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

出榜招醫
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

出榜招醫 A Proclamation Calling For Physicians

guówángwényándào:「guǎrénjiǔbìngcéngdēngjīnshàng殿diànchūbǎngzhāojiùyǒugāosēngláiguó。」chuánzhǐxuānzhìjiēxiàguówángwényándào:「guǎrénjiǔbìngcéngdēngjīnshàng殿diànchūbǎngzhāojiùyǒugāosēngláiguó。」chuánzhǐxuānzhìjiēxià


逐句解 Line by line

guówángwényándào:「guǎrénjiǔbìngcéngdēng guówángwényándào:「guǎrénjiǔbìngcéngdēng

The king, hearing this, said with pleasure, "I have been long sick and have not sat upon the throne.

寡人 — the solitary one — is the humble way a ruler refers to himself, and its literal sense is doing more work here than usual.

jīnshàng殿diànchūbǎngzhāojiùyǒugāosēngláiguó。」 jīnshàng殿diànchūbǎngzhāojiùyǒugāosēngláiguó。」

"Today I come up to the hall to publish a notice calling for physicians, and at once an eminent monk arrives in my kingdom."

招醫, to summon a physician, is the first appearance in the chapter of the business that will occupy the whole rest of it.

chuánzhǐxuānzhìjiēxià chuánzhǐxuānzhìjiēxià

He gave order at once that the monk be summoned to the foot of the steps.

傳旨 is to pass down a decree — the machinery by which a king's spoken wish becomes an instruction somebody has to carry out.


總評 Commentary

The king's pleasure is not at the monk but at the timing. He has been ill so long that he stopped holding court; on the one day he rouses himself to ask for help, help walks in at the gate. He reads it as an omen, and he is not wrong to.

What he does not say — and what the reader knows and Tripitaka does not — is that the notice and the visitor have nothing whatever to do with each other. The pilgrims came about a document.

Three sentences, and the audience is granted before Tripitaka has said a word.