定風丹與飛龍寶杖 The Wind-Stilling Pill and the Flying-Dragon Staff
那菩薩整衣出迓,行者登堂,坐了客位,隨命看茶。行者道:「茶不勞賜,但我師父在黃風山有難,特請菩薩施大法力降怪救師。」菩薩道:「我受了如來法令,在此鎮押黃風怪。如來賜了我一顆定風丹、一柄飛龍寶杖。當時被我拿住,饒了他的性命,放他去隱性歸山,不許傷生造孽。不知他今日欲害令師,有違教令,我之罪也。」那菩薩欲留行者,治齋相敘,行者懇辭,隨取了飛龍杖,與大聖一齊駕雲。那菩萨整衣出迓,行者登堂,坐了客位,随命看茶。行者道:「茶不劳赐,但我师父在黄风山有难,特请菩萨施大法力降怪救师。」菩萨道:「我受了如来法令,在此镇押黄风怪。如来赐了我一颗定风丹、一柄飞龙宝杖。当时被我拿住,饶了他的性命,放他去隐性归山,不许伤生造孽。不知他今日欲害令师,有违教令,我之罪也。」那菩萨欲留行者,治斋相叙,行者恳辞,随取了飞龙杖,与大圣一齐驾云。
逐句解 Line by line
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: 迓 (yà) 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.
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 難 as nàn, "calamity," not nán. 降怪 takes 降 as xiáng.
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.
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.
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: 教 is jiào. 我之罪也 — a bodhisattva accepting personal fault for the escape of a prisoner, in the literary 也. He does not argue; he goes.
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 相 as xiāng. 懇辭, to decline earnestly. The Pilgrim refuses the tea, refuses the meal, refuses the conversation, and takes the staff.
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.