去邪歸正 素筵謝僧 Turning from Evil: The Vegetarian Banquet
高老見這等去邪歸正，更十分喜悅，遂命家僮安排筵宴，酬謝唐僧。八戒上前扯住老高道：「爺，請我拙荊出來拜見公公、伯伯，如何？」行者笑道：「賢弟，你既入了沙門，做了和尚，從今後，再莫題起那『拙荊』的話說。世間只有個火居道士，那裡有個火居的和尚？我們且來敘了坐次，吃頓齋飯，趕早兒往西天走路。」高老兒擺了桌席，請三藏上坐；行者與八戒坐於左右兩傍；諸親下坐。高老把素酒開樽，滿斟一杯，奠了天地，然後奉與三藏。三藏道：「不瞞太公說，貧僧是胎裡素，自幼兒不吃葷。」老高道：「因知老師清素，不曾敢動葷。此酒也是素的，請一杯不妨。」三藏道：「也不敢用酒，酒是我僧家第一戒者。」悟能慌了道：「師父，我自持齋，卻不曾斷酒。」悟空道：「老孫雖量窄，吃不上罈把，卻也不曾斷酒。」三藏道：「既如此，你兄弟們吃些素酒也罷，只是不許醉飲誤事。」遂而他兩個接了頭鍾。各人俱照舊坐下，擺下素齋。說不盡那杯盤之盛，品物之豐。高老见这等去邪归正，更十分喜悦，遂命家僮安排筵宴，酬谢唐僧。八戒上前扯住老高道：「爷，请我拙荆出来拜见公公、伯伯，如何？」行者笑道：「贤弟，你既入了沙门，做了和尚，从今后，再莫题起那『拙荆』的话说。世间只有个火居道士，那里有个火居的和尚？我们且来叙了坐次，吃顿斋饭，赶早儿往西天走路。」高老儿摆了桌席，请三藏上坐；行者与八戒坐于左右两傍；诸亲下坐。高老把素酒开樽，满斟一杯，奠了天地，然后奉与三藏。三藏道：「不瞒太公说，贫僧是胎里素，自幼儿不吃荤。」老高道：「因知老师清素，不曾敢动荤。此酒也是素的，请一杯不妨。」三藏道：「也不敢用酒，酒是我僧家第一戒者。」悟能慌了道：「师父，我自持斋，却不曾断酒。」悟空道：「老孙虽量窄，吃不上坛把，却也不曾断酒。」三藏道：「既如此，你兄弟们吃些素酒也罢，只是不许醉饮误事。」遂而他两个接了头钟。各人俱照旧坐下，摆下素斋。说不尽那杯盘之盛，品物之丰。
逐句解 Line by line
Seeing him thus turn from evil and return to the right, old Gao was the more delighted, and bade the house-boys lay a banquet to thank the Tang Monk.
去邪歸正 answers Wukong's 改邪歸正 of the previous passage. 家僮, the boys of the household. Old Gao's gratitude is expressed, as everything in his house is expressed, by an outlay.
Bajie came forward and caught hold of old Gao. "Sir, let my humble thorn come out and pay her respects to her husband's father and her uncles. What do you say?"
拙荊 — "my clumsy thorn," the self-deprecating term a man uses for his own wife, from the thorn-hairpins of the poor. Bajie has been a monk for perhaps ten minutes and wishes to introduce his wife to the family.
The Pilgrim laughed. "Worthy brother, you have entered the Gate of the Śramaṇa and become a monk. From today, never raise that talk of a 'humble thorn' again.
沙門 transcribes Sanskrit śramaṇa. The rebuke lands on the word, not the woman: Wukong forbids the phrase 拙荊, which is to say he forbids Bajie a husband's grammar.
In this world there are hearth-dwelling Daoists; where is there a hearth-dwelling monk?
火居道士, a "hearth-dwelling Daoist" — a married priest who keeps a household, a recognised order. 那裡 is interrogative nǎ. The distinction is doctrinally exact and, from Wukong, unanswerable.
Let us rather take our places, eat a meal of vegetarian fare, and be off early on the road to the Western Heaven."
敘坐次, to arrange the order of seating — the first business of any Chinese banquet. 趕早兒 takes the suffix 兒 as er.
Old Gao set out the tables and invited Sanzang to the seat of honour; the Pilgrim and Bajie sat at his left and right, and the kinsfolk below them.
兩傍 writes 兩旁, so 傍 is páng. The seating chart is the point of the sentence: the monk above, the disciples flanking, the family below. Bajie has been promoted out of the family in a single afternoon.
Old Gao broached the vegetarian wine, filled a cup brimful, poured a libation to heaven and earth, and then offered it to Sanzang.
素酒, "pure wine" — unfortified, or by some accounts merely wine drunk without meat. 奠, to pour a libation. Old Gao performs the whole ritual sequence before a drop is drunk.
Sanzang said: "I will not deceive the Squire. Your poor monk was a vegetarian in the womb, and has never eaten flesh from childhood."
胎裡素, "a vegetarian in the womb" — a wonderful vernacular idiom. 自幼兒 takes 兒 as the suffix er.
Old Gao said: "Knowing the master's purity, I have ventured no flesh. This wine too is of the pure sort; one cup can do no harm."
清素, pure and plain. The squire's hospitality is relentless: refused meat, he offers wine; he will shortly be refused that too, and will offer money, and then cloth.
Sanzang said: "Nor dare I take wine. Wine is the first of the prohibitions of our monkish house."
第一戒 — the first precept. (In the standard five, the prohibition of alcohol is the fifth; Sanzang is speaking of its gravity, not its number.) The ordinal 第一 here takes mechanical sandhi, yí, a systematic question flagged since chapter seventeen.
Wuneng was thrown into a flurry. "Master, I have kept the fast on my own account, but I never gave up wine."
The comedy is in the speed. 慌了 — he is thrown into a panic, having just been named for eight prohibitions and now hearing a ninth.
Wukong said: "Old Sun's capacity is small — I cannot drink a jarful — but neither did I give up wine."
量窄, a small capacity for drink; 量 is liàng. 罈把, "a jar or so." Wukong is not abstaining either, and says so with a boast disguised as modesty.
Sanzang said: "Then so be it. You brothers may take a little of the pure wine, only you shall not drink to drunkenness and spoil our business."
Sanzang concedes. It is the first of many concessions, and the formula — 也罷, "so be it" — will become the sound of his authority throughout the journey.
And so the two of them took the first round. All the rest sat down in their old places, and the vegetarian dishes were laid.
頭鍾, the first cup of the round. The two disciples drink; the master does not.
There is no telling the abundance of that board, nor the richness of its dishes.
說不盡: because 盡 is raised to jìn after mechanical sandhi has run, 不 must be corrected to bú by hand. The formula itself — "there is no telling" — is the storyteller's way of declining to describe a feast he has described a hundred times.
Bajie's first act as a monk is to ask whether his wife may come out and be introduced. He uses the correct polite form, 拙荊 — "my clumsy thorn" — and Wukong forbids not the woman but the word. The refutation is unanswerable and heartless: there are hearth-dwelling Daoists, but no hearth-dwelling monks. It is worth noticing that nobody in the chapter ever consults the Gao daughter, who has been shut in the rear apartments since chapter eighteen and is neither seen nor heard.
The banquet then proceeds as a comedy of refusals. Old Gao offers meat and is told his guest was a vegetarian in the womb; he offers wine and is told it is the first prohibition; Wuneng, who has held to a strict fast for years in his cave, blurts out that he never gave up drink, and Wukong instantly agrees. Sanzang, cornered by his own disciples, concedes with 也罷 — so be it — and adds a condition nobody will keep. The formula that closes the passage, 說不盡那杯盤之盛, requires the one sandhi override in this batch: 盡 is raised to jìn after the mechanical rule has run, so 不 must be corrected to bú.