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, travelled to what place, 行 = xíng. Guanyin knows perfectly well what has happened; the mild opening question is her way of making him say it himself.
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 is Aparagodānīya, the western of the four continents of Buddhist geography, and the one the pilgrims are crossing. 萬壽山 is the Mountain of Ten Thousand Years, Zhenyuan's ground.
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, the Five-Villages Abbey, 觀 = guàn. The question is gently leading: she has already worked out where the trouble came from.
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 is to knock the head on the ground -- a full prostration, not a bow, and the first time in the chapter Wukong performs one. 弟子, your disciple, 子 the noun zǐ, is how he refers to himself from here on. 不得前進 is cannot advance, 得 toneless de. 參 is 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 is to know full well -- she had the whole story before he opened his mouth. 潑猴, reckless ape, is a scolding with real affection in it; she has been calling him that for a long time. 天開地闢的靈根 is a spirit-root 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?"
讓他三分, yield him three parts out of ten, is still the ordinary Chinese way of saying you give someone the benefit. That Guanyin says it of Zhenyuan is the strongest measure yet of where he stands -- a Bodhisattva conceding precedence to an earth-immortal. 鎮元子, Master Zhenyuan, 子 the honorific zǐ.
The pilgrim bowed again and said, "Your disciple truly did not know."
再拜 is to bow a second time. Wukong bowing twice and pleading ignorance is about as contrite as this character gets. 弟子, your disciple, 子 = zǐ.
"That day he was away from home, and only two immortal boys attended us."
那一日 is that one day, 那 the pointing nà. The 仙童 are Clear Wind and Bright Moon, the two acolytes.
"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."
Notice who gets named first. 豬悟能 is Bajie under his religious name, and Wukong makes sure the Bodhisattva knows whose appetite started it -- before owning the theft himself, without qualification. 曉得 is to come to know, 得 = de; 委 is truly, indeed. Two different 子 land in one line: 果子, fruit, takes the toneless zi, while 弟子, your disciple, takes the noun zǐ.
"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, and 弟子, your disciple, both take the noun zǐ. 將 ... 推倒 is pushed it over, 將 the jiāng that puts the object first, 倒 = dǎo. He does not soften the rage or blame it on anyone.
"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 up in one sleeve, 籠 = lǒng; 繩綁鞭抽 is bound with rope and whipped with the lash. The sleeve-trick, recounted for the third time in this chapter and shorter with each retelling.
"That night we broke free, but again he overtook us and swept us up as before."
當夜 is that night, 當 = dāng; 依然籠了 is swept up just as before, 籠 = lǒng.
"Two or three times over — there was truly no escaping him."
三番兩次, three turns and two times, is the ordinary Chinese for over and over again. 難逃 is hard to escape, 難 = nán. Wukong admitting that force failed him is not something the reader gets often.
"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 is to seek a remedy from over the sea; 遍遊三島 is roamed the Three Isles. 都沒有本事, not one of them has the power, 都 = dōu. The whole tour, summed up and laid at her feet.
"And so your disciple, with undivided heart, does reverence and comes expressly to lay his petition before the Bodhisattva: I humbly pray your compassion, that you grant a remedy and save the Tang Monk to hasten west."
志心朝禮 is liturgical language, the phrasing of a formal act of worship, and Wukong is using it about himself. 志 is the will or settled purpose, so 志心 is the heart fixed on one thing and not wandering; 朝禮 is to do reverence as one would at court, with 朝 read cháo, facing toward a superior. 伏望慈憫 is prostrate, hoping for your compassion; 俯賜一方 is to stoop and 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?"
And there is the pivot of the chapter, delivered as a mild reproach. 不早來見我, why did you not come to see me sooner. The answer he has spent three islands hunting was here the whole time.
Before the Bodhisattva, Wukong is transformed. The braggart who was baiting the Mountain-Guardian a moment ago now knocks his head on the ground, bows twice, and calls himself your disciple; and the account he gives -- so often spun elsewhere as a tale of dashing escapes -- comes out here as a plain and unsparing confession. The theft owned, the fit of temper admitted, the repeated defeats conceded. It is the most humble the reader has seen him in this episode.
Guanyin's response measures the offence from a new height. Even she, she says, gives Zhenyuan three parts out of ten -- a striking admission of rank among the powers of the cosmos, and one that frames the felling of the tree as graver than anybody else in the chapter had yet suggested.
Her closing question is the quiet pivot of the whole chapter: why did you not come to me at the first? The weary tour of the three Daoist isles, refusal after refusal, is revealed in a stroke to have been a detour. The remedy was on Potalaka the entire time. 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.