三妖席地 佛衣之會 Three Fiends Seated on the Ground; the Buddha-Robe Feast
那行者正觀山景，忽聽得芳草坡前，有人言語。他卻輕步潛蹤，閃在那石崖之下，偷睛觀看。原來是三個妖魔，席地而坐：上首的是一條黑漢，左首下是一個道人，右首下是一個白衣秀士。都在那裡高談闊論，講的是立鼎安爐，摶砂煉汞，白雪黃芽，傍門外道。正說中間，那黑漢笑道：「後日是我母難之日，二公可光顧光顧。」白衣秀士道：「年年與大王上壽，今年豈有不來之理？」黑漢道：「我夜來得了一件寶貝，名喚錦襴佛衣，誠然是件玩好之物。我明日就以他為壽，大開筵宴，邀請各山道官，慶賀佛衣，就稱為佛衣會如何？」道人笑道：「妙，妙，妙。我明日先來拜壽，後日再來赴宴。」那行者正观山景，忽听得芳草坡前，有人言语。他却轻步潜踪，闪在那石崖之下，偷睛观看。原来是三个妖魔，席地而坐：上首的是一条黑汉，左首下是一个道人，右首下是一个白衣秀士。都在那里高谈阔论，讲的是立鼎安炉，抟砂炼汞，白雪黄芽，傍门外道。正说中间，那黑汉笑道：「后日是我母难之日，二公可光顾光顾。」白衣秀士道：「年年与大王上寿，今年岂有不来之理？」黑汉道：「我夜来得了一件宝贝，名唤锦襕佛衣，诚然是件玩好之物。我明日就以他为寿，大开筵宴，邀请各山道官，庆贺佛衣，就称为佛衣会如何？」道人笑道：「妙，妙，妙。我明日先来拜寿，后日再来赴宴。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Pilgrim was still taking in the mountain prospect when of a sudden he heard voices before a slope of fragrant grass.
聽得 takes the resultative de. 芳草坡, the slope of fragrant grass, is fixed here as a place-name and returns three times before the chapter is out.
Stepping softly and hiding his track, he slipped in below that stone cliff and watched with a stolen eye.
潛蹤 is to submerge the footprint; 偷睛觀看, to look with a stolen eye. The Pilgrim, who in the previous chapter could not stop himself shouting, now behaves like a spy.
They proved to be three fiends, seated upon the bare ground. In the upper place was a black fellow;
席地而坐: to make the ground itself the mat. 上首 is the seat of honour. The classifier 條 — proper to long, sinuous things — is faintly bestial applied to a man.
below on the left was a Taoist, and below on the right a scholar robed in white.
左首下 and 右首下 place the guests below their host in the strict order of a banquet. The reader who marks that the third figure wears white and the second is a Taoist has already been told what each of them is; the Pilgrim has not.
All of them were there discoursing at large — of raising the tripod and settling the furnace, of kneading cinnabar and smelting quicksilver, of White Snow and Yellow Sprout: the side gates and the outer ways.
都 reads dōu; 那裡 is here locative nà, "there," not the interrogative nǎ. What they discuss is the vocabulary of inner alchemy: 立鼎安爐, the tripod and furnace of the body; 摶砂煉汞, cinnabar and quicksilver; 白雪 and 黃芽, the lead and mercury of the elixir. The narrator then dismisses the whole of it as 傍門外道 — a side gate, a way outside the gate. 傍 here writes 旁 and reads páng, not the bàng that pypinyin supplies; contrast 傍岸 in the rhapsody below, where the verb "to border" keeps bàng.
In the midst of the talk the black fellow laughed and said, "The day after tomorrow is the day of my mother's travail. Let the two of you honour me with your presence."
母難之日, "the day of my mother's calamity," is a courteous and slightly pious way of saying birthday: 難 reads nàn, calamity or travail, not nán. A monster who dates his life from his mother's pain is not wholly a monster.
The white-clad scholar said, "Year upon year we drink to the Great King's long life. What reason could there be for not coming this year?"
上壽 is to present the birthday cup. 豈有不來之理 is a set courteous formula: how should there be any principle of not coming?
The black fellow said, "Last night I came by a treasure. It is named the brocade-bordered Buddha-robe, and it is truly a thing to be delighted in.
得了 is the acquisitive dé. 錦襴 is the brocade border of the cassock. Note the fiend never says 袈裟: he says 佛衣, the Buddha-robe, which raises a stolen garment into a relic. 玩好 is read wán hào, a prized object of delight, the 好 being the fourth-tone verbal noun rather than the adjective hǎo.
Tomorrow I shall make it the gift of my birthday, spread a great banquet, invite the Taoist officers of every mountain, and give thanks for the Buddha-robe. We shall call it the Buddha-Robe Feast — how would that be?"
以他為壽 and 稱為 both take 為 as the copula wéi, not the fourth-tone wèi of purpose. 道官, Taoist officers, is the diction of a bureaucracy; the bear-fiend keeps a court.
The Taoist laughed and said, "Excellent, excellent, excellent. Tomorrow I shall come first to wish you long life; the day after, I shall come again to the banquet."
The Taoist accepts twice over — first for the birthday, then for the feast — and thereby fixes the two-day calendar on which the plot of the chapter runs.
The scene is staged with great economy. Three figures sit on the ground in the correct order of a banquet, talking inner alchemy, and the narrator files their whole conversation under 傍門外道 before a word of it is examined. That verdict is the chapter in miniature: these are not sages but connoisseurs, and their crime will be a crime of taste.
The pivot is a word. The bear-fiend calls the stolen cassock 佛衣, never 袈裟 — and in the same breath calls it 玩好之物, a thing to be delighted in. A relic and a curio at once; he will hold a festival in its honour and has no idea what it is for. The Pilgrim, listening behind the rock, hears only the two graphs 佛衣 and leaps to a conclusion that happens to be right. Both parties reason from the robe to its owner, and both reason badly.