拜告菩薩 Wukong Confesses to Guanyin
菩薩道：「悟空，唐僧行到何處也？」行者道：「行到西牛賀洲萬壽山了。」菩薩道：「那萬壽山有座五莊觀，鎮元大仙你曾會他麼？」行者頓首道：「因是在五莊觀，弟子不識鎮元大仙，毀傷了他的人參果樹，衝撞了他，他就困滯了我師父，不得前進。」那菩薩情知，怪道：「你這潑猴不知好歹，他那人參果樹乃天開地闢的靈根。鎮元子乃地仙之祖，我也讓他三分，你怎麼就打傷他樹？」行者再拜道：「弟子實是不知。那一日他不在家，只有兩個仙童候待我等。是豬悟能曉得他有果子，要一個嘗新，弟子委偷了他三個，兄弟們分吃了。那童子知覺，罵我等無已，是弟子發怒，遂將他樹推倒。他次日回來趕上，將我等一袖子籠去，繩綁鞭抽，拷打了一日。我等當夜走脫，又被他趕上，依然籠了。三番兩次，其實難逃。已允了與他醫樹，卻才自海上求方，遍遊三島，眾神仙都沒有本事。弟子因此志心朝禮，特拜告菩薩，伏望慈憫，俯賜一方，以救唐僧早早西去。」菩薩道：「你怎麼不早來見我，卻往島上去尋找？」菩萨道：「悟空，唐僧行到何处也？」行者道：「行到西牛贺洲万寿山了。」菩萨道：「那万寿山有座五庄观，镇元大仙你曾会他么？」行者顿首道：「因是在五庄观，弟子不识镇元大仙，毁伤了他的人参果树，冲撞了他，他就困滞了我师父，不得前进。」那菩萨情知，怪道：「你这泼猴不知好歹，他那人参果树乃天开地辟的灵根。镇元子乃地仙之祖，我也让他三分，你怎么就打伤他树？」行者再拜道：「弟子实是不知。那一日他不在家，只有两个仙童候待我等。是猪悟能晓得他有果子，要一个尝新，弟子委偷了他三个，兄弟们分吃了。那童子知觉，骂我等无已，是弟子发怒，遂将他树推倒。他次日回来赶上，将我等一袖子笼去，绳绑鞭抽，拷打了一日。我等当夜走脱，又被他赶上，依然笼了。三番两次，其实难逃。已允了与他医树，却才自海上求方，遍游三岛，众神仙都没有本事。弟子因此志心朝礼，特拜告菩萨，伏望慈悯，俯赐一方，以救唐僧早早西去。」菩萨道：「你怎么不早来见我，却往岛上去寻找？」
逐句解 Line by line
The Bodhisattva said, “Wukong, how far has the Tang Monk come on his road?”
行到何處 ("traveled to what place," 行 = xíng). Guanyin opens with a mild question, though she knows the trouble well enough.
The pilgrim said, “We’ve come as far as the Mountain of Ten Thousand Years in the Western Continent of Aparagodānīya.”
西牛賀洲 (Aparagodānīya, the western of the four continents of Buddhist cosmology); 萬壽山 ("Mountain of Ten Thousand Years"), Zhenyuan’s domain.
The Bodhisattva said, “On that Mountain of Ten Thousand Years stands the Five-Villages Abbey — have you met the Great Immortal Zhenyuan?”
五莊觀 ("Five-Villages Abbey," 觀 = guàn); Guanyin’s question is gently leading — she guesses the source of his difficulty.
The pilgrim knocked his head to the ground and said, “It was at the Five-Villages Abbey — your disciple, not knowing the Great Immortal Zhenyuan, harmed his ginseng-fruit tree and gave offense; and he has held my master fast, so that we cannot go on.”
頓首 ("to knock the head [on the ground]," a deep obeisance); 弟子 ("your disciple," 子 the noun zǐ) — Wukong’s humble self-reference before the Bodhisattva; 不得前進 ("cannot advance," 得 the potential de). 參 read shēn.
The Bodhisattva, who understood it well, said reprovingly, “You reckless ape, you know no better — his ginseng-fruit tree is a numinous root from the opening of heaven and the cleaving of earth.”
情知 ("to know full well"); 潑猴 ("reckless ape," a fond scolding); 天開地闢的靈根, "a numinous root [dating] from the making of the world." 參 again shēn.
“Zhenyuan is the patriarch of the earth-immortals — even I give him three parts’ deference; how could you go and wound his tree?”
鎮元子 ("Master Zhenyuan," 子 the honorific zǐ); 讓他三分 ("to yield him three parts," to defer). That even Guanyin defers to Zhenyuan measures his standing — and the gravity of Wukong’s offense.
The pilgrim bowed again and said, “Your disciple truly did not know.”
再拜 ("to bow a second time"); 弟子 ("your disciple," 子 = zǐ). Wukong’s repeated obeisance and plea of ignorance are a study in uncharacteristic contrition.
“That day he was away from home, and only two immortal boys attended us.”
那一日 ("that one day," 那 demonstrative nà); 仙童, the acolytes Qingfeng and Mingyue. Wukong begins his account of how it came about.
“It was Zhu Wuneng who learned he had such fruit and wanted to taste the novelty; so your disciple did indeed steal three, and we brothers shared and ate them.”
曉得 ("to come to know," 得 = de); 果子 ("the fruit," 子 the suffix zi) and 弟子 ("your disciple," 子 the noun zǐ) fall together in one line; 委, "truly, indeed." Wukong owns the theft frankly.
“The boys found out and railed at us without end; and so your disciple, in a rage, pushed his tree over.”
童子 ("the boys," noun zǐ) and 弟子 ("your disciple," noun zǐ); 將…推倒 ("pushed over," 將 the disposal marker jiāng, 倒 = dǎo). Wukong does not spare himself in the telling.
“The next day he came back and overtook us, swept us all up in one sleeve, bound us with cords and lashed us with the whip, and beat us a whole day long.”
一袖子籠去 ("swept [us] up in one sleeve," 籠 = lǒng); 繩綁鞭抽 ("bound with rope, whipped with the lash"). The ordeal by the sleeve-trick, recounted yet again.
“That night we broke free, but again he overtook us and swept us up as before.”
當夜 ("that night," 當 = dāng); 依然籠了 ("swept up just as before," 籠 = lǒng). The doubling drives home the futility of resisting the Immortal.
“Two or three times over — there was truly no escaping him.”
三番兩次 ("time and again"); 難逃 ("hard to escape," 難 = nán). Wukong concedes, for once, that force had failed him.
“Having promised to heal his tree, I have just been seeking a cure over the sea, ranging the three isles — but not one of the immortals has the power.”
自海上求方 ("to seek a remedy from over the sea"); 遍遊三島 ("roamed the Three Isles"), the tour just concluded; 都沒有本事 ("none has the ability," 都 = dōu). The failed quest, laid before its last hope.
“And so your disciple, with a wholehearted heart of reverence, comes expressly to beseech the Bodhisattva: I humbly pray your compassion, that you grant a remedy and save the Tang Monk to hasten west.”
志心朝禮 ("to pay ritual homage with a fixed heart," 朝 = cháo, to make obeisance); 伏望慈憫 ("humbly hoping for [your] compassion"); 俯賜一方, "to condescend to grant a prescription." 弟子, 子 = zǐ.
The Bodhisattva said, “Why did you not come to me at the first, instead of going off to search the isles?”
不早來見我 ("did not come to see me sooner"); the mild reproach carries the chapter’s hinge — the answer to Wukong’s whole fruitless quest was here on Potalaka all along.
Before the Bodhisattva, Wukong is transformed. The braggart who taunted the Mountain-Guardian a moment before now "knocks his head to the ground," bows repeatedly, and calls himself "your disciple"; and his account of the affair, so often spun elsewhere as a tale of dashing escapes, is here rendered as a plain, unsparing confession — the theft owned, the fit of temper acknowledged, the repeated defeats admitted. It is the most humble we have seen him in the episode.
Guanyin’s response measures the enormity of the offense from a new height. Even she, she says, "gives three parts’ deference" to Zhenyuan, the patriarch of the earth-immortals — a striking admission of hierarchy among the powers of the cosmos, and one that frames Wukong’s felling of the tree as graver than any of his interlocutors had yet suggested.
Her closing question is the chapter’s quiet pivot: "Why did you not come to me at the first?" The whole weary tour of the three Daoist isles, cure refused after cure refused, is revealed in a stroke to have been a detour — the remedy was on Potalaka all along. It is a characteristic movement of the novel: the Daoist immortals, for all their elixirs, cannot do what the Bodhisattva of Compassion can, and the desperate road leads, as so often, back to Guanyin.