誤入兜率 Astray into Tushita; eating the elixir
好大聖，搖搖擺擺，仗著酒，任情亂撞。一會把路差了，不是齊天府，卻是兜率天宮。一見了，頓然醒悟道：「兜率宮是三十三天之上，乃離恨天太上老君之處，如何錯到此間？也罷，也罷，一向要來望此老，不曾得來，今趁此殘步，就望他一望也好。」即整衣撞進去，那裡不見老君，四無人跡。原來那老君與燃燈古佛在三層高閣朱陵丹臺上講道，眾仙童、仙將、仙官、仙吏都侍立左右聽講。這大聖直至丹房裡面，尋訪不遇。但見丹灶之傍，爐中有火。爐左右安放著五個葫蘆，葫蘆裡都是煉就的金丹。大聖喜道：「此物乃仙家之至寶。老孫自了道以來，識破了內外相同之理，也要煉些金丹濟人，不期到家無暇。今日有緣，卻又撞著此物。趁老子不在，等我吃他幾丸嘗新。」他就把那葫蘆都傾出來，就都吃了，如吃炒豆相似。好大圣，摇摇摆摆，仗着酒，任情乱撞。一会把路差了，不是齐天府，却是兜率天宫。一见了，顿然醒悟道：「兜率宫是三十三天之上，乃离恨天太上老君之处，如何错到此间？也罢，也罢，一向要来望此老，不曾得来，今趁此残步，就望他一望也好。」即整衣撞进去，那里不见老君，四无人迹。原来那老君与燃灯古佛在三层高阁朱陵丹台上讲道，众仙童、仙将、仙官、仙吏都侍立左右听讲。这大圣直至丹房里面，寻访不遇。但见丹灶之傍，炉中有火。炉左右安放着五个葫芦，葫芦里都是炼就的金丹。大圣喜道：「此物乃仙家之至宝。老孙自了道以来，识破了内外相同之理，也要炼些金丹济人，不期到家无暇。今日有缘，却又撞着此物。趁老子不在，等我吃他几丸尝新。」他就把那葫芦都倾出来，就都吃了，如吃炒豆相似。
逐句解 Line by line
The brave Great Sage, swaying and reeling, emboldened by the wine, went barging about as the mood took him.
仗著酒: emboldened by the drink, with 著 as the durative zhe — leaning on the wine the whole way. 任情亂撞 is barging about wherever the mood takes him. The largest disaster in the chapter is arrived at by accident, and the accident is drunkenness.
In a while he took the wrong road — not the Equal-to-Heaven residence at all, but the Tushita Heavenly Palace.
兜率 is Tushita, read dōu shuài: in Buddhist cosmology the heaven where the next Buddha waits, and here the address of the Daoist patriarch. He was aiming for his own front door and has ended up at the most senior residence in the universe.
The moment he saw it he came to himself with a start and said: 'The Tushita Palace is above the Thirty-Three Heavens, the abode of the Most High Lord Lao in the Heaven of Parted Sorrow — how have I blundered here? Well, no matter, no matter: I have long meant to call on the old one and never managed it; now, while I still have these last steps in me, let me pay him a visit — that would be no bad thing.'
離恨天, the Heaven of Parted Sorrow, is the highest of the thirty-three heavens. He knows exactly where he is and how far above his station it is, and he decides to drop in anyway.
He straightened his robe and barged in, but there was no Lord Lao to be seen — not a soul anywhere.
四無人跡: not a footprint on any side, with 跡 at jì. Two segments on, the narrator explains the emptiness — the household is out at a lecture.
For the Lord Lao was up in the three-storeyed high pavilion, on the Vermilion-Mound Cinnabar Terrace, expounding the Way with the Lamp-lighting Old Buddha, and the immortal lads, generals, officers, and clerks all stood attending to left and right, listening.
燃燈古佛 is Dīpaṃkara, the Lamp-lighting Buddha, the one who taught before Śākyamuni (佛 = fó). A Buddha and the Daoist patriarch, sharing a lecture platform: the novel is cheerfully unbothered by the boundary between the two religions.
The Great Sage went right into the elixir-chamber, but sought and met no one.
丹房 is the elixir chamber, named once in the chapter, against the 丹灶, the elixir furnace, of the line below. 尋訪不遇 is the set phrase for calling on someone and finding them out — the polite formula for a wasted visit, deployed here by a burglar.
He saw only that beside the elixir-furnace there was fire in the brazier.
爐中有火: the fire is still in under the brazier. The furnace has been left burning and unwatched, and that unguarded moment is the whole of the Great Sage's opportunity. 之傍 takes 傍 at páng, the side of a thing; the 之 in front of it settles that this is the noun and not the verb.
To left and right of the furnace were set five gourds, and in the gourds was all the refined golden elixir.
安放著: set out and left standing, 著 the durative again. 煉就 is refined to completion — 就 marks a finished state — so what is in the gourds is the product, not the process. Five gourds of it, ready to go.
The Great Sage said with delight: 'This thing is the supreme treasure of the immortals. Ever since old Sun completed the Way, I have seen through the principle that inner and outer are one, and have meant to refine some golden elixir to save others — only, back home, I never had the leisure. Today there's an affinity, and here I've run into the very thing. While the old man's away, let me eat a few pills of his to taste the new.'
Here is the boast that gives the theft away. 內外相同之理 is the doctrine that the elixir refined inside the body and the elixir compounded outside it follow one and the same principle — a real and serious teaching, and he cites it as a credential. 了道 is liǎo dào, to have completed the Way; 撞著 is zhuàng zháo, to run into something.
He then tipped out all the gourds and ate the lot, just as if he were eating fried beans.
如吃炒豆相似: exactly as if he were eating fried beans. One comparison does the work of the entire scene — the most concentrated substance in the universe, taken by the handful like bar snacks.
The gravest theft in the chapter is reached by accident. Drunk and barging about 任情亂撞, as the mood took him, the mind-monkey misses his own residence and fetches up in the Tushita Palace, the elixir-chamber of the Most High Lord Lao. The escalation is deliberate on the author's part: the peaches were taken by scheme, the wine by sorcery, and the 金丹 — the golden elixir, the summit of the whole Daoist enterprise — is swallowed almost absent-mindedly, 如吃炒豆相似, just as if eating fried beans. The higher the prize, the more careless the taking.
His self-justification is the sharpest irony in the passage. He claims the adept's credentials — 老孫自了道以來，識破了內外相同之理, ever since I completed the Way, I have seen through the principle that inner and outer are one. That is the authentic language of 內丹, the inner alchemy in which the elixir is refined within the body and never compounded in a gourd at all. He invokes the doctrine purely to excuse eating somebody else's finished pills. To swallow Lord Lao's 金丹 is to mistake the outer elixir for the inner work — to eat the emblem of immortality and skip the years of cultivation it stands for. Liú Yīmíng's commentaries turn on exactly this error: the elixir cannot be seized, only become.