神將引冤 Spirit-Guardians Admit the Wronged Ghost
三藏道：「陛下，你陰司裡既沒本事告他，卻來我陽世間作甚？」那人道：「師父啊，我這一點冤魂，怎敢上你的門來？山門前有那護法諸天、六丁六甲、五方揭諦、四值功曹、一十八位護教伽藍，緊隨鞍馬。卻才被夜遊神一陣神風，把我送將進來。他說我三年水災該滿，著我來拜謁師父。他說你手下有一個大徒弟，是齊天大聖，極能斬怪降魔。今來志心拜懇，千乞到我國中，拿住妖魔，辨明邪正。朕當結草銜環，報酬師父恩也。」三藏道：「陛下，你阴司里既没本事告他，却来我阳世间作甚？」那人道：「师父啊，我这一点冤魂，怎敢上你的门来？山门前有那护法诸天、六丁六甲、五方揭谛、四值功曹、一十八位护教伽蓝，紧随鞍马。却才被夜游神一阵神风，把我送将进来。他说我三年水灾该满，着我来拜谒师父。他说你手下有一个大徒弟，是齐天大圣，极能斩怪降魔。今来志心拜恳，千乞到我国中，拿住妖魔，辨明邪正。朕当结草衔环，报酬师父恩也。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, “Your Majesty, if in the courts of the shades you have no means to accuse him, then for what do you come to my world of the living?”
A fair question, and slightly impatient: if the dead courts are shut, what do you want with the living? 陽世間 is the world of the living, set against the 陰司 of the shades; 作甚 has 甚 as shén, "what."
The man said, “Master, how should this single wisp of a wronged soul dare come up to your gate?
The ghost's deference is not just manners — he is explaining, in the next breath, that he physically could not have come. 一點冤魂 is "a single mote of wronged soul," as small as a thing can be and still be someone.
Before the mountain gate stand those dharma-guarding devas, the Six Ding and Six Jia, the Warders of the Five Quarters, the Merit-Officers of the Four Watches, and the eighteen guardians of the Sangha — close about the saddle and horse.
The reason nothing supernatural has bothered the pilgrims all journey: Tripitaka travels inside a permanent cordon. The 六丁六甲 are twelve calendar-spirits; the 五方揭諦 wǔ fāng jiē dì are the Warders of the Five Quarters; the 四值功曹 are the Merit-Officers on duty for the year, month, day and hour; and the 護教伽藍 are the eighteen guardians of the monastic community, with 伽 read qié (伽藍 transcribes saṃghārāma, a monastery), not gā. 那 is the pointing nà.
It was only because the Night-Roaming Spirit, with a gust of divine wind, sent me in here.
So he had to be delivered. The 夜遊神 yè yóu shén, the Night-Roaming Spirit, is an officer of the night watch with the standing to pass a soul through the cordon — the wind that blew out the lamp in the opening was him. 將 here is the directional jiāng: sent him in.
He said my three years’ water-doom was now fulfilled, and had me come to pay my respects to you, Master.
The paperwork is in order too: his sentence was up. 水災該滿 has the three years' water-doom reaching its proper term — an allotted span, not an accident. 著我來 has 著 as zhuó, the reading for setting someone to a task. 拜謁 is to pay formal respects.
He said that under your hand is a great disciple, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, most able to slay monsters and subdue demons.
And at last the name the whole petition has been aimed at. 齊天大聖 qí tiān dà shèng, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is the title Wukong extracted from Heaven itself in the opening chapters — which is exactly why he is the one power in the story that the impostor's connections cannot reach. 降 is xiáng, to subdue, not jiàng.
I come now with all my heart to entreat you: I beg you, come to my kingdom, seize the demon, and make plain the false from the true.
The formal request. 志心拜懇 is to bow and entreat with the whole heart; 辨明邪正 is to make plain which is crooked and which upright — the chapter's business, stated in four characters. 國中 takes the locative zhōng.
I shall knot grass and bear rings to repay your kindness, Master.”
He closes with the only currency a dead man has. 結草銜環 jié cǎo xián huán — "knot the grass, carry the rings" — is still the idiom for a debt repaid beyond death, and it comes from two old tales: a ghost who tied the grass into a snare to trip his benefactor's enemy, and a rescued bird that returned with jade rings in its beak. From a ghost it is not a figure of speech. 當 is dāng, shall.
The ghost explains why he could only reach Tripitaka now, and the cosmology is exact. The pilgrim travels ringed by his own guardian powers — the Six Ding and Six Jia, the Warders of the Five Quarters, the Merit-Officers of the Four Watches, the eighteen guardians of the monastic community — and no spirit gets past them. It took the Night-Roaming Spirit, an officer with the authority to do it, to blow him in on a gust of wind. Even a righteous ghost cannot simply walk up to a scripture-pilgrim.
The petition then names Wukong for the first time in the chapter, and the choice is structural rather than sentimental: every court the king might have appealed to belongs to the impostor, and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven is the one power that stands outside the whole arrangement. He seals the plea with the idiom of knotted grass and carried rings — the two stories in which the dead repay the living — which is about the only pledge a ghost is in a position to make.