金丹口訣 The Golden Elixir Formula
悟空應聲叫道：「師父，弟子在此跪候多時。」祖師聞得聲音是悟空，即起披衣，盤坐喝道：「這猢猻，你不在前邊去睡，卻來我這後邊作甚？」悟空道：「師父昨日壇前對眾相允，教弟子三更時候，從後門裡傳我道理，故此大膽徑拜老爺榻下。」祖師聽說，十分歡喜，暗自尋思道：「這廝果然是個天地生成的，不然，何就打破我盤中之暗謎也？」悟空道：「此間更無六耳，止只弟子一人，望師父大捨慈悲，傳與我長生之道罷，永不忘恩。」祖師道：「你今有緣，我亦喜說。既識得盤中暗謎，你近前來，仔細聽之，當傳與你長生之妙道也。」悟空叩頭謝了，洗耳用心，跪於榻下。祖師云：顯密圓通真妙訣，惜修性命無他說。都來總是精氣神，謹固牢藏休漏泄。休漏泄，體中藏，汝受吾傳道自昌。口訣記來多有益，屏除邪欲得清涼。得清涼，光皎潔，好向丹臺賞明月。月藏玉兔日藏烏，自有龜蛇相盤結。相盤結，性命堅，卻能火裡種金蓮。攢簇五行顛倒用，功完隨作佛和仙。悟空应声叫道：「师父，弟子在此跪候多时。」祖师闻得声音是悟空，即起披衣，盘坐喝道：「这猢狲，你不在前边去睡，却来我这后边作甚？」悟空道：「师父昨日坛前对众相允，教弟子三更时候，从后门里传我道理，故此大胆径拜老爷榻下。」祖师听说，十分欢喜，暗自寻思道：「这厮果然是个天地生成的，不然，何就打破我盘中之暗谜也？」悟空道：「此间更无六耳，止只弟子一人，望师父大舍慈悲，传与我长生之道罢，永不忘恩。」祖师道：「你今有缘，我亦喜说。既识得盘中暗谜，你近前来，仔细听之，当传与你长生之妙道也。」悟空叩头谢了，洗耳用心，跪于榻下。祖师云：显密圆通真妙诀，惜修性命无他说。都来总是精气神，谨固牢藏休漏泄。休漏泄，体中藏，汝受吾传道自昌。口诀记来多有益，屏除邪欲得清凉。得清凉，光皎洁，好向丹台赏明月。月藏玉兔日藏乌，自有龟蛇相盘结。相盘结，性命坚，却能火里种金莲。攒簇五行颠倒用，功完随作佛和仙。
逐句解 Line by line
Wukong answered aloud: “Master, your disciple has been kneeling here in waiting a good while.”
應聲 (yìng shēng): "to answer aloud, respond"; 多音字 應 = yìng "to respond" here (not yīng "should," as in 其七 應該). 跪候: "to kneel in waiting."
Recognizing Wukong's voice, the Patriarch rose, threw on his robe, sat up cross-legged, and barked: “You wretched ape! Why aren't you off sleeping in the front, instead of coming round here to the back to me — what for?”
聞得: "heard"; 得 = de, complement particle. 披衣: "to throw on a robe." 盤坐 (pán zuò): "to sit cross-legged." 喝道 (hè dào): "to shout, bark"; 多音字 喝 = hè "to shout" (not hē "to drink"). Sandhi: 不在 → bú (不 before 4th-tone 在).
Wukong said: “Yesterday at the dais, before the whole company, the master gave his word — bidding your disciple come at the third watch and pass the teaching to me by the back door; and so I made bold to come straight and bow beneath your honor's couch.”
相允 (xiāng yǔn): "to give one's promise"; 多音字 相 = xiāng "toward (one)" (not xiàng). 教 = jiào, the causative "bidding [me]" (教弟子三更時候…), as in 其六. 徑拜 (jìng bài): "to go straight and make obeisance"; 徑 = jìng "directly." 老爺 (lǎo yé): "old master, your honor." 更 = gēng (三更).
Hearing this, the Patriarch was greatly pleased, and thought to himself: “This creature really is a thing born of Heaven and Earth — else how could he have cracked the hidden riddle of my platter?”
尋思 (xún sī): "to ponder"; 思 = sī, full tone "to think" (not the neutral si of 意思). 這廝 (zhè sī): "this fellow" — rough, familiar; 廝 = sī. 天地生成的: "a thing brought forth by Heaven and Earth" (echoing Wukong's stone-born origin). Sandhi: 不然 → bù.
Wukong said: “Here there are no ‘six ears’ — only your disciple alone. I beg the master to bestow great mercy and pass me the way of long life; I will never forget the kindness.”
六耳 (liù ěr): "six ears" — an idiom for a third party overhearing (two people make four ears; a hidden third makes six); 更無六耳 = "there is no eavesdropper." 多音字 更 = gèng "moreover, furthermore" here (4th tone), distinct from gēng "night-watch" (三更). 大捨 (dà shě): "to bestow generously"; 捨 = shě "to give." 罷 = ba, a softening final particle. Sandhi: 一人 = yì rén; 不忘 → bú (不 before 4th-tone 忘).
The Patriarch said: “You have an affinity today, and I am glad to speak. Since you have read the hidden riddle of the platter, come close and listen carefully — I shall pass you the marvelous way of long life.”
有緣 (yǒu yuán): "to have karmic affinity." 識得: "to recognize"; 得 = de. 仔細 (zǐ xì): "carefully." 當 = dāng "shall, ought" (當傳與你).
Wukong kowtowed his thanks, washed out his ears and fixed his mind, and knelt beneath the couch. The Patriarch intoned:
洗耳用心 (xǐ ěr yòng xīn): "to wash out the ears and apply the mind" — to listen with utmost attention. 云 (yún): "said, intoned."
The true and marvelous formula, manifest-and-secret, perfectly penetrating —
顯密圓通 (xiǎn mì yuán tōng): "manifest and secret, perfectly penetrating" — Buddhist-flavored language (顯/密 = the exoteric and esoteric teachings; 圓通 = complete interpenetration) for the supreme formula.
to cherish and cultivate nature-and-life, there is nothing else to tell.
性命 (xìng mìng): "nature and life-destiny," the paired objects of internal-alchemical cultivation (性 spirit/mind, 命 vital force); their joint cultivation, 性命雙修, is the program the poem lays out.
All of it comes down to essence, breath, and spirit;
都來 (dōu lái): "all in all"; 多音字 都 = dōu "all" (not dū "capital"). 精氣神 (jīng qì shén): "essence, breath, spirit" — the 三寶, the Three Treasures of internal alchemy, the raw materials of the work.
guard them close and store them firm, and let nothing leak away.
休漏泄 (xiū lòu xiè): "do not let [them] leak out" — the foundational injunction to conserve the vital forces. 多音字 藏 = cáng "to store" (not zàng).
Let nothing leak away,
休漏泄: the injunction repeated from the line before, carrying the thought across into the new stanza.
but store it within the body;
體中藏: "store [it] within the body." 多音字 藏 = cáng.
receive my transmission, and the Way will of itself thrive.
汝…吾 (rǔ / wú): archaic "you / I." 自昌 (zì chāng): "will of itself flourish."
Hold the oral formula in memory, and the benefit is great;
口訣 (kǒu jué): "the oral formula," transmitted mouth-to-ear.
dispel deviant desires, and you attain the clear and cool.
屏除邪欲 (bǐng chú xié yù): "dispel deviant desires"; 多音字 屏 = bǐng "to get rid of" (not píng "screen"). 得清涼: "attain the clear and cool" (a state of purity); 得 = dé "to attain."
Attain the clear and cool,
得清涼: carried over from the previous line to open the stanza; 得 = dé "to attain."
the light pure and bright;
皎潔 (jiǎo jié): "luminous, pure-bright."
good then to turn to the elixir-terrace and savor the bright moon.
好向 (hǎo xiàng): "good then to turn toward"; 多音字 好 = hǎo "good" (not hào "to like"). 丹臺 (dān tái): "the elixir terrace," the inner site where the elixir is refined and contemplated.
The moon hides the jade hare, the sun hides the crow;
A couplet of alchemical emblems. 玉兔 (yù tù), "the jade hare," stands for the moon, and 烏 (wū), "the crow" (the three-legged sun-crow), for the sun — the lunar yin and solar yang essences gathered inward (藏 = cáng).
of themselves the tortoise and the snake will coil and entwine.
龜蛇 (guī shé), "tortoise and snake," is the emblem of 玄武, the Dark Warrior of the north and of water; their coiling (相盤結) figures the union of the forces within.
Coil and entwine,
相盤結: carried over to open the stanza — the coiling union of the inner forces.
and nature-and-life grow firm;
性命堅: "nature-and-life grow firm," the union made stable.
then within the fire you can plant the golden lotus.
火裡種金蓮 (huǒ lǐ zhòng jīn lián): "to plant a golden lotus within the fire" — a classic alchemical paradox for bringing forth the immortal embryo amid the refining fire; 多音字 種 = zhòng "to plant" (verb), not zhǒng "seed."
Cluster the Five Phases and turn them upside-down to use;
攢簇五行 (cuán cù wǔ xíng): "to cluster the Five Phases"; 多音字 攢 = cuán "to gather" (not zǎn "to hoard"); 行 = xíng (五行). 顛倒用 (diān dǎo yòng): "to use them reversed" — the alchemical "reversal" turning the ordinary generative sequence of the Five Phases back to refine the elixir; 多音字 倒 = dǎo "to invert" here (3rd tone), distinct from dào "backward" in 倒背著手 (其六).
the work complete, you become at will a Buddha or an immortal.
功完隨作佛和仙: "the work complete, one becomes at will a Buddha or immortal" — the syncretic goal in a single breath.
This is the secret transmission itself, the still point toward which the whole chapter has moved. The conditions are carefully drawn — the dead of night, the back room, the explicit checking that there are no 六耳, no third party to overhear — because what passes here is 口訣, an oral formula handed mouth-to-ear, the most guarded form of teaching in both the Chan and the Daoist alchemical lineages. The master's earlier despair (“without a worthy recipient, wasted breath”) is answered: Wukong has proven himself the 至人 by reading the riddle, and the long life he demanded through every one of the four refused gateways is now, at last, to be given.
The poem the Patriarch intones is a genuine and quite technical piece of internal-alchemy (內丹) verse, and it rewards being read as such. Its raw materials are the 精氣神 — essence, breath, and spirit, the Three Treasures — which must be conserved and never allowed to "leak"; its program is 性命雙修, the joint cultivation of 性 (mind-nature) and 命 (vital force). The emblems that follow are the standard cryptography of the tradition: the 玉兔 and the 烏, hare and crow, are the lunar and solar essences drawn inward; the 龜蛇, tortoise-and-snake of the northern 玄武, coil into the union of opposites; 火裡種金蓮, planting a golden lotus in the midst of fire, is the paradoxical birth of the immortal embryo; and 攢簇五行顛倒用, clustering the Five Phases and running them in reverse, names the great "reversal" by which the ordinary downward flow of life is turned back toward its source. Much of this diction descends from the Quanzhen tradition and classics like Zhang Boduan's Wuzhen pian, and it is passages exactly like this one that led generations of readers to treat the novel as a coded 丹經, an alchemical scripture.
What makes the formula unmistakably this novel's, though, is its seamless syncretism. The supreme secret is announced in Buddhist terms — 顯密圓通, the exoteric and esoteric perfectly interfused — yet its content is the Daoist 金丹, the golden elixir; and the promised end, in the poem's last line, is to become "at will a Buddha and an immortal," 佛和仙 in one breath. The thesis stated abstractly back in 其二, that the Three Teachings are "fundamentally so," is here no longer a claim about doctrine but the actual substance of the highest instruction. And in narrative terms this is the hinge of Wukong's entire career: the cultivation transmitted in these few whispered lines is the root of his deathlessness and his powers — the thing that will let a stone monkey shake Heaven itself a few chapters on.