鱗甲拜佛 Even Scaled Creatures Worship
三藏見了，點頭長嘆道：「我那東土，若有人也將泥胎塑這等大菩薩，燒香供養啊，我弟子也不去西天去矣。」正嘆息處，又到了二層山門之內。見有四大天王之像，乃是持國、多聞、增長、廣目，按東北西南風調雨順之意。進了二層門裡，又見有喬松四樹，一樹樹翠蓋蓬蓬，卻如傘狀。忽擡頭，乃是大雄寶殿。那長老合掌皈依，舒身下拜。拜罷起來，轉過佛臺，到於後門之下。又見有倒座觀音普度南海之像。那壁上都是良工巧匠裝塑的那些蝦、魚、蟹、鱉，出頭露尾，跳海水波潮耍子。長老又點頭三五度，感嘆萬千聲道：「可憐啊！鱗甲眾生都拜佛，為人何不肯修行？」三藏见了，点头长叹道：「我那东土，若有人也将泥胎塑这等大菩萨，烧香供养啊，我弟子也不去西天去矣。」正叹息处，又到了二层山门之内。见有四大天王之像，乃是持国、多闻、增长、广目，按东北西南风调雨顺之意。进了二层门里，又见有乔松四树，一树树翠盖蓬蓬，却如伞状。忽抬头，乃是大雄宝殿。那长老合掌皈依，舒身下拜。拜罢起来，转过佛台，到于后门之下。又见有倒座观音普度南海之像。那壁上都是良工巧匠装塑的那些虾、鱼、蟹、鳖，出头露尾，跳海水波潮耍子。长老又点头三五度，感叹万千声道：「可怜啊！鳞甲众生都拜佛，为人何不肯修行？」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka, seeing them, nodded and sighed deeply: "In my Eastern Land, if anyone would fashion great bodhisattvas like these in moulded clay and burn incense in offering to them, then I, your disciple, need not have gone to the Western Heaven at all."
Tripitaka reads the statuary devotionally, as he reads everything. 泥胎 is a "clay body," a moulded image; 這等 is "such, of this sort." 將 is jiāng, here meaning "take, use"; 長嘆 is a long sigh, 長 read cháng; 那 is nà.
Just as he was sighing, he came within the second gate.
二層山門 is the inner, second gate; 嘆息處 is "at the point of sighing," 處 read chù.
He saw images of the Four Heavenly Kings — Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Vaiśravaṇa, Virūḍhaka, and Virūpākṣa — set to east, north, west, and south, in token of 'timely wind and seasonable rain.'
The Four Heavenly Kings guard the four quarters, and Chinese folk tradition reads their emblems as a blessing on the harvest. The standard arrangement puts 持國, Dhritarashtra, in the east with a lute; 增長, Virudhaka, in the south with a sword; 廣目, Virupaksha, in the west with a dragon or snake coiled round his arm; and 多聞, Vaishravana, in the north with an umbrella. Line up the four objects and you get 風調雨順 — wind and rain in season — through a chain of puns and likenesses: a sword has an edge, 鋒, which sounds like 風, wind; a lute is tuned, 調; an umbrella means 雨, rain; and a creature that submits to handling is 順, compliant. Note that the edition names its kings in one order and its quarters in another — east, north, west, south, rather than the usual east, south, west, north — so the two lists do not line up character for character. This reading follows the page as printed rather than tidying it. 增長 takes 長 as zhǎng; 調 is tiáo.
Passing within the second gate, he saw four tall pines, each with a kingfisher-green canopy so full and spreading it was shaped like a parasol.
喬松 are tall pines; 翠蓋 is the kingfisher-green canopy of a tree; 蓬蓬 is full and spreading; 傘狀 is parasol-shaped.
Looking up of a sudden, he found it was the Great Hero Treasure-Hall.
大雄寶殿, the "Great Hero Precious Hall," is the main Buddha-hall of a Chinese monastery, where Shakyamuni is enshrined. It is the room Wukong will shortly walk into and start threatening the furniture.
The elder pressed his palms together in refuge, stretched himself down, and made his prostration.
皈依 is to take refuge in the Three Treasures — the formal act that makes someone a Buddhist. 舒身下拜 is to stretch the body out and bow down, a full prostration. 那 is nà, 長 is zhǎng.
His bows finished, he rose, went round behind the Buddha-dais, and came to the back door.
拜罷 is "having finished bowing," 罷 read bà; 佛臺 is the Buddha's altar-platform, 佛 read fó.
There he saw an image of the reverse-seated Guanyin of the Southern Sea, delivering all beings.
A 倒座觀音 is an image of Guanyin set facing the back of the hall instead of the front, so that worshippers coming in by the rear door meet her first — a common and rather generous piece of temple planning. 倒 is dào. 普度 is to ferry all beings across; 南海, the Southern Sea, is where Guanyin lives.
On the walls there, fashioned by skilled artisans, were all manner of shrimp, fish, crabs, and turtles, heads out and tails showing, sporting in the leaping tide and waves of the sea.
The wall behind her is her ocean, carved in relief. 良工巧匠 is "fine workmen and clever craftsmen"; 出頭露尾 is heads out and tails showing; 耍子 is at play, 子 the light suffix zi. 那 is nà, 都 is dōu.
The elder nodded again several times and, sighing a thousand sighs, said: "How pitiable!"
三五度 is "several times"; 感嘆萬千聲 is to sigh a thousand and ten thousand sighs, which is hyperbole for being very moved indeed. 長 is zhǎng.
"Even the scaled and shelled creatures all worship the Buddha — why then would a human being be unwilling to cultivate the Way?"
And he draws his moral from the carved fish. 鱗甲眾生 is "scaled and armoured living beings"; 都 is dōu; 為人 is "to be human," 為 read wéi; 修行 is to cultivate religious practice, 行 read xíng. Remember the question — why would a human being refuse? — because the answer is sitting in the abbot's quarters at this moment, in a bad mood.
As Tripitaka walks in, the passage becomes a small tour of a Chinese Buddhist temple's standard layout: the Four Heavenly Kings of the quarters at the inner gate; the Great Hero Hall with its image of Shakyamuni; and behind the main altar the reverse-seated Guanyin, facing the back door, set against a wall of sculpted sea-creatures standing in for her ocean. Each sight draws a sigh and a pious reflection from the monk.
The recurring note is his earnestness — the wish that his homeland had images like these, the full prostration, and finally the moral he takes from the carved fish and turtles: if even scaled creatures bow to the Buddha, how can a human being refuse to cultivate the Way? It is sincere and faintly comic at once, and it sharpens the reception waiting for him, because the human being least willing to show Buddhist charity in this chapter runs this very house.