術流二門 The Gates of Art and Stream
祖師道：「道字門中，有三百六十傍門，傍門皆有正果。不知你學那一門哩？」悟空道：「憑尊師意思，弟子傾心聽從。」祖師道：「我教你個術字門中之道，如何？」悟空道：「術門之道怎麼說？」祖師道：「術字門中，乃是些請仙扶鸞，問卜揲蓍，能知趨吉避凶之理。」悟空道：「似這般可得長生麼？」祖師道：「不能不能。」悟空道：「不學不學。」祖師又道：「教你流字門中之道，如何？」悟空又問：「流字門中是甚義理？」祖師道：「流字門中，乃是儒家、釋家、道家、陰陽家、墨家、醫家，或看經，或念佛，並朝真降聖之類。」悟空道：「似這般可得長生麼？」祖師道：「若要長生，也似壁裡安柱。」悟空道：「師父，我是個老實人，不曉得打市語，怎麼謂之壁裡安柱？」祖師道：「人家蓋房，欲圖堅固，將牆壁之間立一頂柱，有日大廈將頹，他必朽矣。」悟空道：「據此說，也不長久。不學不學。」祖师道：「道字门中，有三百六十傍门，傍门皆有正果。不知你学那一门哩？」悟空道：「凭尊师意思，弟子倾心听从。」祖师道：「我教你个术字门中之道，如何？」悟空道：「术门之道怎么说？」祖师道：「术字门中，乃是些请仙扶鸾，问卜揲蓍，能知趋吉避凶之理。」悟空道：「似这般可得长生么？」祖师道：「不能不能。」悟空道：「不学不学。」祖师又道：「教你流字门中之道，如何？」悟空又问：「流字门中是甚义理？」祖师道：「流字门中，乃是儒家、释家、道家、阴阳家、墨家、医家，或看经，或念佛，并朝真降圣之类。」悟空道：「似这般可得长生么？」祖师道：「若要长生，也似壁里安柱。」悟空道：「师父，我是个老实人，不晓得打市语，怎么谓之壁里安柱？」祖师道：「人家盖房，欲图坚固，将墙壁之间立一顶柱，有日大厦将颓，他必朽矣。」悟空道：「据此说，也不长久。不学不学。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Patriarch said: “Within the gate of the Way there are three hundred and sixty side-disciplines, and every one of them can bear its proper fruit. I wonder which of them you wish to study?”
傍門 (= 旁門): "side-gates, side-disciplines" — the secondary or heterodox branches, set against the orthodox path to the golden elixir; 傍 = páng, interchangeable here with 旁 (the novel uses both graphs). 三百六十 is a conventional round number (the degrees of a circle / days of a year) = "every sort of." 正果: "the true fruit," a Buddhist term for legitimate attainment. 那 here = nǎ, the interrogative "which" (the 世德堂本 writes the unmarked 那, later distinguished as 哪), not nà "that." Sandhi: 那一門 → 一 = yì (before 2nd-tone 門); 不知 → bù.
Wukong said: “I leave it to my honored master's judgment; your disciple will follow with a whole heart.”
意思 (yì si): "intention, meaning"; 思 here is neutral (si), not full-tone sī "to think." 傾心: to incline the whole heart, wholeheartedly. 弟子 = dì zǐ (toned 子), as established.
The Patriarch said: “Suppose I teach you the Way within the gate of ‘Art’ — how would that be?”
術字門: "the gate of 術 (Art / Technique)" — first of the four named branches, here the occult and divinatory arts. 教 = jiāo "to teach" (the verb, as in 其一). 個 = gè, a loosely-used measure.
Wukong said: “What does the Way of the Art-gate amount to?”
怎麼說: "how is it described, what does it come to."
The Patriarch said: “The gate of Art is such things as summoning immortals and working the planchette, consulting oracles and casting the milfoil stalks — the art of knowing how to pursue good fortune and avoid disaster.”
請仙扶鸞 (qǐng xiān fú luán): "inviting immortals and supporting the phoenix" — spirit-writing, in which a suspended stylus (the 鸞, a phoenix-like bird, names the planchette) traces characters in sand under a possessing spirit. 問卜揲蓍 (wèn bǔ shé shī): "consulting the oracle and counting the milfoil" — 卜 bǔ, divination; 揲蓍, manipulating yarrow (蓍 shī) stalks to cast a 《易經》 hexagram, 揲 = shé "to count out (stalks)." 趨吉避凶: to hasten toward the auspicious and shun the calamitous — the gate is fortune-telling entire.
Wukong said: “Can one obtain long life by such means?”
似這般: "in this manner, like this"; 似 = sì "like." The refrain that tests every gate. 多音字: 得 = dé "to obtain" (full tone, as in 其一 得了姓名), not the particle de; 長 = cháng "long" (長生 = long life / immortality), not zhǎng "to grow"; 麼 = me, the interrogative final particle.
The Patriarch said: “You cannot, you cannot.”
Sandhi: 不能 = bù néng (不 before 2nd-tone 能).
Wukong said: “Then I won't learn it, I won't learn it.”
Wukong's matching double refusal. Sandhi: 不學 = bù xué (不 before 2nd-tone 學).
The Patriarch went on: “Suppose I teach you the Way within the gate of ‘Stream’ — how would that be?”
流字門: "the gate of 流 (Stream / Current)" — the schools of doctrine and devotion. 又道: "went on to say."
Wukong again asked: “And what is the substance of the Stream-gate?”
是甚義理: "what is its substance/rationale"; 甚 = shèn "what." (Some editions read 是甚意思.)
The Patriarch said: “The gate of Stream takes in the Confucians, the Buddhists, the Daoists, the Yin-Yang school, the Mohists, and the physicians — reading scriptures or reciting the Buddha's name, and the like of paying court to the Perfected and summoning down the saints.”
A catalogue of the 諸子百家 traditions: 儒 (Confucian), 釋 (Buddhist; 釋 = shì, from 釋迦 Śākya), 道 (Daoist), 陰陽 (Yin-Yang cosmologists), 墨 (Mohist), 醫 (medical). 朝真降聖 (cháo zhēn jiàng shèng): "paying court to the Perfected and summoning down the saints" — liturgical practice. 多音字: 朝 = cháo "to attend upon" (not zhāo "morning"); 降 = jiàng "to bring down" (not xiáng "to surrender").
Wukong said: “Can one obtain long life by such means?”
The same refrain, repeated for the second gate (得 = dé; 長 = cháng).
The Patriarch said: “If it is long life you want, that would be like setting a pillar inside a wall.”
壁裡安柱 (bì lǐ ān zhù): "to set a pillar inside a wall" — a piece of builder's cant, unpacked in the next line; 裡 is the 世德堂本 form (some editions 裏).
Wukong said: “Master, I am a plain, honest fellow and do not follow your trade-cant. What do you mean by ‘setting a pillar inside a wall’?”
打市語 (dǎ shì yǔ): "to speak in market-argot / trade jargon, cant"; the monkey claims not to follow the master's figurative idiom. 曉得 (xiǎo de): "to know"; 得 here neutral de. Sandhi: 不曉得 → bù (before 3rd-tone 曉).
The Patriarch said: “When people build a house and want it to stand firm, they set a supporting pillar within the wall; but the day the great hall is about to topple, that pillar is sure to have rotted away.”
The simile: a pillar mortared inside a wall (將 = jiāng, the disposal coverb "take") looks solid, but when the 大廈 (dà shà, "great hall"; 廈 = shà, not xià as in 廈門) is about to collapse (將頹, here 將 = jiāng "about to"; 頹 tuí "to topple"), the hidden pillar proves long rotted (朽 xiǔ). Doctrine and devotion, the figure says, give no lasting body of their own. Sandhi: 立一頂柱 → 一 = yì (before 3rd-tone 頂).
Wukong said: “By that account it does not last either. I won't learn it, I won't learn it.”
據此說: "going by this account." 長久 (cháng jiǔ): "long-lasting"; 長 again cháng. Sandhi: 也不長久 → bù (before 2nd-tone 長); 不學 → bù.
This is the novel's celebrated "menu of the Way." The Patriarch lays out the branches of practice one gate at a time, and each time Wukong applies a single, unwavering test — 可得長生麼, "can one gain long life by it?" — and on a No, refuses flat. The four gates he is offered (here 術 and 流; 靜 and 動 follow) amount to a compact doxography of Chinese religion and learning: divination and the occult arts under 術; under 流, the whole spread of the 諸子百家 — Confucians, Buddhists, Daoists, Yin-Yang cosmologists, Mohists, physicians — together with scripture-reading, Buddha-recitation, and liturgical "paying court to the Perfected."
The internal-alchemy commentators read the scene as doctrine. Every one of these gates is a 旁門, a "side-door": respectable, fruitful in its own terms — the Patriarch is careful to say 傍門皆有正果, each bears its proper fruit — but none of them yields the one thing the adept of the golden elixir actually seeks, true and deathless life. The dismissal of the "Stream" gate is the sharpest stroke: he likens devotional and doctrinal religion to 壁裡安柱, a pillar mortared inside a wall, which looks like solid support but, when the great hall finally totters, is found long since rotted through. Conventional piety, in this image, has no enduring body of its own; it stands only as long as the perishable frame around it stands.
Read as character rather than catechism, the passage is pure Wukong. His test never varies and his refusals come in flat, childish pairs — 不學，不學 — yet that bluntness is also a kind of clear-sightedness: he will not be fobbed off with anything short of what drove him across two oceans. The comedy sharpens when he pretends not to follow the master's figurative idiom — 我是個老實人，不曉得打市語, "I'm a plain man, I don't follow your trade-cant" — forcing the Patriarch to unpack the builder's metaphor in plain words. The exchange teaches by elimination: by clearing away every honorable 旁門 in turn, master and disciple narrow toward the single esoteric transmission that the head-rapping riddle, only a few lines off, will finally deliver.