八戒懺悔 Bajie Repents
那八戒撮土焚香，望空禮拜。行者道：「你可認得那些菩薩麼？」八戒道：「我已此暈倒昏迷，眼花撩亂，那認得是誰？」行者把那簡帖兒遞與八戒。八戒見了是頌子，更加慚愧。沙僧笑道：「二哥有這般好處哩，感得四位菩薩來與你做親。」八戒道：「兄弟再莫題起，不當人子了。從今後，再也不敢妄為。就是累折骨頭，也只是摩肩壓擔，隨師父西域去也。」三藏道：「既如此說才是。」那八戒撮土焚香，望空礼拜。行者道：「你可认得那些菩萨么？」八戒道：「我已此晕倒昏迷，眼花撩乱，那认得是谁？」行者把那简帖儿递与八戒。八戒见了是颂子，更加惭愧。沙僧笑道：「二哥有这般好处哩，感得四位菩萨来与你做亲。」八戒道：「兄弟再莫题起，不当人子了。从今后，再也不敢妄为。就是累折骨头，也只是摩肩压担，随师父西域去也。」三藏道：「既如此说才是。」
逐句解 Line by line
That Bājiè scooped up earth for incense and bowed toward the empty sky.
撮土焚香, cuō tǔ fén xiāng — pinching up a handful of dirt and burning it in place of incense. It is what you do when you want to make an offering and have nothing to offer with. The gesture is sincere and slightly pathetic, which is Bājiè exactly.
Pilgrim said, "Do you know now who those Bodhisattvas were?"
Pilgrim is not finished with him. 認得 takes the light de — the "recognise" compound, not the dé of "obtain."
Bājiè said, "By then I had swooned away, dazed and reeling, my eyes all in a blur — how should I know who they were?"
Bājiè's defence is that he was unconscious for the whole thing. Watch the 那: here it is nǎ, standing in for 哪 and meaning "how on earth would I —", not the nà that points at something. Same character, opposite job.
Pilgrim handed Bājiè that slip of paper.
簡帖兒, jiǎn tiě er — the note the four bodhisattvas left pinned up before they vanished, with 兒 as the ending that makes a word small and familiar, the way "-let" does in "booklet."
Bājiè saw it was a set of verses, and grew more ashamed still.
頌子, sòng zi, is a gāthā — a Buddhist verse-stanza, the form a scripture uses to summarise a teaching in metre. Finding that the joke was written down in scripture-form makes it worse. The 子 is the light suffix zi. 更加, gèng jiā: all the more.
Sha Monk said with a smile, "So Second Brother has this to his credit — he moved four Bodhisattvas to come and make a match with him!"
Sha Monk gets one line and it is deadly. 感得, gǎn dé, means to move someone into doing something — the word you would use of prayers that move a god to act. So: your conduct was so remarkable it moved four bodhisattvas to come down and arrange your wedding.
Bajie said, "Brothers, raise it no more -- I am no fit son of man.
不當人子 is the self-curse of someone thoroughly ashamed — roughly "I'm not fit to be counted a human being." 當 is dàng, "count as, reckon as," and the 不 in front of it shifts to bú because 當 falls in the fourth tone. 人子 is read as a noun, "son of man," so 子 is the full zǐ rather than a suffix. The phrase comes back at the end of the chapter in a different mouth, and means something different there.
From this day on I shall never again run wild.
妄為, wàng wéi — to act rashly, without restraint. 為 is wéi, "to act," not the wèi that means "for the sake of."
Even should I wear my bones to splinters, I will only rub my shoulders raw beneath the carrying-pole and follow Master to the Western Realm."
The oath he swears is not to be good; it is to carry the luggage. 壓擔 takes 擔 as the noun dàn, the load itself, rather than the verb dān, to shoulder it. 西域, Xī yù, the Western Regions.
Tripiṭaka said, "If you speak so, that is well."
Tripiṭaka accepts the apology in nine syllables and moves on. 三藏, Sān zàng, is Xuánzàng's title — the Three Baskets of the Buddhist canon — and its 藏 is always zàng.
Freed, Bājiè performs a contrition scene with the props to hand — no incense, so he pinches up a handful of earth and burns that instead. Asked whether he now knows who the four women were, he pleads unconsciousness: he had fainted, everything was a blur, how was he to recognise anyone. It is a defence with the merit of being probably true.
Pilgrim produces the note the bodhisattvas left behind, and the humiliation completes itself: the joke has been written down in verse, in the scripture-form used for summarising doctrine. Sha Monk lands the only barb he permits himself all chapter — what a credit to you, Second Brother, that four bodhisattvas came down to arrange your marriage. Bājiè breaks and swears the vernacular self-curse 不當人子, not fit to be counted human.
The vow that follows is worth attention, because it is small and concrete rather than grand: he will not swear off appetite, he will carry the load. Even if the bones wear through, he will keep his shoulder under the pole and follow his master west. Tripiṭaka accepts it in one flat sentence and the episode closes without a hug. Keep the vow in mind — it lasts about four hundred characters.