三斗三升 Three Pecks and Three Pints
佛祖道：此經成就之時，有比丘聖僧將下山與舍衛國趙長者家看誦了一遍，保祐他家生者安全，亡者超脫，止討了他三斗三升米粒黃金，意思還嫌賣賤了，後來子孫沒錢使用。我等知二尊者需索人事，佛祖明知，只得將欽賜紫金缽盂送他，方傳了有字真經。佛祖道：此经成就之时，有比丘圣僧将下山与舍卫国赵长者家看诵了一遍，保祐他家生者安全，亡者超脱，止讨了他三斗三升米粒黄金，意思还嫌卖贱了，后来子孙没钱使用。我等知二尊者需索人事，佛祖明知，只得将钦赐紫金钵盂送他，方传了有字真经。
逐句解 Line by line
“The Buddha said: when these scriptures were first completed, a bhiksu-saint took them down the mountain to the house of Elder Zhao in Sravasti and read them through once, keeping the living of that house safe and delivering its dead — and asked no more than three pecks and three pints of grain-gold for it. He thought at the time he had sold too cheap, and their descendants after them would go short of money.”
⚠ The Buddha's answer to being caught taking bribes is a story about undercharging. 舍衛國 is Sravasti, the city where the Buddha spent most of his teaching life. Its first character is read shè, a dwelling — not shě, to cast away, which is what the bare chain gives. ⚠ 三斗三升米粒黃金 — three dǒu and three shēng of gold in grains like rice. The dǒu is a dry measure of about ten litres and the shēng a tenth of it, so this is roughly thirty-three litres of gold dust, and the Buddha's complaint is that it was not enough. ⚠ 子孫, descendants. Its first character is read zǐ, the full word for a child, not the light ending it becomes in everyday compounds. And the sting is in the tail: because the saint charged too little, Elder Zhao's grandchildren will be poor.
“We knew the two venerables were demanding a present, and the Buddha knew it perfectly well, so we had no choice but to give them the purple-gold almsbowl Your Majesty had bestowed, and only then were the true scriptures with words in them handed down.”
⚠ 佛祖明知 — and the Buddha knew it perfectly well. Four characters, dropped in without emphasis, and they are the sharpest thing anybody says in this chapter. The shakedown was not a lapse of supervision. It was known about. ⚠ 欽賜紫金缽盂 — the purple-gold almsbowl granted by imperial favour. Taizong gave the Tang monk that bowl himself, fourteen years ago, at the send-off. The Tang monk is telling him to his face that he had to hand the emperor's own parting gift to a doorkeeper to get the goods released. 只得, had no choice but to.
The Buddha's defence of his own doorkeepers is the strangest speech in the novel, and the Tang monk repeats it to a foreign emperor without a word of comment. Once, long ago, a saint carried these scriptures down to a rich man's house, read them through, saved the living and delivered the dead — and charged about thirty-three litres of gold dust for it. The Buddha's objection is that he charged too little, and that the family's grandchildren would be the poorer for it.
⚠ Then the four characters that make the whole episode land: and the Buddha knew it perfectly well. Not a lapse, not two bad apples at the door. Heaven's tollgate is heaven's policy, and the man reporting it says so flatly and moves on.
⚠ And the toll itself is the bitterest detail. What bought the scriptures was the purple-gold almsbowl Taizong gave the Tang monk at the send-off, fourteen years ago. He is standing in front of the man who gave it to him, explaining that he gave it away at the door.