Canonical Classics ← 第三十回
第三十回
xiéqīnzhèng
xīnyuán

The Evil Demon Assaults the True Dharma · The Horse of the Will Recalls the Monkey of the Heart

沙僧捨身
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

沙僧捨身 Sha Wujing Resolves to Die

shāsēngkǔnzàijiànyāojīngxiōngèzhīshèngōngzhǔguàndǎozàichídāoyàoshāxīnzhōngànxiǎngdào:「fēnmíngshìyǒushūjiùleshīshìzhīēnruòkǒushuōchūjiùgōngzhǔshālequèshìēnjiāngchóubàoxiǎnglǎoshāgēnshīchǎngméicùngōngbàoxiàojīnbèijiùjiāngxìngmìngshībàoleēn。」shāsēngkǔnzàijiànyāojīngxiōngèzhīshèngōngzhǔguàndǎozàichídāoyàoshāxīnzhōngànxiǎngdào:「fēnmíngshìyǒushūjiùleshīshìzhīēnruòkǒushuōchūjiùgōngzhǔshālequèshìēnjiāngchóubàoxiǎnglǎoshāgēnshīchǎngméicùngōngbàoxiàojīnbèijiùjiāngxìngmìngshībàoleēn。」


逐句解 Line by line

shāsēngkǔnzàijiànyāojīngxiōngèzhīshèngōngzhǔguàndǎozàichídāoyàoshāxīnzhōngànxiǎngdào:「fēnmíngshìyǒushūjiùleshīshìzhīēn shāsēngkǔnzàijiànyāojīngxiōngèzhīshèngōngzhǔguàndǎozàichídāoyàoshāxīnzhōngànxiǎngdào:「fēnmíngshìyǒushūjiùleshīshìzhīēn

Sha the Monk, bound where he lay, saw how murderously savage the fiend had grown — hurling the princess to the ground, blade in hand, bent on the kill — and thought within himself: "It is plain that she did send the letter, and thereby saved my master; this is a kindness beyond all measure.

Sha grasps at once what the reader knows: the princess’s letter is what delivered Tripitaka, a 莫大之恩 ("kindness beyond measure") he feels bound to requite. In 兇惡之甚 the graph is read shèn ("in the extreme"); in 摜倒, is dǎo ("to hurl, throw down").

ruòkǒushuōchūjiùgōngzhǔshālequèshìēnjiāngchóubào ruòkǒushuōchūjiùgōngzhǔshālequèshìēnjiāngchóubào

If I speak out with a single word, he will kill the princess on the spot — would that not be to answer kindness with enmity?"

恩將仇報 ("to requite kindness with enmity") is the cardinal ingratitude; the coverb is read jiāng. Sha frames the betrayal of the princess as a moral impossibility.

xiǎnglǎoshāgēnshīchǎngméicùngōngbàoxiàojīnbèijiùjiāngxìngmìngshībàoleēn。」 xiǎnglǎoshāgēnshīchǎngméicùngōngbàoxiàojīnbèijiùjiāngxìngmìngshībàoleēn。」

Enough, enough! For all my time following my master, old Sha has rendered not an inch of merit’s service; and now, bound here as I am, let me lay down this life of mine and repay my master’s kindness."

寸功 ("an inch of merit") measures his sense of having served too little; 就將此性命 ("with this very life") again takes the coverb as jiāng. The vow to trade his life for the debt is Sha Wujing’s defining gesture.


總評 Commentary

Sha Wujing is the least individuated of the three disciples, but this passage gives him his signature note: a quiet, absolute loyalty that expresses itself not in Wukong’s defiance or Bajie’s self-interest, but in willing self-erasure. He reasons his way to martyrdom in three swift steps — kindness received, betrayal refused, life offered up.

The moral calculus is precise and Confucian: (kindness) incurs an obligation that (requital) must discharge, and to expose the princess would be 恩將仇報, the very type of ingratitude. Sha dissolves the dilemma by substituting his own life for hers.

This interior monologue is the pivot the preceding passages have prepared. The princess staked her life on the monk’s discretion; here, unheard by her, he resolves to honor that trust to the death.