三更訪道 The Third-Watch Rendezvous
當日悟空與眾等喜喜歡歡，在三星仙洞之前，盼望天色，急不能到晚。及黃昏時，卻與眾就寢，假合眼，定息存神。山中又沒打更傳箭，不知時分，只自家將鼻孔中出入之氣調定。約到子時前後，輕輕的起來，穿了衣服，偷開前門，躲離大眾，走出外，抬頭觀看，正是那：月明清露冷，八極迥無塵。深樹幽禽宿，源頭水溜汾。飛螢光散影，過雁字排雲。正直三更候，應該訪道真。你看他從舊路徑至後門外，只見那門兒半開半掩。悟空喜道：「老師父果然注意與我傳道，故此開著門也。」即曳步近前，側身進得門裡，只走到祖師寢榻之下。見祖師踡跼身軀，朝裡睡著了。悟空不敢驚動，即跪在榻前。那祖師不多時覺來，舒開兩足，口中自吟道：難難難，道最玄，莫把金丹作等閑。不遇至人傳妙訣，空言口困舌頭乾！当日悟空与众等喜喜欢欢，在三星仙洞之前，盼望天色，急不能到晚。及黄昏时，却与众就寝，假合眼，定息存神。山中又没打更传箭，不知时分，只自家将鼻孔中出入之气调定。约到子时前后，轻轻的起来，穿了衣服，偷开前门，躲离大众，走出外，抬头观看，正是那：月明清露冷，八极迥无尘。深树幽禽宿，源头水溜汾。飞萤光散影，过雁字排云。正直三更候，应该访道真。你看他从旧路径至后门外，只见那门儿半开半掩。悟空喜道：「老师父果然注意与我传道，故此开著门也。」即曳步近前，侧身进得门里，只走到祖师寝榻之下。见祖师踡跼身躯，朝里睡著了。悟空不敢惊动，即跪在榻前。那祖师不多时觉来，舒开两足，口中自吟道：难难难，道最玄，莫把金丹作等闲。不遇至人传妙诀，空言口困舌头干！
逐句解 Line by line
That day Wukong and the rest were merry and glad, but out before the Three-Star Immortal Cave he kept watching the sky, impatient — evening could not come soon enough.
當日 (dāng rì): "that same day"; 多音字 當 = dāng "at, on" (not dàng "appropriate, to pawn"). 喜喜歡歡: reduplicated, "merrily, in high spirits." 急不能到晚: "so impatient that [the day] could not reach evening [fast enough]." Sandhi: 急不能 → bù.
When dusk came, he went to bed with the others, but only feigned to close his eyes, steadying his breath and keeping his spirit collected.
假合眼 (jiǎ hé yǎn): "to feign closing the eyes"; 多音字 假 = jiǎ "false, pretend" (not jià "holiday"). 定息存神: "to steady the breath and keep the spirit collected" — already the language of cultivation.
In the mountains there was no beating of the watches or passing of the time-arrow, and he could not tell the hour; he simply steadied the breath going in and out of his own nostrils.
打更傳箭 (dǎ gēng / chuán jiàn): "beating the night-watches and passing the time-arrow" — the two ways a settlement marks the night hours (a watchman's drum; the graduated arrow of a water-clock); the mountain has neither. 更 = gēng "night-watch." 自家 (zì jiā): "oneself." 多音字: 調 = tiáo "to regulate" (調定), not diào "to transfer, to tune." Sandhi: 不知 → bù.
When it came to about the hour of zi, he rose softly, put on his clothes, stealthily opened the front door, slipped away from the others, and went outside. He lifted his head and looked — it was just such a scene as this:
子時 (zǐ shí): "the hour of zi," ~11 p.m.–1 a.m., first of the twelve double-hours and the dead of night; 子 = zǐ, the cyclical sign (toned, not the suffix zi). The appointed third watch falls within it. 輕輕的: "softly"; 的 = de.
The bright moon, the clear dew cold;
A limpid night scene. 清露冷: "the clear dew [lies] cold."
to the eight poles, far and utterly free of dust.
八極 (bā jí): "the eight extremities" — the farthest reaches of space. 迥 (jiǒng): "far, remote"; 迥無塵 = utterly clear, without a speck of dust.
In the deep trees secluded birds roost;
宿 (sù): "to roost, lodge for the night"; 多音字 sù (lodge) / xiǔ (a night) / xiù (a constellation).
at the spring's head the water trickles and flows.
水溜汾: "the water trickles and flows"; 溜 = liū "to slide, flow," and 汾 (fén) is an uncommon graph here for the rushing/splashing of water.
Flying fireflies scatter their glimmer;
飛螢 (fēi yíng): "flying fireflies." 多音字: 散 = sàn "to scatter, disperse" (散影), not the reading sǎn.
passing wild geese rank in formation across the clouds.
字排: the geese fly ranked in a 字 ("character") formation across the clouds.
Just at the hour of the third watch —
正直 here = 正值, "just at, right at (the time)"; 直 = zhí. 三更候: "the hour of the third watch."
the very time to go seeking the true Way.
應該 (yīng gāi): "ought to, the very time to"; 多音字 應 = yīng "should" (not yìng "to respond," as in 其三 應對). 訪道真: to seek the true Way / the Perfected.
See him take the old path to the back gate, where he found the door standing half open, half shut.
路徑 (lù jìng): "path." 門兒: "the door"; 兒 = er, the 兒化 suffix. 半開半掩 (bàn kāi bàn yǎn): "half open, half shut"; 掩 = yǎn "to half-close."
Wukong said gladly: “So the old master truly means to pass the Way to me — that is why he has left the door open!”
注意 (zhù yì): "to intend, mean to." 開著門 (kāi zhe mén): "the door [stands] open"; 著 = zhe, the durative particle — contrast 著 = zháo in 睡著 two segments on.
He shuffled forward, slipped in sideways through the door, and went straight to the foot of the Patriarch's couch.
曳步 (yè bù): "to shuffle, drag the feet forward"; 曳 = yè "to trail." 側身 (cè shēn): "to turn sideways." 進得: "managed to enter"; 得 = de, complement particle. 寢榻 (qǐn tà): "sleeping-couch, bed"; 榻 = tà.
He saw the Patriarch curled up asleep, his face to the wall.
踡跼 (quán jú): "curled up, huddled." 身軀 (shēn qū): "the body." 朝裡 (cháo lǐ): "facing inward, to the wall"; 朝 = cháo "to face toward" (contrast zhāo "morning," as in 其五 一朝). 睡著了 (shuì zháo le): "had fallen asleep"; 著 = zháo, the resultative "to succeed in" — a different reading from the durative zhe in 開著門 just above.
Wukong dared not disturb him, and knelt before the couch.
Sandhi: 不敢 → bù (不 before 3rd-tone 敢).
Before long the Patriarch woke, stretched out both legs, and chanted to himself:
覺來 (jué lái): "to wake"; 覺 = jué "to perceive, wake" (not jiào "sleep," as in 睡覺). 舒開兩足: "stretched out both legs." 吟 (yín): "to chant, intone." Sandhi: 不多 → bù.
Hard, hard, hard! —
The thrice-repeated 難 (nán) that opens this 詞-stanza, hammering home the difficulty of the Way.
the Way is most arcane;
道最玄: "the Way is most arcane, most mysterious."
do not take the golden elixir lightly.
金丹 (jīn dān): "the golden elixir," the goal of internal alchemy. 等閑 (děng xián): "lightly, as a trifle"; 莫把…作等閑 = "do not treat it as a commonplace." (Written with 閑 as in 其一 閑時; the variant 閒 is equally common.)
Without meeting the right person to pass the marvelous secret,
至人 (zhì rén): "the perfected/realized person," one fit to receive the teaching. 妙訣 (miào jué): "the marvelous secret formula." Sandhi: 不遇 → bú (不 before 4th-tone 遇).
one talks in vain till the mouth is weary and the tongue goes dry!
口困舌頭乾: "the mouth wearies and the tongue goes dry" — to expound to the unworthy is wasted breath; 乾 = gān "dry" (多音字, not qián as in the 乾 hexagram).
The passage is built around a classic set-piece: the disciple stealing through the autumn night to seek the Way at the third watch. The five-character regulated poem that frames his exit — the bright moon and cold dew, the dustless clarity stretching to the eight poles, the roosting birds and trickling spring, the fireflies and the ranked geese — paints a world gone utterly still and pure, and the stillness is not merely scenic. The hour it keeps marking, 三更 at the dead of night around 子時, is in the alchemical reading the moment of 一陽來復, the first return of yang within deepest yin; the clarified, dustless night mirrors the clarified mind that alone can receive what is about to be passed on.
Wukong's reading of the half-open door confirms that he decoded the riddle of the previous passage exactly right, and the scene settles into one of the oldest shapes of the master-and-disciple story: the secret, nocturnal, one-to-one transmission, screened from the sleeping community. The Patriarch's curled, wall-facing sleep is very likely one more feint — a last test of the disciple's patience and sincerity, which Wukong passes by kneeling in silence rather than waking him.
The lament the master then chants to the empty dark is the heart of the passage, and it turns on a sharp dramatic irony. 難難難 — "Hard, hard, hard!" — the Way is arcane, the 金丹, the golden elixir, not to be treated as a trifle; and the bitterest difficulty of all, he says, is that without a worthy recipient — a 至人, a realized person — the master's teaching is only breath wasted till the tongue goes dry. He grieves over the absence of the very disciple who is, at that instant, kneeling at his bed. The explicit naming of the 金丹 also settles what kind of teaching this is: the secret about to pass is the internal-alchemical "golden elixir" way, and for a few lines here the novel speaks almost directly in the language of the Daoist alchemical classics it was long read as belonging to.