安天大會 The Assembly for Pacifying Heaven
又命四大天師、九天仙女,大開玉京金闕、太玄寶宮、洞陽玉館,請如來高座七寶靈臺,調設各班坐位,安排龍肝鳳髓、玉液蟠桃。不一時,那玉清元始天尊、上清靈寶天尊、太清道德天尊、五炁真君、五斗星君、三官四聖、九曜真君、左輔右弼、天王、哪吒、玄虛一應靈通,對對旌旗,雙雙幡蓋,都捧著明珠異寶、壽果奇花,向佛前拜獻曰:「感如來無量法力,收伏妖猴。蒙大天尊設宴呼喚,我等皆來陳謝。請如來將此會立一名,如何?」如來領眾神之託,曰:「今欲立名,可作個『安天大會』。」各仙老異口同聲,俱道:「好個『安天大會』!好個『安天大會』!」言訖,各坐座位,走斝傳觴,簪花鼓瑟,果好會也。有詩為證。詩曰:又命四大天师、九天仙女,大开玉京金阙、太玄宝宫、洞阳玉馆,请如来高座七宝灵台,调设各班坐位,安排龙肝凤髓、玉液蟠桃。不一时,那玉清元始天尊、上清灵宝天尊、太清道德天尊、五炁真君、五斗星君、三官四圣、九曜真君、左辅右弼、天王、哪咤、玄虚一应灵通,对对旌旗,双双幡盖,都捧着明珠异宝、寿果奇花,向佛前拜献曰:「感如来无量法力,收伏妖猴。蒙大天尊设宴呼唤,我等皆来陈谢。请如来将此会立一名,如何?」如来领众神之托,曰:「今欲立名,可作个『安天大会』。」各仙老异口同声,俱道:「好个『安天大会』!好个『安天大会』!」言讫,各坐座位,走斝传觞,簪花鼓瑟,果好会也。有诗为证。诗曰:
逐句解 Line by line
He further ordered the Four Heavenly Masters and the Nine-Heaven Immortal Maidens to throw open the Jade-Capital Golden Towers, the Grand-Mystery Treasure Palace, and the Cavern-Yang Jade Lodge; to invite the Tathāgata to the high seat on the Seven-Jewel Numinous Dais; to arrange the seating of each rank; and to lay out dragon-liver and phoenix-marrow, jade nectar and immortal peaches.
調設 keeps 調 as tiáo, to arrange, not diào, to transfer. 龍肝鳳髓 (lóng gān fèng suǐ), dragon liver and phoenix marrow, is the proverbial food of the gods and still the Chinese for a delicacy beyond getting. The menu arrives before the guests do, which tells you the scale.
In no time at all, the Primal-Origin Honored One of Jade Purity, the Numinous-Treasure Honored One of Upper Purity, the Way-and-Virtue Honored One of Grand Purity, the Five-Vapor True Lords, the Five-Dipper Star Lords, the Three Officials and Four Sages, the Nine-Luminary True Lords, the Left-Aide and Right-Assistant, the Heavenly Kings, Nezha, and every numinous power of the Mystic Void — rank on rank of banners, pair on pair of canopies — all came bearing bright pearls and rare treasures, longevity-fruits and wondrous flowers, and offered them in homage before the Buddha, saying:
不一時 takes yì before shí (rising tone). 玉清, 上清 and 太清 are the Three Pure Ones, the highest Daoist gods. 五炁 uses 炁, an old way of writing qì, primal breath — a different character to mark it as the prior, unmixed kind. 一應 takes yì before yīng (level tone), with 應 as yīng. 都捧著 keeps 著 as zhe: every one of them holding a gift up as they come.
"We are grateful to the Tathāgata's boundless Dharma-power for subduing the fiendish monkey. At the Great Heavenly Honored One's bidding to this banquet, we have all come to give thanks. We beg the Tathāgata to give this gathering a name — what shall it be?"
收伏 keeps 伏 as fú, subdue. 將此會 is 將 as jiāng; 立一名 takes yì before míng (rising tone). Watch who gets asked to name the banquet. Not the Jade Emperor, in whose house it is being held. The honour is passed quietly across the table.
The Tathāgata accepted the gods' charge and said: "If a name is wanted, let it be called the 'Assembly for Pacifying Heaven.'" The assembled immortals cried with one voice: "A fine 'Assembly for Pacifying Heaven'! A fine 'Assembly for Pacifying Heaven'!" When this was said, each took his seat; goblets passed and wine-cups went round, flowers were pinned and zithers struck — truly a fine assembly. There is a poem to prove it. The poem says:
安天大會, the Assembly for Pacifying Heaven, names the feast and sums up the chapter: Heaven has been settled down again, and one monkey under a mountain is what did it. 走斝傳觴 (zǒu jiǎ chuán shāng) is cups going round and wine passed along — the stock phrase for a grand party. The lead-in 詩曰 closes the prose.
The Peach Banquet was set, and the monkey threw it into chaos; the Assembly for Pacifying Heaven surpasses the Peach Banquet itself.
The first line measures this banquet against the 蟠桃會, the Peach Banquet the monkey wrecked in chapter 5, and says flatly that this one is better. That is a claim, not flattery. Order put back after it has been broken is worth more than order that was never tested, and the 安天大會 earns its rank precisely by coming after the catastrophe.
Dragon-banners and phoenix-carriages, auspicious light aglow; jeweled standards and pennoned flags, propitious vapors adrift.
鸞輅 (luán lù) is the phoenix state-carriage; 幢幡 (chuáng fān) are the ceremonial banners hung at a rite. 祥光 keeps 祥 as xiáng, auspicious. Light, banners, drifting vapours: set the couplet beside the smoke and fire of the chapter's first half and the contrast is the point.
Immortal music and mystic song, the tones and rhymes so fair; phoenix pan-pipes and jade flutes, their sound ringing high.
仙樂 keeps 樂 as yuè, music. Listen to what the chapter has done to its own soundtrack: 金鞭鐵棒, golden whip against iron cudgel, has become 鳳簫玉管, phoenix pipes and jade flutes. Clangour resolved into music inside a few pages.
Jasper incense curling, the host of immortals gathered; the universe at peace, they hail the holy court.
宇宙清平, the universe clear and at peace, states plainly what the binding achieved. 賀聖朝 keeps 朝 as cháo, the court or reigning house, not zhāo, morning. The poem ends on order affirmed — the exact reverse of the opening lyric, where rule and precept were thrown into chaos.
The banquet is named the 安天大會, the Assembly for Pacifying Heaven — and the Buddha, not the Jade Emperor, is asked to name it. The detail matters: it is Buddhist authority that confers the meaning on a Daoist celebration. The feast gathers the whole Three-Pure-Ones pantheon, who arrive bearing tribute and set it down before the Buddha, the entire Daoist cosmos arranged in homage around the Buddhist rescuer.
The banquet-poem's first line is its key: 安天大會勝蟠桃 — this assembly surpasses the Peach Banquet the monkey destroyed two chapters earlier. The claim is structural rather than merely polite. The wrecked 蟠桃會 and the triumphant 安天大會 are deliberate mirror images, disorder and its repair, and the novel insists that order recovered after catastrophe is worth more than order never tested. That principle will govern the entire pilgrimage, in which the monkey's wildness is not erased but put to work.
The passage runs on inversion of the senses. The chapter's first half was fire, smoke, thunder, the clash of cudgel and whip; its close is incense, jewelled light, phoenix-flutes and jade-pipes, the universe at peace (宇宙清平). The discord of the rebellious 心猿 resolves, literally, into music. In the 易經 and inner-alchemical frame the novel keeps up throughout, this is the harmony that follows when a wild agent is put back in its place inside the pattern — the 定 of the chapter title, made audible.