Canonical Classics ← 第六十八回
第六十八回
zhūguótángsēnglùnqiánshì
sūnxíngzhěshīwéisānzhégōng

At Purpuria the Tang Monk Discourses on a Former Life · Pilgrim Sun Practises as a Thrice-Broken Arm

安邦立國
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

安邦立國 A Minister Who Steadies The Realm

guówángwényánzuòshēnyínzhīshēngwèndào:「shīxiánchénshìbāngláizhě?」sānzàngdào:「jiùshìwángjiàqiánchéngxiàngxìngwèimíngzhēngshítiānwénzhībiànyīnyángnǎiānbāngguózhīzǎiguówángwényánzuòshēnyínzhīshēngwèndào:「shīxiánchénshìbāngláizhě?」sānzàngdào:「jiùshìwángjiàqiánchéngxiàngxìngwèimíngzhēngshítiānwénzhībiànyīnyángnǎiānbāngguózhīzǎi


逐句解 Line by line

guówángwényánzuòshēnyínzhīshēngwèndào:「shīxiánchénshìbāngláizhě?」 guówángwényánzuòshēnyínzhīshēngwèndào:「shīxiánchénshìbāngláizhě?」

The king, hearing this, of a sudden let out a groan, and asked, "Master, from what country did that worthy minister come?"

Two instances of sit a few characters apart and read alike as : the first points at the minister already named in the verse, the second at a state not yet identified.

sānzàngdào:「jiùshìwángjiàqiánchéngxiàngxìngwèimíngzhēng sānzàngdào:「jiùshìwángjiàqiánchéngxiàngxìngwèimíngzhēng

Tripitaka said, "He is none other than the chancellor before my sovereign's throne, surnamed Wei and named Zheng.

is xiàng in 丞相, a chancellor — one of only four sites in the chapter to take that reading, against nine of the xiāng of mutuality. The verse called him only 賢臣, a worthy officer, twice over. Here at last he is given a name.

shítiānwénzhībiànyīnyángnǎiānbāngguózhīzǎi shítiānwénzhībiànyīnyángnǎiānbāngguózhīzǎi

"He reads the signs of heaven and knows the lie of the earth, and can tell the dark from the bright; he is a great chief counsellor by whom a realm is steadied and a state established."

Three four-character clauses in a row, then a long one — the same shape as the rhapsody just finished, carried over into prose now that the verse has stopped.


總評 Commentary

The groan is the first sound the king makes in this chapter that is not speech, and it comes before the question rather than after it. He has heard about an emperor who died and came back, and something in him gives way.

The name arrives only now. The rhapsody withheld it for a hundred and ninety-one characters, calling the man a worthy minister twice and nothing more, and it takes the king's question to draw it out.

Tripitaka describes a man who can read the sky, the ground, and the dark and the bright — which is to say a man who can see across the boundary the king is interested in. The praise is professional, and to a sick monarch it must sound like a job description.