沙僧落髮皈依 The Ordination of Sha the Monk
那悟淨才收了寶杖，整一整黃錦直裰，跳上岸來，對唐僧雙膝跪下道：「師父，弟子有眼無珠，不認得師父的尊容，多有衝撞，萬望恕罪。」八戒道：「你這膿包，怎的早不皈依，只管要與我打？是何說話？」行者笑道：「兄弟，你莫怪他，還是我們不曾說出取經的事情與姓名耳。」長老道：「你果肯誠心皈依吾教麼？」悟淨道：「弟子向蒙菩薩教化，指沙為姓，與我起個法名，喚做沙悟淨，豈有不從師父之理？」三藏道：「既如此，」叫：「悟空，取戒刀來，與他落了髮。」大聖依言，即將戒刀與他剃了頭。又來拜了三藏，拜了行者與八戒，分了大小。三藏見他行禮真像個和尚家風，故又叫他做沙和尚。木吒道：「既秉了迦持，不必絮煩，早與作法船去來。」那悟净才收了宝杖，整一整黄锦直裰，跳上岸来，对唐僧双膝跪下道：「师父，弟子有眼无珠，不认得师父的尊容，多有冲撞，万望恕罪。」八戒道：「你这脓包，怎的早不皈依，只管要与我打？是何说话？」行者笑道：「兄弟，你莫怪他，还是我们不曾说出取经的事情与姓名耳。」长老道：「你果肯诚心皈依吾教么？」悟净道：「弟子向蒙菩萨教化，指沙为姓，与我起个法名，唤做沙悟净，岂有不从师父之理？」三藏道：「既如此，」叫：「悟空，取戒刀来，与他落了发。」大圣依言，即将戒刀与他剃了头。又来拜了三藏，拜了行者与八戒，分了大小。三藏见他行礼真像个和尚家风，故又叫他做沙和尚。木咤道：「既秉了迦持，不必絮烦，早与作法船去来。」
逐句解 Line by line
Only then did Wujing put away his precious staff, straighten his yellow brocade robe, spring up onto the bank, and kneel on both knees before the Tang Monk, saying:
The staff goes away first (那 nà) — before the kneeling, before the words. Then 黃錦直裰, the yellow brocade robe, straightened, and 雙膝跪下, down on both knees. Every gesture here is the gesture of a disciple presenting himself to a master, and he performs them all without being asked.
'Master, your disciple had eyes but no pupils, and did not know your honoured face; I gave much offence, and earnestly beg forgiveness.'
有眼無珠, 'to have eyes but no pupils' — still one of the commonest ways in Chinese to say you failed to recognise somebody important, and still faintly comic. He is using it in the strict sense: he had eyes and could not see. 不認得師父的尊容, 'did not know the master's honoured face' (得 de). The formula of contrition, delivered to the man he has spent two days trying to eat.
Bajie said: 'You wash-out, why didn't you take refuge sooner instead of insisting on fighting me? What sort of talk is that?'
膿包 is literally a bag of pus, and as abuse it means a wash-out, a useless article — the sense is contemptible weakness rather than disease. Bajie, still smarting from three inconclusive fights, greets his new brother by demanding to know why he could not have surrendered two days earlier.
The Pilgrim said with a laugh: 'Brother, don't blame him — it was only that we never told him about the scripture-quest or who we were.'
還是, 'it was, after all' (還 hái; 行 xíng). And here is the monkey — the least apologetic character in the book — taking the blame on behalf of the pilgrims. Not the demon's fault. Ours. We never said who we were.
The elder said: 'Are you truly willing, with a sincere heart, to take refuge in my teaching?' Wujing said:
誠心皈依吾教, 'take refuge in my teaching with a sincere heart' (長 zhǎng, 教 jiào). The formal question of ordination, put properly. Consent has to be asked for and given aloud; that is what makes this a rite rather than a surrender.
'Your disciple was long ago instructed and converted by the Bodhisattva, who pointed to the sand as my surname and gave me a religious name,
指沙為姓, 'pointed at the sand and made it my surname' (為 wéi, 教 jiào, 子 zǐ). Guanyin named him for the river he was exiled to — the sentence and the identity are the same act. And she did it long before this morning, against this exact meeting.
'calling me Sha Wujing — so how could there be any question of my not obeying you, Master?'
豈有不從師父之理, 'how could there be any reason not to follow the master?' He is not being converted here. He is keeping an appointment made for him years ago, and he says so.
Sanzang said: 'If that is so —' and called: 'Wukong, fetch the ordination-knife and shave his head.'
戒刀 is the small knife a monk is permitted to carry — the character 戒 is the same one in Bajie's own name, the 'precepts' — used here for the tonsure (藏 zàng). The master wastes no time at all between the assent and the rite.
The Great Sage did as he was told and shaved his head with the knife. Then Wujing bowed to Sanzang, bowed to the Pilgrim and Bajie, and took his place by seniority.
The head is shaved (將 jiāng, 藏 zàng, 行 xíng), and then 分了大小, 'the big and small were settled' (分 fēn) — seniority established, who bows to whom. A Chinese family or brotherhood cannot function until this is done, and doing it is what makes four travellers a household.
Seeing how his bows had the true bearing of a monk, Sanzang gave him the further name of Sha the Monk.
和尚家風, 'the house style of a monk' — the bearing, the way of carrying oneself, that marks a man of the order (藏 zàng, 行 xíng). On the strength of how he bows, Sanzang gives him the plain name he will answer to for the rest of the journey: 沙和尚, Monk Sha.
Mokṣa said: 'Since he has now taken the vows, there's no need for more ado — let us make the dharma-boat at once.'
既秉了迦持, 'now that he has taken up the discipline' — 迦持 is the same transliterated term for religious observance that turned up in the first battle-rhapsody, where it described Bajie. The wheel has come round: what was said of one convert then is said of the next now. Mokṣa, businesslike, moves the party on to the boat.
The conversion is formalised in the rites of ordination, and the scene is built almost entirely out of things said and done in proper order. He puts away the staff, kneels, confesses in the humble formula of one who 'had eyes but no pupils,' answers the master's question of sincerity aloud, is tonsured with the monastic knife, bows to master and brothers, and takes his place by seniority. It is the exact opposite of the two speechless days of combat that preceded it.
Two things close the pattern of names that has run through the chapter. Wujing reveals that Guanyin had already given him both surname and religious name — 沙悟淨, 'Sand, Awakened to Purity' — against this very meeting, so his submission fulfils an old appointment rather than marking a defeat. And Sanzang, watching how he bows, adds the homely 沙和尚, Monk Sha, which is what he will be called from here to the end of the book. Even the monkey, never slow to blame, lays the whole needless quarrel at the pilgrims' own door — the chapter's insistence that the barrier was a failure to speak, made complete.