祖師誡別 The Patriarch's Parting Warning
悟空聞此言，滿眼墮淚道：「師父，教我往那裡去？」祖師道：「你從那裡來，便從那裡去就是了。」悟空頓然醒悟道：「我自東勝神洲傲來國花果山水簾洞來的。」祖師道：「你快回去，全你性命；若在此間，斷然不可。」悟空領罪，上告尊師：「我也離家有二十年矣，雖是回顧舊日兒孫，但念師父厚恩未報，不敢去。」祖師道：「那裡甚麼恩義，你只不惹禍，不牽帶我就罷了。」悟空見沒奈何，只得拜辭，與眾相別。祖師道：「你這去，定生不良。憑你怎麼惹禍行凶，卻不許說是我的徒弟。你說出半個字來，我就知之，把你這猢猻剝皮銼骨，將神魂貶在九幽之處，教你萬劫不得翻身！」悟空道：「決不敢提起師父一字，只說是我自家會的便罷。」悟空闻此言，满眼堕泪道：「师父，教我往那里去？」祖师道：「你从那里来，便从那里去就是了。」悟空顿然醒悟道：「我自东胜神洲傲来国花果山水帘洞来的。」祖师道：「你快回去，全你性命；若在此间，断然不可。」悟空领罪，上告尊师：「我也离家有二十年矣，虽是回顾旧日儿孙，但念师父厚恩未报，不敢去。」祖师道：「那里甚么恩义，你只不惹祸，不牵带我就罢了。」悟空见没奈何，只得拜辞，与众相别。祖师道：「你这去，定生不良。凭你怎么惹祸行凶，却不许说是我的徒弟。你说出半个字来，我就知之，把你这猢狲剥皮锉骨，将神魂贬在九幽之处，教你万劫不得翻身！」悟空道：「决不敢提起师父一字，只说是我自家会的便罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
Hearing this, Wukong, his eyes brimming with tears, said: “Master, where would you have me go?”
滿眼墮淚 (mǎn yǎn duò lèi): "eyes brimming, shedding tears"; 墮 = duò. 教我 (jiào wǒ): "would have me, tell me to"; 教 = jiào. 那裡 (nǎ lǐ): "where"; 那 = nǎ.
The Patriarch said: “Where you came from — just go back there, and that's all.”
從那裡來: "where you came from"; 那 = nǎ. 就是了 (jiù shì le): "that's all."
Wukong suddenly understood: “I came from the Water-Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, in the country of Aolai, in the Eastern Continent of Superior Body.”
頓然醒悟 (dùn rán xǐng wù): "suddenly realized." 東勝神洲 (Dōng shèng shén zhōu): Pūrvavideha, the Eastern Continent of Buddhist cosmology; 勝 = shèng. 傲來國 (Ào lái guó): the land of Aolai. 水簾洞 (Shuǐ lián dòng): the Water-Curtain Cave; 簾 = lián.
The Patriarch said: “Go back quickly, and save your life — to stay here is absolutely not allowed.”
全你性命 (quán nǐ xìng mìng): "to save your life." 此間 (cǐ jiān): "here." 斷然不可 (duàn rán bù kě): "absolutely not permitted"; sandhi 不 → bù.
Wukong accepted the reproof but addressed the master: “I too have been away from home twenty years; though I long to see my old children and grandchildren again, I think of the master's deep kindness, still unrepaid, and I dare not go.”
領罪 (lǐng zuì): "to accept a reproof." 回顧 (huí gù): "to look back on, return to." 舊日兒孫 (jiù rì ér sūn): "the children and grandchildren of former days"; 兒 = ér (toned, "children," not the 兒化 suffix). 厚恩未報: "deep kindness unrepaid." Sandhi: 不敢 → bù.
The Patriarch said: “What kindness or obligation is there? Just see that you cause no trouble and do not drag me into it — that will be enough.”
那裡甚麼恩義 (nǎ lǐ shèn me ēn yì): "what kindness or obligation is there?"; 那 = nǎ (rhetorical "what"). 惹禍 (rě huò): "to cause trouble"; 禍 = huò. 牽帶 (qiān dài): "to implicate, drag in"; 牽 = qiān. Sandhi: 不惹 → bù, 不牽 → bù.
Seeing there was no help for it, Wukong could only bow in farewell and part from the others.
沒奈何 (méi nài hé): "no help for it, no choice." 只得 (zhǐ dé): "could only"; 得 = dé. 拜辭 (bài cí): "to bow in farewell"; 辭 = cí. 相別 (xiāng bié): "to part."
The Patriarch said: “This departure of yours will surely breed mischief. However you may cause trouble or do violence, you are not to say you are my disciple.
定生不良: "will surely breed mischief"; 不良 = "no good"; sandhi 不 → bù. 憑你 (píng nǐ): "no matter how you." 行凶 (xíng xiōng): "to do violence"; 行 = xíng. 不許 (bù xǔ): "must not"; sandhi 不 → bù.
“If you let slip even half a word, I shall know of it, and I will flay this monkey's skin and grind his bones, and banish your soul to the ninefold dark, never to recover through ten thousand kalpas!”
半個字 (bàn gè zì): "half a word." 猢猻 (hú sūn): "monkey" (derogatory); 猻 = sūn. 剝皮 (bō pí): "to flay the skin"; 剝 = bō. 銼骨 (cuò gǔ): "to grind the bones"; 銼 = cuò. 貶 (biǎn): "to banish, demote." 九幽 (jiǔ yōu): "the ninefold darkness," the deepest hell. 萬劫不得翻身: "never to recover through ten thousand kalpas"; sandhi 不 → bù; 得 = dé ("to be able"); 教 = jiào, causative.
Wukong said: “I will not bring up a single word of the master; I will only say I learned it all myself, and that will be the end of it.”
決不敢 (jué bù gǎn): "definitely dare not"; sandhi 不 → bù. 提起 (tí qǐ): "to bring up, mention." 一字 (yí zì): "a single word"; sandhi 一 → yí before 4th-tone 字. 自家 (zì jiā): "myself." 便罷 (biàn bà): "and that will be the end."
Subodhi's parting injunction is one of the novel's lasting enigmas. The master who has just given Wukong everything — immortality, the elixir, the transformations, the cloud — now threatens the most extreme penalty imaginable, to 剝皮銼骨, "flay his skin and grind his bones," and damn his soul to the ninefold dark forever, not for any crime but merely for naming his teacher. And indeed the patriarch keeps his word in the most absolute way: from this moment he vanishes from the book entirely, never to reappear across its hundred chapters. The teaching is given and the giver erases himself.
Why is best left open, since the novel never says, but the threads are suggestive. On the worldly level the master is simply protecting himself — 不牽帶我就罷了, "just don't drag me into it" — having foreseen (你這去，定生不良) the havoc Wukong will wreak on Heaven, and wanting no share in the karma. On a deeper level the demand enacts a Chan paradox: awakening cannot be owned or traced to an authority; the disciple must carry it as his own (只說是我自家會的) and leave the teacher behind. The very name 菩提 is bodhi, awakening itself — and what the patriarch insists upon is that it not be hardened into a lineage, a credential, a thing possessed.
Around this strange severity the scene keeps a real tenderness. Wukong weeps; he does not want to go; he protests that the master's deep kindness is still unrepaid — and the master brushes the gratitude away almost harshly (那裡甚麼恩義, "what kindness or obligation?"). The coldness may itself be a mercy, a clean cut of the tie so the disciple can stand alone. And the practical fact surfaces too: Wukong has been gone twenty years, and the thought of his "old children and grandchildren" turns him, and the chapter, back toward Flower-Fruit Mountain and home.