五行相畏 Averse to the Five Phases
行者道：「你既不曾拿去，如何打下來就不見了？」土地道：「大聖只知這寶貝延壽，更不知他的出處哩。」行者道：「有甚出處？」土地道：「這寶貝三千年一開花，三千年一結果，再三千年方得成熟。短頭一萬年，只結得三十個。有緣的，聞一聞，就活三百六十歲；吃一個，就活四萬七千年。卻是只與五行相畏。」行者道：「怎麼與五行相畏？」土地道：「這果子遇金而落，遇木而枯，遇水而化，遇火而焦，遇土而入。敲時必用金器，方得下來。打下來，卻將盤兒用絲帕襯墊方可。若受些木器，就枯了，就吃也不得延壽。吃他須用磁器，清水化開食用。遇火即焦而無用。行者道：「你既不曾拿去，如何打下来就不见了？」土地道：「大圣只知这宝贝延寿，更不知他的出处哩。」行者道：「有甚出处？」土地道：「这宝贝三千年一开花，三千年一结果，再三千年方得成熟。短头一万年，只结得三十个。有缘的，闻一闻，就活三百六十岁；吃一个，就活四万七千年。却是只与五行相畏。」行者道：「怎么与五行相畏？」土地道：「这果子遇金而落，遇木而枯，遇水而化，遇火而焦，遇土而入。敲时必用金器，方得下来。打下来，却将盘儿用丝帕衬垫方可。若受些木器，就枯了，就吃也不得延寿。吃他须用磁器，清水化开食用。遇火即焦而无用。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, “If you did not take it, how is it that the moment I knocked it down, it vanished?”
不曾拿去 (bù céng ná qù) = did not take it away; 打下來就不見了 (dǎ xiàlái jiù bú jiàn le) = vanished on being knocked down.
The Earth-God said, “Great Sage, you know only that this treasure lengthens life; you do not know its true origin.”
延壽 (yán shòu) = prolongs life; 更不知 (gèng bù zhī), 更 (gèng); 出處 (chū chù) = origin, provenance.
Pilgrim said, “What origin?”
行 (xíng); 有甚 (yǒu shèn), 甚 (shèn) ‘what.’
The Earth-God said, “This treasure flowers once in three thousand years, sets fruit once in three thousand years, and only after three thousand more does it ripen.
方得成熟 (fāng dé chéngshú), 得 (dé) ‘manage to / then (ripens).’
In a bare ten thousand years, it bears but thirty fruits.
短頭 (duǎn tóu) = at the least; 只結得 (zhǐ jiē·de), light 得 (de) (‘bears only’).
One with the karmic bond, but smelling it once, lives three hundred and sixty years; eating one, lives forty-seven thousand.
有緣 (yǒu yuán) = to have the karmic affinity — a restatement of the fruit’s power (cf. P5).
Yet it stands in mutual aversion with the Five Phases alone.”
五行 (wǔ xíng), 行 (xíng) (the Five Phases: metal, wood, water, fire, earth); 相畏 (xiāng wèi), 相 (xiāng) ‘mutually averse.’
Pilgrim said, “How is it averse to the Five Phases?”
五行 (wǔ xíng), 行 (xíng); 相畏 (xiāng wèi), 相 (xiāng).
The Earth-God said, “This fruit, meeting metal, falls; meeting wood, withers; meeting water, melts; meeting fire, scorches; and meeting earth, sinks in.
果子 (guǒzi), 子 (zi); the fivefold correspondence — 遇金而落，遇木而枯，遇水而化，遇火而焦，遇土而入 — the fruit’s reaction to each of the 五行.
To knock it down, one must use a metal tool; only so will it come down.
金器 (jīn qì) = a metal implement (the golden striker); 方得下來 (fāng dé xiàlái), 得 (dé) ‘only then manage.’
And once knocked down, the tray must be lined with a silk cloth.
將盤兒 (jiāng pán·er), 將 (jiāng) + 兒 (er); 絲帕襯墊 (sī pà chèn diàn) = a silk-cloth lining (lest it meet wood or metal).
Should it touch any wooden vessel, it withers, and then, though eaten, prolongs no life.
木器 (mù qì) = a wooden vessel; 枯了 (kū le), 了 (le); 不得延壽 (bù dé yán shòu), 得 (dé) ‘cannot prolong.’
To eat it, one must use porcelain, dissolving it in clear water.
磁器 (cí qì) = porcelain (= 瓷器); 清水化開 (qīng shuǐ huà kāi) = dissolved in clear water.
Meeting fire, it scorches and is of no use.”
焦而無用 (jiāo ér wú yòng) = scorched and useless — the fifth aversion set last.
The Earth-God’s lesson gives the ginseng-fruit a full alchemical cosmology. Its power (a whiff worth 360 years, a bite worth 47,000) is restated from P5, but now grounded in a doctrine of 五行相畏 (aversion to the Five Phases): the fruit reacts to each of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth in turn — falling, withering, melting, scorching, sinking.
The doctrine is also a set of handling instructions, and a retroactive explanation of the boys’ careful procedure at P16 (the golden striker, the silk-lined tray): metal alone can knock it down, wood withers it, water is its medium for eating, fire ruins it. The fruit is at once a marvel and a fragile artifact governed by 五行 correspondence — a characteristically Ming fusion of Buddhist-Daoist wonder with the systematic natural philosophy of the phases.
Readings: 五行 行 = xíng (the phases) and 相畏 相 = xiāng; the light 只結得 = de (recalling P5) against 方得／不得 = dé; and 有甚 甚 = shèn.