又到方丈 On to Fangzhang
且不說八戒打諢亂纏。卻表行者縱祥雲離了蓬萊，又早到方丈仙山，這山真好去處。有詩為證。詩曰：且不说八戒打诨乱缠。却表行者纵祥云离了蓬莱，又早到方丈仙山，这山真好去处。有诗为证。诗曰：
逐句解 Line by line
But we shall say no more of Bajie’s clowning and pestering.
打諢亂纏 ("cracking jokes and making a nuisance"); 且不說 ("let us leave aside…"), the storyteller’s formula for dropping one thread to pick up another.
Rather let us tell how the pilgrim, springing up on his auspicious cloud, left Penglai and came in no time to the immortal mountain of Fangzhang — and a truly fine place it was.
卻表 ("now to relate…"), the counterpart formula taking up the new thread; 方丈仙山 ("the immortal mountain Fangzhang"), second of the three sacred isles of the eastern sea, after Penglai.
There is a poem to prove it:
有詩為證 ("there is a poem in witness"), the standard lead-in to a descriptive verse; 為證 read wéizhèng, "as proof."
The poem says:
詩曰 ("the poem says"), heading the verse proper.
Fangzhang towers lofty, a separate heaven of its own; in the palace-halls of Great Prime the immortals gather.
巍峨 ("towering, majestic"); 別是天 ("a heaven apart"), a world unto itself. 太元宮府 ("the Palace of Great Prime," 太元 = tài yuán) is the mountain’s celestial court.
From purple terraces light falls on the road of the Three Pure Ones; from flowers and trees a fragrance floats amid five-colored mist.
紫臺 ("purple terrace"), a palace of the immortals; 三清 ("the Three Pure Ones"), the supreme Daoist deities. 五色煙, "five-hued vapor," the auspicious haze of a numinous place.
Golden phoenixes, many of themselves, coil about the flower-towers; and the jade cream — who is it presses it to water the fields of magic fungus?
槃蕊闕 ("to coil about the blossom-towers," 槃 = pán, to wind or circle); 玉膏 ("jade paste"), a mythical elixir-substance; 芝田 ("fields of zhi-fungus"), where the immortals’ numinous mushrooms grow.
The jasper peaches and purple plums are newly come to ripeness — another token, once again, that ten thousand years have turned for the immortals.
碧桃紫李 ("emerald peaches, purple plums"), the fruits of the immortals’ orchards; 換…信 ("to change the tally, mark the token") — each fresh ripening measures another vast age, 萬年, in the deathless calendar of Fangzhang.
The narrative turns, with its customary pair of storyteller’s formulas — "let us say no more of…" and "rather let us tell how…" — from Bajie’s antics back to Wukong’s quest, which now brings him to Fangzhang, the second of the three sacred isles. As at Penglai, the change of scene is marked by a descriptive verse, unfurling the standard splendors of an immortal mountain: purple terraces, the road of the Three Pure Ones, phoenixes and jade elixirs and fields of magic fungus.
The verse’s closing image is quietly resonant. The peaches and plums coming "newly to ripeness" serve as a token that "ten thousand years have turned" — the orchard’s fruiting a calendar for a place beyond time. It is an apt note on which to arrive: Wukong has come to the isles of the deathless in search of a cure for a slain deathless tree, and the poem’s vision of endless, self-renewing life throws his errand — and the fragility of even an immortal growth — into gentle relief.