緊箍咒起 The Tight-Fillet Spell
沙僧放下擔子，攙著唐僧道：「師父請起。」那長老在地下正了性，口中念起緊箍兒咒來，把個行者勒得耳紅面赤，眼脹頭昏，在地下打滾，只教：「莫念，莫念。」那長老念夠有十餘遍，還不住口。行者翻觔斗，豎蜻蜓，疼痛難禁，只叫：「師父饒我罪罷，有話便說，莫念，莫念。」三藏卻才住口道：「沒話說，我不要你跟了，你回去罷。」行者忍疼磕頭道：「師父，怎的就趕我去耶？」三藏道：「你這潑猴兇惡太甚，不是個取經之人。昨日在山坡下打死那兩個賊頭，我已怪你不仁。及晚了到老者之家，蒙他賜齋借宿，又蒙他開後門放我等逃了性命。雖然他的兒子不肖，與我無干，也不該就梟他首；況又殺死多人，壞了多少生命，傷了天地多少和氣。屢次勸你，更無一毫善念，要你何為？快走，快走，免得又念真言。」行者害怕，只教：「莫念，莫念，我去也。」說聲去，一路觔斗雲，無影無蹤，遂不見了。沙僧放下担子，搀着唐僧道：「师父请起。」那长老在地下正了性，口中念起紧箍儿咒来，把个行者勒得耳红面赤，眼胀头昏，在地下打滚，只教：「莫念，莫念。」那长老念够有十余遍，还不住口。行者翻觔斗，竖蜻蜓，疼痛难禁，只叫：「师父饶我罪罢，有话便说，莫念，莫念。」三藏却才住口道：「没话说，我不要你跟了，你回去罢。」行者忍疼磕头道：「师父，怎的就赶我去耶？」三藏道：「你这泼猴凶恶太甚，不是个取经之人。昨日在山坡下打死那两个贼头，我已怪你不仁。及晚了到老者之家，蒙他赐斋借宿，又蒙他开后门放我等逃了性命。虽然他的儿子不肖，与我无干，也不该就枭他首；况又杀死多人，坏了多少生命，伤了天地多少和气。屡次劝你，更无一毫善念，要你何为？快走，快走，免得又念真言。」行者害怕，只教：「莫念，莫念，我去也。」说声去，一路觔斗云，无影无踪，遂不见了。
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk set down the load, helped the Tang Monk up by the arm and said, “Master, please rise.”
攙著 has 著 at zhe, action under way; 擔子 is suffixed, so 子 is zi. Sha Monk's function in this chapter has been to pick people up and to tell them to stop arguing, and he performs both for the last time here.
The elder, on the ground, composed himself, and began to recite the Tight-Fillet spell, which squeezed Pilgrim till his ears were red and his face burned, till his eyes bulged and his head swam and he rolled about on the ground crying only, “Stop, stop!”
勒 takes the everyday lēi, to draw something tight — the fillet is physically constricting the skull. That is a different job from the lè of 勒馬, reining in a horse, which is how the same character reads elsewhere in this chapter, and the split is a ruling made here. 緊箍兒 is suffixed, so 兒 is er; 只教 has 教 as jiào.
The elder recited it a good ten times and more, and still would not stop.
還 is hái — still, even then. 不住口 is not to close the mouth. Ten times and more, and he has not stopped.
Pilgrim turned somersaults and stood on his head, unable to bear the pain, and called out only, “Master, forgive my fault! If you have something to say, say it — only stop, stop.”
觔 keeps jīn and 斗 is dǒu, the somersault — not dòu, to fight. 難禁 gives 難 as nán and 禁 as jīn, to bear — the enduring reading, not the jìn of prohibition. 罷 ends the sentence, so the soft ba.
Only then did Tripitaka stop. “I have nothing to say. I do not want you following me any longer. Go back.”
沒話說 has 沒 as méi. Both instances of 罷 in this passage are the soft ba that ends a sentence, against the verb bà of 茶罷 and 便罷. 我不要你跟了 is six characters, and it ends fifty-six chapters of discipleship.
Pilgrim bore the pain and knocked his head on the ground: “Master, why do you drive me away like this?”
怎的 puts 的 to work as a question ending. 磕頭 is the full prostration, forehead to the ground — and Wukong performs it with the fillet still tight on his skull.
Tripitaka said, “You wretched monkey, your ferocity is far too great. You are no man to be fetching scriptures.”
兇惡 has 惡 as è, wicked — the ordinary reading, against the wù of disliking that the same character took at the farmhouse door. 太甚 has 甚 as the intensifier shèn. What follows is structured like a formal charge, and this is the first count.
“Yesterday, below the mountain slope, you beat those two robber chiefs to death, and I already blamed you then for want of humanity.”
不仁 — want of rén, the Confucian virtue of fellow-feeling — is the charge Tripitaka reaches for first, and it is worth noticing that it is a Confucian one and not a Buddhist one.
“Then, when evening came and we reached the old man’s house, we had his kindness for our meal and our lodging, and his kindness again when he opened the back gate and let us escape with our lives.”
蒙 appears twice, meaning to receive something as a kindness. It is the language of obligation, and the second count is not cruelty but ingratitude. 借宿 has 宿 as sù.
“Unworthy as his son was, and no concern of mine, still you should not have struck off his head;”
無干 keeps 干 at gān: no concern of mine. 梟首 is the legal term for beheading with public display of the head — Tripitaka is charging his disciple in the vocabulary of a magistrate.
“And beyond that you have killed many more, destroyed I know not how many lives, and injured I know not how much of the harmony of Heaven and Earth.”
況又 marks the escalation. 和氣 — the harmony of Heaven and Earth — moves the charge off the statute book altogether, and it is the third and gravest count.
“Time and again I have counselled you, and there is not a hair’s weight of good thought in you. What do I want you for?”
更無 has 更 as gèng, still less. The 一 of 一毫 stays at yì before the rising tone of 毫. 要你何為 is the purposive 為, wèi: what do I want you for.
“Go, go — before I recite the True Words again.”
免得 keeps 得 neutral. 真言 is mantra, the Sanskrit term, used here of the fillet spell. Ten characters, and the threat is the same instrument that has just been used.
Pilgrim was afraid, and cried only, “Stop, stop — I am going.”
只教 is again 教 as jiào. Wukong's last words in the chapter are the same two he has been saying since the spell began.
He said the word and went — one road of somersault cloud, without shadow or trace — and so was gone.
The 一 of 一路 rises to yí before the falling tone of 路; 觔 keeps jīn. Sixteen characters of departure, and not one word of farewell.
Tripitaka's indictment is carefully built, and it is the most coherent thing he says in the whole chapter. Three counts in ascending order: 不仁, want of fellow-feeling, for the two robbers on the mountain; ingratitude, for repaying the household that fed and saved them by killing its only son; and 傷了天地多少和氣, injury to the harmony of Heaven and Earth, for the rest. Confucian, then social, then cosmic. He has been thinking about this since the grave.
But the instrument is the fillet, and the fillet undercuts the argument. The spell was given to Guanyin as a means of control precisely because reason would not serve. Tripitaka recites it ten times and more while his disciple rolls on the ground, then delivers the moral charge to a man in too much pain to answer, then threatens the spell again to make him leave. The judgement may be right. The procedure is torture.
Wukong never disputes any of it. He asks one question — 怎的就趕我去耶, why drive me away — and then goes. He does not defend the killings, or plead his service, or repeat the counterfactual he used at the grave. The disciple who answered every moral demand in this chapter with a joke or a threat has nothing at all to say to the one that ends the arrangement.
說聲去，一路觔斗雲，無影無蹤，遂不見了. The novel gives his departure sixteen characters and not one adjective. He said the word and went. The mind-monkey has been set loose, which is what the chapter title promised in its second half, and the promise has taken some six thousand characters to keep.