無慈非僧 No Mercy, No Monk
三藏道：「你十分撞禍。他雖是剪徑的強徒，就是拿到官司，也不該死罪；你縱有手段，只可退他去便了，怎麼就都打死？這卻是無故傷人的性命，如何做得和尚？出家人掃地恐傷螻蟻命，愛惜飛蛾紗罩燈。你怎麼不分皂白，一頓打死？全無一點慈悲好善之心。早還是山野中無人查考；若到城市，倘有人一時衝撞了你，你也行兇，執著棍子亂打傷人，我可做得白客，怎能脫身？」悟空道：「師父，我若不打死他，他卻要打死你哩。」三藏道：「我這出家人寧死，決不敢行兇。我就死，也只是一身，你卻殺了他六人，如何理說？此事若告到官，就是你老子做官，也說不過去。」行者道：「不瞞師父說，我老孫五百年前，據花果山稱王為怪的時節，也不知打死多少人。假似你說這般到官，倒也得些狀告，我就做不到『齊天大聖』了。」三藏道：「只因你沒收沒管，暴橫人間，欺天誑上，才受這五百年前之難。今既入了沙門，若是還像當時行兇，一味傷生，去不得西天，做不得和尚。忒惡！忒惡！」三藏道：「你十分撞祸。他虽是剪径的强徒，就是拿到官司，也不该死罪；你纵有手段，只可退他去便了，怎么就都打死？这却是无故伤人的性命，如何做得和尚？出家人扫地恐伤蝼蚁命，爱惜飞蛾纱罩灯。你怎么不分皂白，一顿打死？全无一点慈悲好善之心。早还是山野中无人查考；若到城市，倘有人一时冲撞了你，你也行凶，执著棍子乱打伤人，我可做得白客，怎能脱身？」悟空道：「师父，我若不打死他，他却要打死你哩。」三藏道：「我这出家人宁死，决不敢行凶。我就死，也只是一身，你却杀了他六人，如何理说？此事若告到官，就是你老子做官，也说不过去。」行者道：「不瞒师父说，我老孙五百年前，据花果山称王为怪的时节，也不知打死多少人。假似你说这般到官，倒也得些状告，我就做不到『齐天大圣』了。」三藏道：「只因你没收没管，暴横人间，欺天诳上，才受这五百年前之难。今既入了沙门，若是还像当时行凶，一味伤生，去不得西天，做不得和尚。忒恶！忒恶！」
逐句解 Line by line
Sanzang said, "You have brought down great trouble.
Sanzang's rebuke — the moral centre of the chapter — opens with the charge of reckless disaster. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 十分 reads 分 as fēn.
Though they were highway robbers, even had they been taken before a magistrate they would not have merited death;
The argument is legal as well as moral: even robbers do not merit summary death. 強徒 reads 強 as qiáng.
you, for all your powers, needed only to have driven them off — how could you go and beat them all to death?
Driving them off would have sufficed; killing all was excess. 就都打死 reads 都 as dōu.
This is taking life without cause. How can you be a monk?
The core accusation — killing without cause is incompatible with monkhood. 做得和尚 reads 得 as dé.
A man who has left the household sweeps the floor for fear of harming an ant, and shades the lamp out of pity for moths and insects.
The famous image of monastic compassion — sweeping to spare the ant, shading the lamp to spare the moth — states the ideal Wukong has violated.
How could you, without telling black from white, beat them dead at a stroke?
He drives it home: no discernment. 不分皂白 ("not telling black from white") reads 分 as fēn.
You have not a shred of mercy or love of good in your heart.
And no mercy — the moral verdict, bare and absolute.
It is well that this was in the wild hills, where there is no one to investigate;
A pragmatic turn: it is only luck that the deed was unwitnessed. 早還是 reads 還 as hái; 山野中 reads 中 as zhōng.
but if we came to a town, and someone chanced to jostle you, and you fell to violence and beat and wounded people with your cudgel, then even I could not stand clear of it — how should I get free?"
His fear is for himself as well — implicated as the companion of a killer. 行兇 reads 行 as xíng; 執著 reads 著 as durative zhe; 做得白客 reads 得 as dé.
Wukong said, "Master, if I had not killed him, he would have killed you."
Wukong's defence is blunt practicality: it was kill or be killed. The gulf between the disciple's realism and the master's absolutism is the chapter's theme.
Sanzang said, "I, who have left the household, would sooner die than do violence.
Sanzang answers with the ethic of ahimsa carried to its limit — he would rather die than kill. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 行兇 reads 行 as xíng.
Were I to die, it would be but one life; but you have killed six of them — how is that to be explained?
One death, his own, weighs in his scale against the six Wukong has taken.
If this matter were brought before the authorities, even had your own father been the magistrate, it could not be argued away."
The appeal to law again: no magistrate, not even a partial one, could excuse six killings. 老子 reads 子 as neutral zi.
The Pilgrim said, "I will not deceive you, Master: five hundred years ago, when I held Flower-Fruit Mountain and reigned there as a monster, I killed I know not how many men.
Wukong counters with his own history — a monster who slaughtered countless men and became the Great Sage for it. 行者 reads 行 as xíng; 稱王為怪 reads 為 as wéi; 多少 reads 少 as shǎo.
Supposing, as you say, it had come before the authorities and I had drawn a few charges upon myself — why, then I should never have become the 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven.'"
His logic is defiant: had he feared legal consequence, he would never have won his title. 假似 ("supposing") reads 似 as sì; 得些狀告 reads 得 as dé.
Sanzang said, "It was just because you had no restraint and no rule, running riot in the world, cheating Heaven and deceiving those above, that you suffered that calamity of five hundred years ago.
Sanzang reframes that very history as the cause of his punishment: it was lawlessness that earned the five-hundred-year sentence. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 之難 ("that calamity") reads 難 as nàn.
Now that you have entered the gate of the Buddha, if you still do violence as you did then, taking life at every turn, you cannot go to the Western Heaven, cannot be a monk. Too wicked! Too wicked!"
The rebuke ends in a warning and an exclamation: continued violence forfeits both the journey and monkhood. 還像 reads 還 as hái; 行兇 reads 行 as xíng; 去不得 and 做不得 both take 得 as dé; 忒惡 ("too wicked") reads 忒 as tè.
Sanzang's long rebuke is the ethical heart of the chapter and one of the clearest statements in the novel of the tension the pilgrimage embodies. The monk's position is the Buddhist ideal at its most absolute: killing is never justified, even against armed robbers, even in self-defence; the true monk sweeps the floor to spare an ant and would sooner die than take a life.
Against this stands Wukong's blunt realism — it was kill or be killed, and his own monstrous past of countless slayings led not to ruin but to the title of Great Sage. The debate is genuinely unresolved: the reader feels the force of both the monk's compassion and the monkey's practicality, and the narrative does not simply endorse one over the other. This is the moral texture that gives the comic novel its depth.
But Sanzang overplays his hand. His nagging, absolutist scolding — culminating in "too wicked, too wicked" and the threat that Wukong can be no monk — wounds the proud monkey past bearing. The rebuke that is meant to reform him instead drives him off, precipitating the crisis that only Guanyin's intervention, and the coercive fillet, will resolve. Compassion preached without wisdom, the episode suggests, is not yet enough to govern the Mind-Monkey.