蒼狼授丹 凌虛子製 The Taoist with the Elixir
正行處，只見那山坡前走出一個道人，手拿著一個玻璃盤兒，盤內安著兩粒仙丹，往前正走。被行者撞個滿懷，掣出棒，就照頭一下，打得腦裡漿流出，腔中血迸攛。菩薩大驚道：「你這個猴子，還是這等放潑。他又不曾偷你袈裟，又不與你相識，又無甚冤仇，你怎麼就將他打死？」行者道：「菩薩，你認他不得，他是那黑熊精的朋友。他昨日和一個白衣秀士，都在芳草坡前坐講。後日是黑精的生日，請他們來慶佛衣會。今日他先來拜壽，明日來慶佛衣會。所以我認得，定是今日替那妖去上壽。」菩薩說：「既是這等說來，也罷。」行者才去把那道人提起來看，卻是一隻蒼狼。傍邊那個盤兒底下卻有字，刻道「凌虛子製」。正行处，只见那山坡前走出一个道人，手拿着一个玻璃盘儿，盘内安着两粒仙丹，往前正走。被行者撞个满怀，掣出棒，就照头一下，打得脑里浆流出，腔中血迸撺。菩萨大惊道：「你这个猴子，还是这等放泼。他又不曾偷你袈裟，又不与你相识，又无甚冤仇，你怎么就将他打死？」行者道：「菩萨，你认他不得，他是那黑熊精的朋友。他昨日和一个白衣秀士，都在芳草坡前坐讲。后日是黑精的生日，请他们来庆佛衣会。今日他先来拜寿，明日来庆佛衣会。所以我认得，定是今日替那妖去上寿。」菩萨说：「既是这等说来，也罢。」行者才去把那道人提起来看，却是一只苍狼。傍边那个盘儿底下却有字，刻道「凌虚子制」。
逐句解 Line by line
As they went, they saw a Taoist come out from before the slope of the hill,
正行處, just as they were walking along. This is the second stranger the Pilgrim meets on a road in this chapter, and the second one he kills.
carrying in his hand a tray of glass with two pellets of immortal elixir set within it, walking straight on.
拿著 and 安著 both take the continuous zhe. 盤兒 carries the toneless diminutive er. Two pills on a glass tray: the reader is handed the murder weapon before the murder.
He ran full against the Pilgrim, who whipped out his rod and brought it down upon his head, so that the brains came flowing out and the blood spurted from the trunk.
撞個滿懷 is to collide chest to chest — the Taoist walks straight into him. 打得 takes the manner-marking de. 腔中: zhōng. 迸攛 is to spurt and leap. The sentence is four characters longer than it strictly needs to be.
The Bodhisattva was greatly startled. "You monkey! Are you still so wanton?
放潑 is to give violence its head. 還是這等: 還 is the adverb hái — still like this. The Bodhisattva has known him a long time.
He had not stolen your cassock; he was no acquaintance of yours; you had no grudge against him whatever. How is it that you have beaten him dead?"
Three clauses of exculpation, each one opening with 又: he did not steal from you, he was no acquaintance of yours, you had no quarrel with him. 無甚 takes shén; 將 is jiāng. It has the shape of a legal finding, and it is unanswerable.
The Pilgrim said, "Bodhisattva, you do not know him. He is a friend of that black bear-spirit.
認他不得 is the negative potential, cannot place him, and takes dé. Note that he does not deny a word of the charge. He answers it with an alibi assembled out of the dead man's diary.
Yesterday he was sitting and talking before the slope of fragrant grass with a white-clad scholar.
坐講 is to sit and discourse. He was hiding behind a rock at the time.
The day after tomorrow is the black spirit's birthday, and he had bidden them to keep the Buddha-Robe Feast. Today this one was to come first with birthday greetings, and tomorrow to the feast.
The schedule is exact and, so far as the reader can tell, true. Whether it justifies the killing is a question the passage does not raise and the Bodhisattva does not press.
So I knew him, and knew for certain he was going today to wish the fiend long life for the other's sake."
認得 takes the linking de. 替那妖去上壽 is going in somebody else's stead to drink a birthday health.
The Bodhisattva said, "If it is thus as you say, well then." The Pilgrim went and lifted the Taoist up to look at him: he was a grey wolf.
既是這等說來，也罷 — if that is how it stands, well then. Six characters, and the wolf is disposed of. In 一隻蒼狼 the 一 sits before first-tone 隻 and gives yì.
Beside him, on the underside of the tray, were words graven: MADE BY LINGXUZI.
傍邊: 傍 is writing 旁, beside, and reads páng. 凌虛子 is Master Soaring-into-Emptiness, and its 子 is the full lexical zǐ of a Taoist style-name. 製, made by, is a maker's mark — the pill is a signed work, and the signature is about to become a costume.
It happens inside a single sentence, with the Bodhisattva standing right beside him. A stranger walks down a hill carrying two pills on a glass tray, blunders into the Pilgrim, and has his brains beaten out. Guanyin's rebuke takes the form of three findings of fact — no theft, no acquaintance, no grudge — and the Pilgrim does not contest one of them. He answers instead with the dead man's engagements for the week. 既是這等說來，也罷。 If that is how it stands, well then. The chapter has now let the Pilgrim kill two creatures who were walking along a road on somebody else's errand, and has recorded, both times, that the killing turned out to be useful.
Useful is exactly the word. The wolf's corpse yields three things: a species, a tray, and a signature. 凌虛子製 — made by Lingxuzi, Master Soaring-into-Emptiness. In a moment that maker's mark on the underside of a dish will become a Bodhisattva's name and a Bodhisattva's face, and the elixir a wolf compounded for a bear's birthday will go down the bear's own throat. Nothing in the passage goes to waste, which is precisely what is disquieting about it.