具告如來 The Petition to the Tathāgata
行者低頭禮拜畢，如來問道：「悟空，前聞得觀音尊者解脫汝身，皈依釋教，保唐僧來此求經，你怎麼獨自到此？有何事故？」行者頓首道：「上告我佛。弟子自秉迦持，與唐朝師父西來，行至金兜山金兜洞，遇著一個惡魔頭，名喚兕大王，神通廣大，把師父與師弟等攝入洞中。弟子向伊求取，沒好意，兩家比迸，被他將一個白森森的圈子，搶了我的鐵棒。我恐他是天將思凡，急上界查勘不出。蒙玉帝差遣李天王父子助援，又被他搶了太子的六般兵器。及請火德星君放火燒他，又被他將火具搶去。又請水德星君放水渰他，一毫又渰他不著。弟子費若干精神氣力，將那鐵棒等物偷出，復去索戰，又被他將前物依然套去，無法收降。因此特告我佛，望垂慈與弟子看看，果然是何物出身。我好去拿他家屬四鄰，擒此魔頭，救我師父，合拱虔誠，拜求正果。」行者低头礼拜毕，如来问道：「悟空，前闻得观音尊者解脱汝身，皈依释教，保唐僧来此求经，你怎么独自到此？有何事故？」行者顿首道：「上告我佛。弟子自秉迦持，与唐朝师父西来，行至金兜山金兜洞，遇着一个恶魔头，名唤兕大王，神通广大，把师父与师弟等摄入洞中。弟子向伊求取，没好意，两家比迸，被他将一个白森森的圈子，抢了我的铁棒。我恐他是天将思凡，急上界查勘不出。蒙玉帝差遣李天王父子助援，又被他抢了太子的六般兵器。及请火德星君放火烧他，又被他将火具抢去。又请水德星君放水渰他，一毫又渰他不着。弟子费若干精神气力，将那铁棒等物偷出，复去索战，又被他将前物依然套去，无法收降。因此特告我佛，望垂慈与弟子看看，果然是何物出身。我好去拿他家属四邻，擒此魔头，救我师父，合拱虔诚，拜求正果。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim bowed his head and made his obeisance, and when it was done the Tathāgata asked: "Wukong, I heard some while ago that the Venerable Guanyin had released you and that you had taken refuge in the teaching of Śākya, and were escorting the Tang priest here in quest of scriptures. How is it that you come alone? What has happened?"
The Buddha asks a question he already knows the answer to. 聞得: 得 is dé; 觀音: 觀 is guān; 解脫: 解 is jiě; 釋教: 教 is jiào, the doctrine. Three sentences further on the narrative says outright that he knew already, so the opening question is pure form — the way a magistrate asks a defendant to state his name.
Pilgrim knocked his head on the ground and said: "I report to my Buddha. Since your disciple took up the discipline and came west with his master of the Tang court, we travelled as far as the Golden Helm Mountain and the Golden Helm Cave, where we fell in with an evil demon head named the Rhinoceros King, whose magic powers are very great, and who carried my master and my fellow disciples off into his cave.
佛 is fó throughout this edition. 弟子: 子 is zǐ, the full word for son or disciple. 唐朝: 朝 is cháo, a dynasty, not the zhāo of morning. 遇著: 著 is zháo, the reading for an action that hits its mark, on the pattern of 撞著, "ran into." 洞中: 中 is zhōng.
"Your disciple went to him and asked them back; he had no good intentions, and the two sides fell to contending. Then with a bone-white ring of his he snatched away my iron rod.
One segment, two readings of the same character. 弟子 takes zǐ, the full word, while 圈子 takes zi, the bare ending — so tone alone separates the disciple from the ring. 沒好意: 沒 is méi; 將一個: 將 is jiāng; 搶了: 了 is le.
"Fearing he might be some celestial general with a longing for the mortal world, I went up in haste to the upper realm; but the search and examination turned nothing up.
天將: 將 is jiàng, the rank of general — the same character reads jiāng, the object-marker, in the segments both above and below. 查勘: 查 is chá. 思凡 is the technical term for a celestial being who starts hankering after the world below and absconds — heaven's word for going absent without leave.
"By the Jade Emperor's grace Devarāja Li and his son were commissioned to my help, and he snatched away the Prince's six weapons too.
差遣: 差 is chāi, to commission someone for a duty. Both 子 in this segment (父子, 太子) are zǐ, the full word; 搶了: 了 is le.
"Then I asked the Fire Virtue Star Lord to set fire to him, and he snatched away the fire-gear as well.
將火具搶去: 將 is jiāng. The petition is running through the arc in order, and the verb comes out the same every single time.
"Then I asked the Water Virtue Star Lord to loose water and drown him, and not a hair of him could be drowned.
渰他不著: 著 is zháo, an action reaching its mark, here inside a negative — "could not manage to drown him." Because that reading lifts the character from a fourth tone to a second, the 不 in front takes bù where the general rule would give bú. 渰 is the vernacular way of writing 淹, to drown.
"Your disciple spent no end of spirit and strength stealing the iron rod and the rest of it out again, and went back to offer battle; and he snared the whole lot away exactly as before, and there is no means of subduing him.
若干: 干 is gān. Both 將 here (將那鐵棒, 將前物) are jiāng; 那 is nà. 收降: 降 is xiáng, to subdue, not the jiàng of coming down.
"Therefore I come especially to report to my Buddha, and to beg that in your mercy you will look for your disciple and see what thing he really is by origin,
And here is the actual request. 佛 is fó; 弟子: 子 is zǐ; both 看 are kàn — 看看 is the softening doubling, "just take a look," which is a very modest way to ask the Buddha for an identification.
"so that I may go and take his household and his neighbours, seize this demon head, rescue my master, and with folded hands and a sincere heart seek the true fruit of enlightenment."
家屬四鄰 — to arrest a criminal's household and his neighbours is the language of Ming penal practice, collective liability and all, and Pilgrim applies it to a demon without blinking. 正果 is the true fruit, the attainment waiting at the end of the pilgrimage.
The petition is a set piece of bureaucratic form, and it is worth reading as one. Pilgrim calls himself 弟子, your disciple, throughout, addresses the Buddha as 我佛, my Buddha, and lays the case out in exactly the order a formal memorial would take: the commission he holds, where he was travelling, what befell him, what redress he sought at each level, and what he now asks for. Every escalation is there — his own attempt, the search of the celestial registers, Devarāja Li and Nezha, the Fire Virtue, the Water Virtue, the night raid — and every one of them ends on the same verb: 搶, 套, snatched, snared away.
What he asks for is not a weapon. He asks the Buddha to look and tell him 果然是何物出身 — what the creature is by origin. Fifty-one chapters have trained the reader to expect a borrowed treasure or a better fighter; what the plot actually needs is a name, and Wukong has worked that out for himself. His closing sentence gives the game away in the other direction: he wants to arrest the demon's household and neighbours, which is Ming penal practice with its collective liability fully intact, and he wants to do it as a step towards 正果, the true fruit of the Way. Courtroom and monastery sit side by side in one sentence, and nobody is embarrassed.