陽春白雪 Bright Spring Snow
長老聽了，讚嘆不已道：「真是陽春白雪，浩氣沖霄，弟子不才，敢再起兩句。」孤直公道：「聖僧乃有道之士，大養之人也。不必再相聯句，請賜教全篇，庶我等亦好勉強而和。」长老听了，赞叹不已道：「真是阳春白雪，浩气冲霄，弟子不才，敢再起两句。」孤直公道：「圣僧乃有道之士，大养之人也。不必再相联句，请赐教全篇，庶我等亦好勉强而和。」
逐句解 Line by line
The elder heard them out and could not stop praising them: "This is truly Bright Spring and White Snow, a great breath rising to the clouds. Your disciple has no talent, but ventures to start two more lines."
陽春白雪, Bright Spring and White Snow, was a piece of music so refined that almost nobody in the audience could sing along with it, and the name has stood ever since for art beyond the reach of the crowd. As a compliment it is warm; it is also, unavoidably, a statement about who is qualified to join in.
The Duke of Lonely Uprightness said, "The holy monk is a man possessed of the Way, a man of great cultivation.
The refusal is dressed as a promotion: you are too good to go on trading single lines with us.
"There is no need to go on linking lines with us. Be pleased to grant us a whole piece, so that we too may make shift to answer it."
和 is hè, the technical verb for answering a poem with a poem in the same rhyme — not the hé of harmony, which the automatic reading gives at all nine sites in this chapter. 強 is qiǎng in 勉強, to manage something with effort.
The elders change the game. Linked verse is collaborative and its lines can be short; a whole formal poem is a performance, and answering poems in the same rhyme is a contest. They have moved Tripitaka from playing along to being the subject.
The flattery is precisely calculated. He is too accomplished to trade single lines; would he grant them a complete piece, so that they may make shift to answer it? Every clause concedes his superiority and every clause obliges him to go on. He has already tried to withdraw once this evening and been refused; he does not try again.