Sha Monk went nearer still and looked carefully again — and there was Sun Pilgrim, seated high on a stone terrace, holding a sheet of paper in both hands and reading it out in a clear ringing voice:

The tag 念道：is fused into the end of this 152-graph prose line, so the TAG-BEARING UNIT opens the showcase and the rest of the prose stays in the previous passage. 石臺 takes 石 at shí. 仔細 takes 仔 at zǐ. 朗朗的 is again 的 written for the adverbial 地. What follows is a spoken DOCUMENT rather than a 賦, and the fixed 含詞賦 chip label is kept by ruling.

“Li, King and Emperor of the Great Tang in the Land of the East. By command given before the throne, Our sworn younger brother the holy monk Chen Xuanzang, Master of the Law, goes up to the Great Thunderclap Monastery on Sahā Spirit Mountain in the country of India in the west, expressly to do reverence to the Buddha Tathāgata and to seek the scriptures.

玄奘 takes 奘 at zàng, as 三藏 does. 娑婆 transcribes Sahā, the world we inhabit; 御弟 is the title the Emperor conferred in the early chapters, sworn younger brother to the throne. The register shifts abruptly here from vernacular narrative to chancery document, and the translation follows it.

“Whereas We were beset by a sudden sickness and Our soul wandered in the courts of the dead; and whereas it was Our good fortune that the years allotted Us were found to run long, so that by the favour of the Lord of the Shades We were sent back to the living; We thereupon spread a great assembly of merit and set up a rite for the deliverance of the departed.

陽數 takes 數 at shù — the numbered span of a life in the world of the living — and 臻長 takes 長 at cháng, reaching its full length. 度亡道場 takes 度 at dù, to ferry across, the standard verb for delivering the dead. The episode summarised is the Emperor's descent to the underworld in Chapters 10 and 11.

“And whereas We were greatly favoured by the Bodhisattva Guanshiyin, who saves from bitterness and saves from calamity, appearing in her golden body and showing that in the west there are Buddhas and there are scriptures able to ferry over the shades of the dead and set them free: We have therefore charged the Master of the Law, Xuanzang, to pass over a thousand mountains and seek out the scriptures and their gathas.

盛蒙 takes 盛 at shèng — greatly, in the honorific sense of being much favoured — the same reading as 陰氣盛 in the previous passage and not the chéng of ladling. 救難 takes 難 at nàn, calamity. 特著法師 is causative-dispatch 著, zhuó. 偈 is jì, the gatha or verse-summary of a sutra.

“Should he pass through the several states of the west, let them not cut off this good affinity, but act upon this rescript.

照牒施行 is the closing formula of an actual travel permit — act in accordance with this document — and 施行 keeps 行 at xíng. 善緣 is the Buddhist term for a karmic connection favourable to salvation.

“Given on an auspicious day in autumn of the thirteenth year of the Zhenguan reign of the Great Tang. Rescript of the imperial presence.”

貞觀 takes 觀 at guān. 一十三 is the vernacular form of the numeral thirteen and takes ordinary mechanical sandhi to yì — it is a numeral, not an ordinal like 第一 or 頭一, so the lexical exception does not reach it.

“Since parting from the great country, and passing through its several states, I have taken along the way a first disciple, Sun Wukong the Pilgrim; a second disciple, Zhu Wuneng, called Bajie; and a third disciple, Sha Wujing, the monk.”

The speaker changes here without any marker: the rescript proper ended at 文牒, and this last sentence is Tripitaka's own endorsement, added en route — which is exactly what a real travel document accumulates. 經度 takes 度 at dù, to pass through; 收得 is attainment 得, dé.

Having read it through, he began again from the top.

Six graphs of prose closing the showcase. 念了從頭又念 is the whole of the chapter's second title line in miniature — 謄文, the copying of the rescript.