靜功祈禱 Praying by Stillness
那長老才舉步登壇，到上面，端然坐下，定性歸神，默念那《密多心經》。正坐處，忽見一員官飛馬來問：「那和尚，怎麼不打令牌，不燒符檄？」行者高聲答道：「不用！不用！我們是靜功祈禱。」那官去回奏不題。那长老才举步登坛，到上面，端然坐下，定性归神，默念那《密多心经》。正坐处，忽见一员官飞马来问：「那和尚，怎么不打令牌，不烧符檄？」行者高声答道：「不用！不用！我们是静功祈祷。」那官去回奏不题。
逐句解 Line by line
The elder had just stepped up onto the altar; reaching the top, he sat down composed, settled his nature and drew in his spirit, and silently recited that Heart Sutra of Perfection.
Deictic 那長老 / 那《密多心經》: 那 = nà (×2). 長老: 長 = zhǎng (an elder). 定性歸神 “to steady the nature and gather in the spirit.” 密多心經 the 般若波羅蜜多心經 (Heart Sutra).
Just as he sat, an officer suddenly came galloping to ask, “That monk — how is it he strikes no command-tablet and burns no talisman-writ?”
Locative 正坐處: 處 = chù. Deictic 那和尚: 那 = nà. 一員官: 一 = yì before 員 (2nd tone). 符檄 “talisman-writ.”
Pilgrim answered in a loud voice, “No need!
行者: 行 = xíng. 不用: 不 = bú before 用 (4th tone).
No need!
不用: 不 = bú before 4th tone — the repetition of impatient dismissal.
We pray by the practice of stillness.”
靜功祈禱 “to pray by quiet, inward discipline” — the Buddhist answer to the Daoist's noisy apparatus.
That officer went off to report, and of this we say no more.
Deictic 那官: 那 = nà. 回奏不題 “went to report; (we) leave it there” — the storyteller's set-aside formula.
The contrast the whole contest has built toward is now staged as tableau: where the immortal wielded sword, spell, tablet, and burning talismans, the Tang Monk simply sits and recites the Heart Sutra in silence. “We pray by stillness” is the Buddhist rejoinder to Daoist spectacle — and, in the story's logic, the truer power, since the rain is about to come. The passage closes on the storyteller's 不題 formula, holding the reader on the threshold of the rain 賦 that follows.