原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
含詞賦 With rhapsody
六道詩
Verse on the Six Paths
唐王聽說，點頭嘆曰：唐王听说，点头叹曰：
善哉真善哉，作善果無災。善哉真善哉，作善果无灾。
善心常切切，善道大開開。善心常切切，善道大开开。
莫教興惡念，是必少刁乖。莫教兴恶念，是必少刁乖。
休言不報應，神鬼有安排。」休言不报应，神鬼有安排。」
逐句解 Line by line
唐王聽說，點頭嘆曰：
唐王听说，点头叹曰：
The Tang king, hearing this, nodded and sighed, saying:
The formula 嘆曰 introduces the quatrain, spoken by the emperor himself in response to the magistrate's teaching on the Six Paths.
善哉真善哉，作善果無災。
善哉真善哉，作善果无灾。
Good indeed, and truly good! Do good, and its fruit is freedom from calamity.
善哉 'how good!'; 果 here the karmic fruit. The verse renders the magistrate's teaching into rhyme.
善心常切切，善道大開開。
善心常切切，善道大开开。
Let the good heart be ever earnest, and the path of goodness opens wide.
切切 earnest and heartfelt; 開開 flung wide open.
莫教興惡念，是必少刁乖。
莫教兴恶念，是必少刁乖。
Let no evil thought arise; be sure to lessen all craft and guile.
莫教 'do not let'; 教 jiào. 興 here xīng, 'to arouse.' 刁乖 craftiness and perversity.
休言不報應，神鬼有安排。」
休言不报应，神鬼有安排。」
Say not that there is no requital: gods and ghosts have their appointed order.
報應 bào yìng, retribution; 應 yìng. 安排 'arrangement, ordering' — the moral order kept by the unseen powers.
總評 Commentary
The quatrain condenses the doctrine of the Six Paths into a rhymed maxim on 善 (goodness) — four of its ten opening syllables are the word itself — insisting that virtue is rewarded and evil requited under the vigilant administration of gods and ghosts. It is the moral coping-stone of the hell-tour, translating the elaborate cosmology into a memorable jingle fit to be 'made known to the people of the world of light.'