三災利害 The Three Calamities
卻早過了三年，祖師復登寶座，與眾說法。談的是公案比語，論的是外像包皮。忽問：「悟空何在？」悟空近前跪下：「弟子有。」祖師道：「你這一向修些甚麼道來？」悟空道：「弟子近來法性頗通，根源亦漸堅固矣。」祖師道：「你既通法性，會得根源，已注神體，卻只是防備著三災利害。」悟空聽說，沉吟良久道：「師父之言謬矣。我嘗聞道高德隆，與天同壽；水火既濟，百病不生。卻怎麼有個三災利害？」祖師道：「此乃非常之道：奪天地之造化，侵日月之玄機；丹成之後，鬼神難容。雖駐顏益壽，但到了五百年後，天降雷災打你，須要見性明心，預先躲避。躲得過，壽與天齊；躲不過，就此絕命。再五百年後，天降火災燒你。這火不是天火，亦不是凡火，喚做陰火。自本身湧泉穴下燒起，直透泥垣宮，五臟成灰，四肢皆朽，把千年苦行，俱為虛幻。再五百年，又降風災吹你。這風不是東南西北風，不是和薰金朔風，亦不是花柳松竹風，喚做贔風。自顖門中吹入六腑，過丹田，穿九竅，骨肉消疏，其身自解。所以都要躲過。」却早过了三年，祖师复登宝座，与众说法。谈的是公案比语，论的是外像包皮。忽问：「悟空何在？」悟空近前跪下：「弟子有。」祖师道：「你这一向修些甚么道来？」悟空道：「弟子近来法性颇通，根源亦渐坚固矣。」祖师道：「你既通法性，会得根源，已注神体，却只是防备著三灾利害。」悟空听说，沉吟良久道：「师父之言谬矣。我尝闻道高德隆，与天同寿；水火既济，百病不生。却怎么有个三灾利害？」祖师道：「此乃非常之道：夺天地之造化，侵日月之玄机；丹成之后，鬼神难容。虽驻颜益寿，但到了五百年后，天降雷灾打你，须要见性明心，预先躲避。躲得过，寿与天齐；躲不过，就此绝命。再五百年后，天降火灾烧你。这火不是天火，亦不是凡火，唤做阴火。自本身涌泉穴下烧起，直透泥垣宫，五脏成灰，四肢皆朽，把千年苦行，俱为虚幻。再五百年，又降风灾吹你。这风不是东南西北风，不是和薰金朔风，亦不是花柳松竹风，唤做赑风。自顖门中吹入六腑，过丹田，穿九窍，骨肉消疏，其身自解。所以都要躲过。」
逐句解 Line by line
By now three years had slipped by. The Patriarch again ascended his jeweled seat and expounded the Dharma to the assembly.
卻早 (què zǎo): "by now, already." 復登寶座 (fù dēng bǎo zuò): "again ascended the jeweled throne." 說法 (shuō fǎ): "to expound the Dharma."
What he discoursed on were the kōan-cases and figurative sayings; what he treated of were the outer forms and surface wrappings.
A parallel couplet on the master's range. 公案 (gōng àn): "kōan-cases," the Chan teaching-anecdotes; 比語 (bǐ yǔ): "figurative, comparative sayings." 外像包皮 (wài xiàng bāo pí): "outer images and surface wrappings" — the exoteric forms, set against the inner cases.
Suddenly he asked: “Where is Wukong?”
忽問 (hū wèn): "suddenly asked." 何在 (hé zài): "where is."
Wukong came forward and knelt: “Your disciple is here.”
近前 (jìn qián): "to come forward." 弟子有: "your disciple is present"; 有 here = "here, present." 弟子 = dì zǐ (toned).
The Patriarch said: “What sort of Way have you been cultivating all this while?”
一向 (yí xiàng): "all this while, of late"; sandhi 一 → yí before 4th-tone 向. 修些甚麼道: "cultivating what sort of Way."
Wukong said: “Of late your disciple has grown fairly penetrating in dharma-nature, and his root and source too have gradually grown firm.”
法性 (fǎ xìng): "dharma-nature," the fundamental nature of things. 頗通 (pǒ tōng): "fairly penetrated"; 頗 = pǒ "quite." 漸 (jiàn): "gradually." 矣 (yǐ): a classical sentence-final particle marking a completed state.
The Patriarch said: “Since you have penetrated dharma-nature and grasped the root and source, and have already settled it into your spirit-body — there yet remains one thing to guard against: the peril of the Three Calamities.”
會得 (huì de): "to grasp, comprehend"; 得 = de. 已注神體: "already infused into the spirit-body"; 注 = zhù "to fix, infuse." 防備著 (fáng bèi zhe): "must guard against"; 著 = zhe, the durative particle. 三災利害 (sān zāi lì hài): "the perils of the Three Calamities"; 利害 = "severity, peril."
Hearing this, Wukong pondered a long while, then said: “The master's words must be mistaken. I have heard that when the Way is lofty and virtue eminent one is equal to Heaven in years; that when water and fire are in accord the hundred ailments do not arise — how then could there be any ‘peril of the Three Calamities’?”
沉吟 (chén yín): "to mutter in hesitation, ponder aloud." 謬矣 (miù yǐ): "is mistaken"; 謬 = miù "erroneous." 嘗聞 (cháng wén): "have heard"; 嘗 = cháng "once, ever." 水火既濟 (shuǐ huǒ jì jì): "water and fire in mutual accord" — the alchemical ideal of balanced forces, and the name of hexagram 63, 既濟; 濟 = jì. Sandhi: 百病不生 → bù.
The Patriarch said: “This is no ordinary Way: it wrests away the creative power of Heaven and Earth, it usurps the hidden workings of sun and moon; and once the elixir is formed, neither ghosts nor spirits can abide it.
奪天地之造化: "to wrest away the creative power of Heaven and Earth"; 造化 = "the workings of Nature." 侵日月之玄機: "to usurp the hidden workings of sun and moon"; 侵 = qīn "to encroach." 鬼神難容: "ghosts and spirits cannot abide [it]" — the attainment provokes cosmic envy, the rationale for the calamities.
Though it halts your aging and lengthens your years, yet when five hundred years have passed, Heaven sends down a thunder-calamity to strike you, and you must see your nature and illumine your mind to dodge it in advance.
駐顏益壽 (zhù yán yì shòu): "to halt aging and lengthen life." 降 = jiàng "to send down" (多音字, not xiáng) — recurring through this speech. 見性明心 (jiàn xìng míng xīn): "see [one's] nature and illumine the mind" — the Chan phrase (more usually 明心見性), here the means of evading the blow. 預先 (yù xiān): "beforehand."
Dodge it, and your years are level with Heaven's; fail to dodge it, and your life ends then and there.
躲得過 / 躲不過: "able / unable to dodge"; 得 = de. Sandhi: 躲不過 → bú (不 before 4th-tone 過). 絕命 (jué mìng): "to perish."
After another five hundred years, Heaven sends down a fire-calamity to burn you. This fire is no heavenly fire, nor any mortal fire — it is called yin-fire.
燒 (shāo): "to burn." 喚做 (huàn zuò): "is called." 陰火 (yīn huǒ): "yin-fire" — an inner, latent fire, not external flame. Sandhi: 不是 → bú (twice).
It kindles from below, at the Bubbling-Spring point of your own body, and shoots straight up through the Ní-yuán Palace; the five viscera turn to ash, the four limbs all rot, and a thousand years of austerities are made empty illusion.
湧泉穴 (yǒng quán xué): "the Bubbling-Spring point," KI-1 on the sole of the foot — the lowest acupoint, where the yin-fire kindles. 泥垣宮: the text reads 泥垣 (垣 yuán); the standard internal-alchemy term is 泥丸宮 (ní wán gōng), the upper cinnabar-field in the crown of the head — so the fire's path runs from sole to crown. 五臟 (wǔ zàng): "the five viscera." 苦行 (kǔ xíng): "austerities." 俱為虛幻: "all become empty illusion."
After another five hundred years, a wind-calamity is sent down to blow upon you. This wind is no wind of the four quarters, nor the balmy southern or cold northern wind, nor any breeze through flowers, willows, pines, or bamboo — it is called the Bì-wind.
和薰金朔風: ordinary seasonal winds — the gentle and balmy (和, 薰 = xūn, the warm south wind) and the metallic-northern (金, 朔 = shuò, the cold north); 花柳松竹風: breezes through flowers, willows, pines, bamboo — i.e., none of the natural winds. 喚做贔風: "is called the Bì-wind"; 贔 (bì) is a rare graph (the element of 贔屭), here naming the calamity-wind. Sandhi: 不是 → bú (all three).
It blows in through the fontanelle into the six bowels, passes the cinnabar field, pierces the nine orifices; bone and flesh dissolve away, and the body comes apart of itself.
顖門 (xìn mén): "the fontanelle," the soft crown of the skull; 顖 = xìn, a variant of 囟. 六腑 (liù fǔ): "the six bowels." 丹田 (dān tián): "the cinnabar field." 九竅 (jiǔ qiào): "the nine orifices." 其身自解: "the body comes apart of itself"; 解 = jiě "to dissolve" (多音字, not jiè/xiè).
And so all of them must be dodged.”
所以都要躲過: "and so all [three] must be dodged"; 都 = dōu "all."
Three years on, the chapter turns from transmission to a darker and stranger doctrine: the 三災, the Three Calamities. The premise is a piece of Daoist eschatology that later immortal-cultivation fiction would make its stock-in-trade, but which is set out here with unusual specificity — the very success of the work provokes Heaven's retribution. Because the adept 奪天地之造化，侵日月之玄機, "wrests away the creative power of Heaven and Earth and usurps the hidden workings of sun and moon," his attainment is a transgression the cosmos will not abide (鬼神難容); and so at five-hundred-year intervals it sends thunder, then fire, then wind to annihilate him unless he can hide. Immortality, in this vision, is not a safe harbor but a provocation.
What is striking is how thoroughly the calamities are internalized. These are not storms that strike from outside; they run along the body's own inner geography. The 陰火, the "yin-fire," kindles at the 湧泉穴, the Bubbling-Spring point on the sole of the foot — the lowest acupoint — and shoots straight up to the 泥丸宮, the cinnabar palace in the crown of the head (the 世德堂 text writes the name 泥垣宮, recorded here with the standard term noted). The 贔風 enters through the 顖門, the fontanelle, and courses through the six bowels, the cinnabar field, and the nine orifices until the body dissolves. The calamity, in other words, is figured as a catastrophic running-backward of the very channels the cultivation laboriously built up — a final test of whether the elixir is truly stable, written in precise acupuncture and inner-alchemical anatomy.
Wukong's objection is the natural one, and the exchange does real conceptual work. He assumes, reasonably, that to be "equal to Heaven in years" with "the hundred ailments stilled" is simply to be invulnerable — and the master corrects him: this is a 非常之道, an "extraordinary Way," and its very extraordinariness is what draws the lightning. Notably, even the escape is framed in Chan terms — to dodge the thunder one must 見性明心, "see one's nature and illumine the mind" — so that the syncretism of the elixir-formula carries straight through into its perils. And in plot terms this whole grim catalogue is a setup: the Three Calamities are the problem for which the seventy-two transformations, chosen in the very next passage, will be the answer. Wukong learns to shapeshift not as a party trick but as a way to hide from the wrath of Heaven itself.