初見祖師 Before the Patriarch
那童子出得門來，高叫道：「甚麼人在此搔擾？」猴王撲的跳下樹來，上前躬身道：「仙童，我是個訪道學仙之弟子，更不敢在此搔擾。」仙童笑道：「你是個訪道的麼？」猴王道：「是。」童子道：「我家師父正才下榻，登壇講道，還未說出原由，就教我出來開門。說：『外面有個修行的來了，可去接待接待。』想必就是你了？」猴王笑道：「是我，是我。」童子道：「你跟我進來。」這猴王整衣端肅，隨童子徑入洞天深處觀看：一層層深閣瓊樓，一進進珠宮貝闕，說不盡那靜室幽居。直至瑤臺之下，見那菩提祖師端坐在臺上，兩邊有三十個小仙侍立臺下。果然是：那童子出得门来，高叫道：「甚么人在此搔扰？」猴王扑的跳下树来，上前躬身道：「仙童，我是个访道学仙之弟子，更不敢在此搔扰。」仙童笑道：「你是个访道的么？」猴王道：「是。」童子道：「我家师父正才下榻，登坛讲道，还未说出原由，就教我出来开门。说：『外面有个修行的来了，可去接待接待。』想必就是你了？」猴王笑道：「是我，是我。」童子道：「你跟我进来。」这猴王整衣端肃，随童子径入洞天深处观看：一层层深阁琼楼，一进进珠宫贝阙，说不尽那静室幽居。直至瑶台之下，见那菩提祖师端坐在台上，两边有三十个小仙侍立台下。果然是：
逐句解 Line by line
The lad came out of the gate and called aloud: 'Who is it making a disturbance here?'
甚麼人在此搔擾 ('who is making a disturbance here?'; 搔擾, to disturb, pester). The lad's challenge is the cave's first words to the seeker.
The Monkey King dropped down out of the tree with a plop, came forward, bowed, and said: 'Immortal lad, I am a disciple come to seek the Way and study immortality —
撲的跳下樹來 ('dropped from the tree with a plop'; 撲 pū, with 的 here standing for the adverbial 地). 躬身 ('bowing'; 躬 gōng). He announces himself as a 訪道學仙之弟子 ('a disciple seeking the Way and studying immortality'; 弟子, 子 the full tone zǐ) — humble at the threshold.
I would never dare make a disturbance here.' The lad laughed: 'You're a seeker of the Way?'
仙童笑道 — the lad's amused 'you're a seeker of the Way?' (麼 the question-particle me). 更不敢 ('would never dare') takes the 不 in its bù form before the third tone of 敢.
The Monkey King said: 'I am.' The lad said: 'My master has just risen from his couch to mount the dais and expound the Way.
正才下榻 ('had just risen from his couch'; 才 cái, 'just,' the 維基文庫 reading; 榻 tà, a low couch). 登壇講道 ('mounted the dais to expound the Way'; 壇 tán, a raised platform) — the master was about to lecture.
Before he had even said why, he had me come out and open the gate,
就教我出來開門 — 'and had me come out and open the gate' (教 here jiào, 'to cause, to bid,' the same graph that meant 'to teach,' jiāo, in the woodcutter's mouth). The master knew his visitor was coming before being told.
saying: “There's a seeker of cultivation outside — go and receive him.”
The master's own words, quoted: 外面有個修行的來了，可去接待接待 ('there's a cultivator outside — go and receive him'; 接待, to receive a guest, doubled in the colloquial way; 行 here xíng). His foreknowledge marks him as no ordinary teacher.
It must be you?' The Monkey King laughed: 'It's me, it's me!'
想必就是你了 ('it must be you, then'). The monkey's eager 是我，是我 ('it's me, it's me!') is pure delighted character.
The lad said: 'Come in with me.'
你跟我進來 ('come in with me'; 跟 gēn, to follow) — the threshold opens at last.
The Monkey King straightened his clothes, composed himself, and followed the lad straight into the depths of the grotto-heaven to look about:
整衣端肅 ('straightened his clothes and grew grave'; 端肅, composed and reverent) — the monkey's diffidence again. 徑入洞天深處 ('went straight into the depths of the grotto-heaven'; 徑 jìng, directly; 洞天, a Daoist 'grotto-heaven,' one of the sacred cave-worlds).
tier upon tier of deep halls and jade towers, court after court of pearl palaces and shell gate-towers, quiet chambers and secluded dwellings beyond all telling.
一層層深閣瓊樓，一進進珠宮貝闕 ('tier on tier of deep halls and jade towers, court after court of pearl palaces and shell gate-towers'; 進 a courtyard-section, 闕 què a gate-tower). 說不盡 ('beyond all telling') takes the 不 in its bú sandhi before the falling tone of 盡 — the interior is vast and palatial, no bare cave.
On he went to the foot of the jade dais, where he saw Patriarch Subodhi seated upright upon it,
瑤臺之下 ('at the foot of the jade dais'; 瑤臺, a terrace of jade, the seat of an immortal). 菩提祖師端坐在臺上 ('Patriarch Subodhi sitting upright on the dais') — the master at last, in full view.
with thirty minor immortals standing in attendance below. And indeed he was:
兩邊有三十個小仙侍立臺下 ('thirty minor immortals standing in attendance below'; 侍立, to stand in waiting) — the same 'thirty or forty' the woodcutter mentioned. 果然是 cues the verse portrait of the patriarch.
A Great Awakened Golden Immortal of stainless form, the wondrous-marked Patriarch Bodhi of the West.
The portrait of the master is, strikingly, a portrait of a Buddha. 大覺金仙 ('Great Awakened Golden Immortal'; 覺 jué, 'awakened,' as in 'enlightenment,' not jiào, 'sleep') was a Song-era epithet for the Buddha, recast in Daoist 'golden immortal' language. 沒垢姿 ('a form without defilement'; 垢 gòu), 西方妙相 ('the wondrous marks of the West'; 相 xiàng, the lakṣaṇa or bodily marks of a Buddha), and 祖菩提 (Patriarch Bodhi) all point west, to the Buddha — though this master will teach Daoist arts.
Unborn and undying, through the three-times-three practices; whole in breath and spirit, boundless in compassion.
不生不滅 ('unborn and undying,' the Buddhist anutpāda-anirodha; 不 read bù before 生 but bú before the falling tone of 滅). 三三行 is an obscure phrase, the 'three-times-three' practices or disciplines (行 here read xíng, 'practice'); paired with 萬萬慈 ('boundless compassion'; 慈 cí), it sketches the master's perfected cultivation and mercy.
Empty and still, he changes freely with all things; in Suchness and his original nature, he lets all be as it will.
空寂自然隨變化 ('empty and still, he changes freely with all'; 空寂, the Buddhist 'emptiness and quiescence'). 真如本性 ('Suchness and original nature'; 真如 = tathatā, the Buddhist 'thusness,' ultimate reality) — the master rests in the unconditioned and so acts without constraint (任為之, 為 wéi).
A majestic body, long-lived as Heaven itself; through kalpa on kalpa, mind-illumined — a great master of the Dharma.
與天同壽莊嚴體 ('a majestic body long-lived as Heaven'; 莊嚴, the Buddhist 'adorned, solemn'). 歷劫明心大法師 ('through many kalpas, mind-illumined, a great dharma-master'; 劫 jié, a kalpa or world-age; 明心, the illumined mind of enlightenment; 大法師, a master of the Dharma). The whole portrait is Buddhist in vocabulary — the master of Daoist immortality painted as an enlightened Buddha.
The seeker is admitted at last, and the manner of it tells us who the master is. The immortal lad reveals that his master, about to mount the dais and lecture, broke off before even explaining why and sent the boy to open the gate, foreseeing that 'a cultivator has come.' Wú Chéng'ēn (吳承恩) thus introduces Patriarch Subodhi through an act of effortless foreknowledge — the master knew the monkey was coming before any word reached him. The monkey, for his part, straightens his clothes and grows grave (整衣端肅), the bold king's new reverence carrying him through the palatial interior — 'tier on tier of deep halls and jade towers' — to the foot of the jade dais.
The verse portrait of the master is the chapter's most pointed statement of the novel's syncretism. Every term is Buddhist: he is a 大覺金仙 ('Great Awakened Golden Immortal,' a Song-dynasty epithet for the Buddha), of 沒垢 ('undefiled') form, bearing the 西方妙相 ('wondrous marks of the West'); he is 不生不滅 ('unborn and undying'), abiding in 真如 (tathatā, 'Suchness'), 歷劫明心 ('mind illumined through the kalpas'), a 大法師 ('great master of the Dharma'). Yet this Buddha-like figure, named for the Buddha's disciple Subhūti and seated in a Daoist grotto-heaven, will teach the monkey Daoist immortality and the arts of transformation. As Anthony C. Yu observes, the deliberate blurring — a Buddhist sage teaching Daoist techniques toward a goal both traditions claim — is not confusion but the novel's governing vision, that the Three Teachings are finally one.
With the master in view, the long approach that began with a woodcutter's song is complete: the monkey has passed guide, tablet, lad, and palace to stand before the teacher at the heart of the 'Mountain of the Square Inch.' The allegory the names encoded — that the master's mountain is the seeker's own heart — now stands fully realised: to come before Subodhi is, in the novel's logic, to come before one's own awakened mind. Andrew H. Plaks notes how carefully the chapter has staged this ascent through degrees of the sacred; the next passage brings its payoff, as the master questions the nameless stone monkey and, out of his very origins, gives him the name by which the world will know him — 孫悟空.