奉承成功 She Gives Up The Fan
又見有金剛眾聖與天王父子,慌忙跪在地下,磕頭禮拜道:「望菩薩饒我夫妻之命,願將此扇奉承孫叔叔成功去也。」行者近前接了扇,同大眾共駕祥雲,徑回東路。又见有金刚众圣与天王父子,慌忙跪在地下,磕头礼拜道:「望菩萨饶我夫妻之命,愿将此扇奉承孙叔叔成功去也。」行者近前接了扇,同大众共驾祥云,径回东路。
逐句解 Line by line
Seeing the Vajras and the holy company and the Heavenly King with his son, she knelt in haste upon the ground, knocked her head and made obeisance, saying: "I beg the bodhisattvas to spare the lives of my husband and myself. I will offer up this fan for Uncle Sun to accomplish his work."
孫叔叔 is a startling way to address him. 叔叔 is a woman's word for her husband's younger brother, and the Rākṣasī uses it of the man who impersonated her husband in order to rob her. The sworn brotherhood the Great Sage traded on is being handed straight back to him, by her, at the moment she gives up the fan. 父子 takes the full zǐ.
Pilgrim came forward and took the fan, and with all the company rode the auspicious cloud straight back to the eastern road.
The third time in this chapter that the fan has passed into the Great Sage's hands. He was given it by a trick, had it taken off his shoulder, and now receives it publicly, from its owner, with the four Vajras and the Heavenly King looking on. Only the third transfer will hold.
孫叔叔 is the word that repays reading twice. 叔叔 is what a woman calls her husband's younger brother, and the Rākṣasī uses it of the man who wore her husband's face to rob her. The sworn brotherhood the Great Sage invoked when he first wanted the fan is handed back to him, by her, at the moment she gives it up.
What she asks for is both their lives, hers and her husband's, and she asks the assembled Vajras rather than the Great Sage. She has read the room correctly: the power in it is not his.
接了扇 is the third time the fan has come into his hands. The first was a trick and it was taken back off his shoulder within the hour; the second never really happened, because the thing he was given was a leaf. This one is handed over in daylight by its owner in front of the celestial establishment, and it is the one that holds.