上述这些政治事实、皇家制度, 如果说是属于“无意之中”羼入小说, 未免“太过无意”,不容易令人信服。其实,无论作者有意或无意, 客观上这些时代错置现象都有助于构成了文本互涉(intertextuality),至少是无意中的文本互涉(unconscious intertextuality)。[31] 所谓 intertextuality, 简化来说, 意谓:对一个篇章的运用和理解要依赖对先前遇到过的一些篇章的认知。[32] 西方学者如此定义:The theory of intertextuality insists that a text cannot exist as a hermetic or self-sufficient whole, and so does not function as a closed system.[33] 但这不能理解为《西游记》摘抄其它书籍。文本互涉理论的主要精神是将文本置于更大的社会历史文本之中。法国符号学家Julia Kristeva强调: 文本互涉是将历史溶入到文本当中, 将文本溶入到历史当中。[34] 此概念对篇章语言学也有影响:Robert de Beaugrande & Wolfgang Dressler 的 Introduction to Text Linguistics 如此解释: [Intertextuality] concerns the factors which make the utilization of one text dependent upon knowledge of one or more previously encountered texts.[35] 互文性又分微观互文性和宏观互文性两种。微观互文性是指一个文本的某些词句或某些段落的表达与其它文本相关, 因此一个文本中某些词句的释义要牵涉其它文本, 例如本节所引, 主要限于词句、专名层面的互文。更重要的是宏观互性性的存在,以下我们再来分析。[36]
首先检讨文华殿、谨身殿。第四十四回车迟国故事的“文华殿”, 余国藩将那句译为:The horrified king at once asked the Grand Preceptor before the Throne to help him go to the Wen-hua Pavilion to be washed and combed. (Yu, vol.4, p.435) 。[49] 詹纳尔(Jenner)译为: The horrified king sent the royal tutor to take the Taoist to the Hall of Literary Splendour to comb his hair and clean himself up; ...(Jenner, v.3, p.1509) [50]
这两种译文, 作为一般小说故事来读, 是完全没有问题的。余国藩将“文华殿”拼音处理(the Wen-hua Pavilion), 而詹纳尔则采取意译的手段(the Hall of Literary Splendour)。然而, 我们知道该名词的深层意义有赖于其它文本, 而且可在另一种语境关系的区别中(例如明史而不是唐史)决定。
至于比丘国的“谨身殿”(第七十九回), 余国藩注意到这个“谨身”。他下了注释指出:“Hall of Careful Conduct: literally the Hall of careful or vigilant surveillance of one's personal conduct. The term, chi-shen 谨身, is an ironical allusion to book 6 of the Hsiao Ching 孝经:“谨身节用, 以养父母, 此庶人之孝也.”(To keep careful watch over one's personal conduct and to spend frugally in order to care for one's parents - this is the filiality of the common people).(Yu, vol.3, p.435.)