第十二回
唐王秉誠修大會
觀音顯聖化金蟬
The Tang King, Sincere in Faith, Convenes the Grand Assembly · Guanyin, Manifesting Her Holy Form, Transforms the Golden Cicada
原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
含詞賦 With rhapsody
頌降西經
The Gatha of the Western Scriptures
頌曰：颂曰：
禮上大唐君，西方有妙文。礼上大唐君，西方有妙文。
程途十萬八千里，大乘進慇懃。程途十万八千里，大乘进慇懃。
此經回上國，能超鬼出群。此经回上国，能超鬼出群。
若有肯去者，求正果金身。若有肯去者，求正果金身。
逐句解 Line by line
頌曰：
颂曰：
The gatha said:
The lead-in 頌曰 heads the verse dropped from heaven — a 頌 (gāthā) is a Buddhist verse of praise or proclamation.
禮上大唐君，西方有妙文。
礼上大唐君，西方有妙文。
In homage to the lord of Great Tang: in the West there is a wondrous text.
程途十萬八千里，大乘進慇懃。
程途十万八千里，大乘进慇懃。
The road is a hundred and eight thousand li; the Greater Vehicle advances with earnest zeal.
十萬八千里 (a hundred and eight thousand li) is the canonical distance to the West — the very span of Sun Wukong's somersault. 乘 in 大乘 ('the Greater Vehicle') is shèng.
此經回上國，能超鬼出群。
此经回上国，能超鬼出群。
Let this scripture return to your high land, and it can raise the ghosts and lift them from the throng.
若有肯去者，求正果金身。
若有肯去者，求正果金身。
If there be one willing to go, let him seek the true fruit and the golden body.
正果金身 ('the true fruit and the golden body') is the enlightened attainment promised to the pilgrim who succeeds; 正 in 正果 is zhèng.
總評 Commentary
The gatha is heaven's formal commission, and it states in four couplets the entire premise of the novel to come: in the West lies a wondrous scripture; the road to it measures a hundred and eight thousand li; this Greater Vehicle text, brought back, can deliver the dead; and whoever is willing to fetch it will attain the 'true fruit and golden body' of buddhahood. The distance named is the same as the reach of Sun Wukong's single somersault — a quiet structural irony, since the pilgrim will cross on foot, over fourteen years, what his disciple could clear in an instant. With this dropped slip of paper the pilgrimage passes from the emperor's wish and the Bodhisattva's counsel into explicit divine mandate: the journey is now not merely advisable but ordained.