現真身 The Bodhisattva Reveals Her True Form
那菩薩帶了木叉,飛上高臺,遂踏祥雲,直至九霄,現出救苦原身,托了淨瓶楊柳。左邊是木叉惠岸,執著棍,抖擻精神。喜的個唐王朝天禮拜,眾文武跪地焚香。滿寺中僧尼道俗、士人工賈,無一人不拜禱道:「好菩薩!好菩薩!」有讚為證。但見那:那菩萨带了木叉,飞上高台,遂踏祥云,直至九霄,现出救苦原身,托了净瓶杨柳。左边是木叉惠岸,执著棍,抖擞精神。喜的个唐王朝天礼拜,众文武跪地焚香。满寺中僧尼道俗、士人工贾,无一人不拜祷道:「好菩萨!好菩萨!」有赞为证。但见那:
逐句解 Line by line
That Bodhisattva, taking Moksha with her, flew up onto the high platform, then trod upon the auspicious clouds, rose straight to the ninth heaven, and revealed her true form as the Reliever of Suffering, holding aloft the pure vase and the willow-sprig.
救苦原身 ('her original body as the Reliever of Suffering') is Guanyin's true bodhisattva form; the 淨瓶 (pure vase) and 楊柳 (willow-sprig) are her standard emblems, used to sprinkle the sweet dew of compassion. 那 is demonstrative nà.
On her left was Moksha Huian, gripping his staff, his spirit alert and keen.
惠岸 (Huian) is Moksha's religious title. 著 in 執著棍 ('gripping his staff') is the durative zhe.
So delighted was the Tang king that he worshipped toward heaven, and all his civil and military officers knelt to the ground and offered incense.
朝 in 朝天 ('toward heaven') is cháo. The revelation collapses the court's decorum into spontaneous worship.
Throughout the temple, monks and nuns, Daoists and laity, scholars, artisans, and merchants — there was not one who did not bow and pray, saying: 'Blessed Bodhisattva! Blessed Bodhisattva!' There is a hymn in proof. Behold:
為 in 讚為證 ('a hymn in proof') is wéi; 那 in 但見那 is demonstrative nà, ushering in the descriptive fu.
The disguise falls, and the chapter reaches its climax: the ragged mendicant ascends the platform and manifests as Guanyin herself, in her full iconographic glory — vase and willow in hand, Moksha at her side, borne up to the ninth heaven on auspicious cloud. The effect on the assembly is total: emperor, court, clergy, and commons alike fall to worship as one. What had been staged as a scandal — two beggars disrupting a rite — is revealed as a theophany, and the doctrinal correction of the previous passages is now underwritten by unmistakable divine authority. The revelation transforms the whole meaning of the Grand Mass: it was not the culmination of the emperor's piety but the occasion for heaven to announce a far greater task.