熊羆皈正 收作守山 The Bear Submits and Is Made a Guardian
菩薩道：「孽畜，你如今可皈依麼？」那怪滿口道：「心願皈依，只望饒命。」行者恐耽擱了工夫，意欲就打。菩薩急止住道：「休傷他命，我有用他處哩。」行者道：「這樣怪物，不打死他，反留他在何處用哩？」菩薩道：「我那落伽山後無人看管，我要帶他去做個守山大神。」行者笑道：「誠然是個救苦慈尊，一靈不損。若是老孫有這樣咒語，就念上他娘千遍。這回兒就有許多黑熊，都教他了帳。」卻說那怪甦醒多時，公道難禁疼痛，只得跪在地下哀告道：「但饒性命，願皈正果。」菩薩方墜落祥光，又與他摩頂受戒，教他執了長槍，跟隨左右。那黑熊才一片野心今日定，無窮頑性此時收。菩萨道：「孽畜，你如今可皈依么？」那怪满口道：「心愿皈依，只望饶命。」行者恐耽搁了工夫，意欲就打。菩萨急止住道：「休伤他命，我有用他处哩。」行者道：「这样怪物，不打死他，反留他在何处用哩？」菩萨道：「我那落伽山后无人看管，我要带他去做个守山大神。」行者笑道：「诚然是个救苦慈尊，一灵不损。若是老孙有这样咒语，就念上他娘千遍。这回儿就有许多黑熊，都教他了帐。」却说那怪苏醒多时，公道难禁疼痛，只得跪在地下哀告道：「但饶性命，愿皈正果。」菩萨方坠落祥光，又与他摩顶受戒，教他执了长枪，跟随左右。那黑熊才一片野心今日定，无穷顽性此时收。
逐句解 Line by line
The Bodhisattva said, "Creature of evil karma, will you now take refuge?" The fiend answered with his whole mouth, "My heart is willing to take refuge; only spare my life."
皈依 is taking refuge — the formal act of entering the Buddhist community, and still the ordinary word for converting. 滿口 is with the whole mouth: he agrees before anyone has to ask him twice.
The Pilgrim, fearing the delay would waste his time, was minded to strike at once. The Bodhisattva stopped him hurriedly. "Do not harm his life. I have a use for him."
耽擱 is delay. 哩 is the final particle, li. Note the shape of the Pilgrim's objection to mercy: it is that mercy is slow.
The Pilgrim said, "A monster like this — if he is not beaten to death, where will you find a use to put him to?"
反留他在何處用哩 — if you don't kill him, what use will you find for him? The Pilgrim cannot conceive of a use for a living enemy, and he is asking the question sincerely.
The Bodhisattva said, "Behind my Mount Luojia there is nobody to keep watch. I mean to take him away and make him a Great God who guards the mountain."
落伽山: 伽 reads qié. 守山大神 is the Great God who guards the mountain — the post the bear will hold for the remaining eighty-three chapters of the novel.
The Pilgrim laughed. "Truly you are the Merciful Lord who saves from suffering: not a single soul is lost.
救苦慈尊, the Merciful Lord who saves from suffering, is a title of Guanyin. 一靈不損 is not one soul lost. The Pilgrim intends it as a compliment, and it also happens to be the exact truth.
If old Sun had a spell of that sort, I would recite it over his mother a thousand times. There would be a great many black bears about, and I would settle accounts with the lot of them."
念上他娘千遍 is the coarsest line in the chapter. 了帳 — 了 reads liǎo, to settle up, and the phrase is to square accounts. Offered a demonstration of mercy, the Pilgrim asks whether the technology can be scaled up for extermination.
Now the fiend had come to himself some while since, and in all fairness could not endure the pain.
公道 is in all fairness; 禁 reads jīn, to endure. The narrator concedes that the pain was past bearing, and makes the concession in the vocabulary of justice.
He could only kneel upon the ground and plead: "Do but spare my life, and I will turn to the true fruit."
只得 takes dé. 願皈正果, I will turn to the true fruit. The surrender is total, and a headache extracted it.
Then the Bodhisattva let her auspicious light descend, laid her hand upon his crown and gave him the commandments, bade him take up the long spear, and follow at her side.
摩頂受戒 is to lay a hand on the crown of the head and confer the precepts. 執了長槍: 長 is cháng. He keeps his spear. It is now a temple guardian's weapon.
And so the Black Bear's wild heart was that day settled, and his boundless stubborn nature was in that hour gathered in.
A second matched couplet closing a paragraph in prose, again with no 正是 tag. 野心 and 頑性 — the wild heart and the stubborn nature — are the two things a fillet exists to deal with; and both were used of the Pilgrim himself in the first seven chapters.
Mercy is granted over the Pilgrim's explicit objection, and he does not understand it even after it has been explained to him. 這樣怪物，不打死他，反留他在何處用哩？ — what is the use of a monster you do not kill? The Bodhisattva answers with a job vacancy: there is nobody keeping watch behind Mount Luojia. The bear-fiend, who kept a garden, wrote letters and observed his mother's memory, will spend the rest of the novel guarding a hill, and this is the best outcome anybody in the chapter achieves.
The Pilgrim's response is the darkest joke in the book. Told that no soul has been lost, he agrees enthusiastically — 誠然是個救苦慈尊，一靈不損 — and then asks for the spell, so that he might use it on the bear's mother, and on all the other black bears, and 都教他了帳, settle accounts with the lot of them. He has watched a creature be spared and has come away with a method. Meanwhile the bear, whose head is splitting, kneels down and asks for his life; and the narrator, who has watched the whole thing, records that 公道難禁疼痛 — in all fairness, the pain could not be borne.