readings has got wrong at all seven of this phrase's sites in the novel. 朝上禮拜 — bowed facing the seat above. Not to the Buddha by name: towards where he sits, which is how the chapter has referred to him from the moment Monkey called him the one in the high seat.

The Tathāgata said to the Tang monk, "The merit of these scriptures cannot be weighed or measured."

⚠ 不可稱量 — cannot be weighed and measured. The last character is the VERB, liáng, to take a measurement, and not the liàng of a quantity that the same character also spells. It occurs once in the whole novel. ⚠ And notice what he has chosen to say first. The chapter has spent two thousand characters counting scrolls, auditing catalogues and reading inventories into the record — and the Buddha opens his closing charge by saying the thing cannot be counted.

"Though they are the tortoise and the mirror of my own house, they are in truth the wellspring of the three teachings."

⚠⚠ 三教之源流 — the source and current of the THREE teachings. The three are Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, and the Buddha has just claimed his own canon as the origin of all three. Five characters, once in the whole novel. ⚠ 龜鑑 — a tortoise and a mirror. Both were instruments for telling truth: a tortoise-shell was heated until it cracked and the cracks were read, and a bronze mirror shows a thing as it is. Together they are the standard for judging by. The pair occurs once in the novel. ⚠ 雖為 — though they be. The middle character is wéi, the verb of being, not the wèi of purpose; the two are written the same and this chapter uses both.

"When you reach that Southern Continent of yours, show them to all living beings, and let none treat them lightly."

⚠ 不可輕慢 — do not treat them lightly. Set that beside the ruling he handed down a thousand characters ago: scripture may not be passed on lightly. The same word, and now it is aimed at the readers rather than the librarians. 南贍部洲 — Jambudvīpa, the southern continent, which is where China is. He called it that in his opening charge too, and the charge was that it was greedy, violent and false. He has not softened.

"Without bathing and keeping the fast, they are not to be opened."

⚠ 沐浴齋戒 — to bathe and keep the fast. AND THAT IS WHERE THIS CHAPTER BEGAN. At the Jade-Truth Abbey, a whole day ago, a Daoist immortal sent a small boy to heat scented water so the pilgrims could wash before setting foot on the Buddha's ground. ⚠ The Buddha now makes the same act a standing condition for every reader who ever opens the books. The bath that opened the chapter turns out to have been the rule. 開卷 — to open a scroll, and by extension to read at all. It is still the ordinary Chinese word for opening a book.

"Treasure them. Weigh them heavy."

⚠ Four characters, and two of them are the same word twice over: value it, weight it. Both verbs are made out of nouns — a treasure and a weight — which is how classical Chinese says treat as. ⚠ 重 here is zhòng, heavy, against the chóng of a fold or a layer that this chapter used three times for haze and light. One character, two readings, and the sense decides. It is the shortest sentence the Buddha speaks in the chapter and the most emphatic.

"For within them lies the deep secret of becoming an immortal and completing the Way, and the rare prescription that brings to light the ten thousand transformations."

⚠⚠ 成仙了道 — TO BECOME AN IMMORTAL AND COMPLETE THE WAY. Both halves are Daoist to the bone: the immortal is the Daoist goal and the Way is the Daoist word. The Buddha is describing the contents of the Buddhist canon in the vocabulary of the other house, in his own hall, in his last speech of the chapter. ⚠ 了 here is liǎo, to bring to completion, not the light marker the same character usually is. 了道 occurs eighty-six times in fifty-four chapters and the ordinary chain of readings gets it wrong at every one. ⚠ 奇方 — a rare prescription, and it is a doctor's word: the formula written out for a medicine. He is calling scripture a recipe.

Tripitaka knocked his head on the floor and gave thanks for the favour, received it in faith and undertook to carry it out, went round the Buddha three times over in reverence as before, took it up carefully and with a whole heart, and departed with the scriptures.

⚠ 信受奉行 — to receive in faith and put into practice. These four characters are the formula that ends a great many real sutras, where the assembly hears the teaching and does exactly this. The novel has put a scripture's own closing formula into the mouth of the man carrying the scriptures out. ⚠ 遍禮三匝 — three circuits again, as when he arrived. The chapter has bracketed the whole visit with the same courtesy. 領經而去 — took the scriptures and went. Five characters for the thing a hundred chapters were for.

Going out to the third gate, he thanked all the holy ones again one by one — but of that no more.

⚠ 三山門 — the third gate, the outermost. He came in through three of them, announced at each; he goes out past the last of them thanking people. ⚠ 不題 — no more of that. The fifth and last of the chapter's five, and the highest count of any closing move it uses. A chapter of departures, and this is the one that finally lets him go.