Canonical Classics ← 第二十一回
第二十一回
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The Dharma-Protectors Set Up a Farmstead to Lodge the Great Sage · From Mount Sumeru, Lingji Subdues the Wind-Demon

定風丹與飛龍寶杖
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

定風丹與飛龍寶杖 The Wind-Stilling Pill and the Flying-Dragon Staff

zhěngchūxíngzhědēngtángzuòlewèisuímìngkàncháxíngzhědào:「cháláodànshīzàihuángfēngshānyǒunànqǐngshīxiángguàijiùshī。」dào:「shòuleláilìngzàizhènhuángfēngguàiláiledìngfēngdānbǐngfēilóngbǎozhàngdāngshíbèizhùráoledexìngmìngfàngyǐnxìngguīshānshāngshēngzàonièzhījīnhàilìngshīyǒuwéijiàolìngzhīzuì。」liúxíngzhězhìzhāixiāngxíngzhěkěnsuílefēilóngzhàngshèngjiàyúnzhěngchūxíngzhědēngtángzuòlewèisuímìngkàncháxíngzhědào:「cháláodànshīzàihuángfēngshānyǒunànqǐngshīxiángguàijiùshī。」dào:「shòuleláilìngzàizhènhuángfēngguàiláiledìngfēngdānbǐngfēilóngbǎozhàngdāngshíbèizhùráoledexìngmìngfàngyǐnxìngguīshānshāngshēngzàonièzhījīnhàilìngshīyǒuwéijiàolìngzhīzuì。」liúxíngzhězhìzhāixiāngxíngzhěkěnsuílefēilóngzhàngshèngjiàyún


逐句解 Line by line

zhěngchūxíngzhědēngtángzuòlewèisuímìngkànchá zhěngchūxíngzhědēngtángzuòlewèisuímìngkànchá

The Bodhisattva straightened his robe and came out to receive him. The Pilgrim went up into the hall, took the guest's seat, and tea was ordered.

整衣出迓: () is a literary word for going out to meet a guest. Lingji does everything correctly, and the correctness is the point — the Pilgrim is being received as an equal.

xíngzhědào:「cháláodànshīzàihuángfēngshānyǒunànqǐngshīxiángguàijiùshī。」 xíngzhědào:「cháláodànshīzàihuángfēngshānyǒunànqǐngshīxiángguàijiùshī。」

Said the Pilgrim, "Do not trouble to offer tea. My master is in distress on the Mountain of Yellow Wind, and I have come to beg the Bodhisattva to put out his great dharma-power, subdue the fiend, and save him."

茶不勞賜, "do not trouble to bestow tea." 有難 takes as nàn, "calamity," not nán. 降怪 takes as xiáng.

dào:「shòuleláilìngzàizhènhuángfēngguàiláiledìngfēngdānbǐngfēilóngbǎozhàng dào:「shòuleláilìngzàizhènhuángfēngguàiláiledìngfēngdānbǐngfēilóngbǎozhàng

Said the Bodhisattva, "I received the Tathāgata's decree to hold down the Yellow Wind Fiend in this place, and the Tathāgata bestowed on me a Wind-Stilling Pill and a Flying-Dragon precious staff.

如來法令, the Tathāgata's decree. 鎮押 is the language of a warden: Lingji is not a hermit on Sumeru but an officer with a prisoner and a warrant, and the two objects he was issued are the tools of the office.

dāngshíbèizhùráoledexìngmìngfàngyǐnxìngguīshānshāngshēngzàoniè dāngshíbèizhùráoledexìngmìngfàngyǐnxìngguīshānshāngshēngzàoniè

At that time I took him, and spared his life, and let him go to hide his nature and return to the mountain, upon condition that he should do no killing and work no sin.

當時 takes dāng. 隱性歸山, to hide his nature and go back into the mountain — a parole, not a pardon. 不許傷生造孽 were its conditions, and this is the first the reader hears that the Yellow Wind Fiend was ever caught before.

zhījīnhàilìngshīyǒuwéijiàolìngzhīzuì。」 zhījīnhàilìngshīyǒuwéijiàolìngzhīzuì。」

I did not know that today he means to injure your master. He has broken the terms of the decree, and the fault is mine."

有違教令: is jiào. 我之罪也 — a bodhisattva accepting personal fault for the escape of a prisoner, in the literary . He does not argue; he goes.

liúxíngzhězhìzhāixiāngxíngzhěkěnsuílefēilóngzhàngshèngjiàyún liúxíngzhězhìzhāixiāngxíngzhěkěnsuílefēilóngzhàngshèngjiàyún

The Bodhisattva would have kept the Pilgrim, and set out a fast for him, and talked with him; but the Pilgrim earnestly declined, and taking up the Flying-Dragon Staff, he mounted the clouds with the Great Sage together.

治齋相敘 takes as xiāng. 懇辭, to decline earnestly. The Pilgrim refuses the tea, refuses the meal, refuses the conversation, and takes the staff.


總評 Commentary

Lingji's speech reorganises the whole chapter retrospectively. The Great King of Yellow Wind is not a wild demon who happened to settle on a ridge. He is a prisoner on licence, taken once already by this bodhisattva, spared, and released on terms: 隱性歸山,不許傷生造孽. The wind that unmade the Chinese pantheon in P3 belongs to a creature who was told to hide himself and be quiet, and who has been quiet for as long as nobody came past.

And Lingji says the fault is his. 有違教令,我之罪也 — the terms of the decree were broken, and the responsibility lies with the warden, not the prisoner. Nothing in the chapter's comedy prepares the reader for that sentence. The Pilgrim declines the tea, declines the fast, declines the talk, and the two of them go up onto the cloud.