掌中之賭 The Wager in the Palm
大聖道：「他雖年幼修長，也不應久占在此。常言道：『皇帝輪流做，明年到我家。』只教他搬出去，將天宮讓與我便罷了；若還不讓，定要攪攘，永不清平！」佛祖道：「你除了長生變化之法，再有何能，敢占天宮勝境？」大聖道：「我的手段多哩！我有七十二般變化，萬劫不老長生，會駕觔斗雲，一縱十萬八千里。如何坐不得天位？」佛祖道：「我與你打個賭賽：你若有本事，一觔斗打出我這右手掌中，算你贏，再不用動刀兵苦爭戰，就請玉帝到西方居住，把天宮讓你；若不能打出手掌，你還下界為妖，再修幾劫，卻來爭吵。」那大聖聞言，暗笑道：「這如來十分好獃！我老孫一觔斗去十萬八千里，他那手掌方圓不滿一尺，如何跳不出去？」急發聲道：「既如此說，你可做得主張？」佛祖道：「做得，做得！」伸開右手，卻似個荷葉大小。大圣道：「他虽年幼修长，也不应久占在此。常言道：『皇帝轮流做，明年到我家。』只教他搬出去，将天宫让与我便罢了；若还不让，定要搅攘，永不清平！」佛祖道：「你除了长生变化之法，再有何能，敢占天宫胜境？」大圣道：「我的手段多哩！我有七十二般变化，万劫不老长生，会驾觔斗云，一纵十万八千里。如何坐不得天位？」佛祖道：「我与你打个赌赛：你若有本事，一觔斗打出我这右手掌中，算你赢，再不用动刀兵苦争战，就请玉帝到西方居住，把天宫让你；若不能打出手掌，你还下界为妖，再修几劫，却来争吵。」那大圣闻言，暗笑道：「这如来十分好呆！我老孙一觔斗去十万八千里，他那手掌方圆不满一尺，如何跳不出去？」急发声道：「既如此说，你可做得主张？」佛祖道：「做得，做得！」伸开右手，却似个荷叶大小。
逐句解 Line by line
The Great Sage said: "Though he is young in years and long in cultivation, still he ought not to hold this place forever. As the saying goes, 'The throne is taken in turn — next year it comes to my house.' Just make him move out and yield the Palace of Heaven to me, and there's an end of it; but if he still won't yield, I'll surely make havoc, and there will never be peace!"
修長 keeps 長 as cháng, long. Then comes the line everybody quotes: 皇帝輪流做, 明年到我家 — the emperor's job goes round by turns, and next year it comes to my house. It is a real proverb, and he is using it the way a rebel always uses one, dressing raw ambition in the clothes of common sense. 只教 keeps 教 as jiào, to make or tell someone to; 將天宮 is 將 as jiāng again; 若還不讓 keeps 還 as hái, still.
The Buddha said: "Besides your arts of deathless life and transformation, what other power have you, that you dare seize the fair realm of Heaven's Palace?"
長生 keeps 長 as cháng. Watch how the Buddha narrows the ground: besides those two arts, what else have you got? He is inviting the monkey to list his powers, and the list is the material the trap will be built from.
The Great Sage said: "My skills are many! I have seventy-two transformations, life everlasting unaging through ten thousand kalpas, and I can ride the cloud-somersault — one bound, a hundred and eight thousand li. Why should I not sit upon the heavenly throne?"
哩 is li, a soft sound tacked onto the end of the sentence. 長生 keeps cháng. 觔斗雲 (jīn dǒu yún) is the cloud-somersault. 一縱 takes yí before zòng (falling tone). And there it is, said out loud: a hundred and eight thousand lǐ in a single jump. He has just handed over the exact figure a palm is about to make ridiculous.
The Buddha said: "Let me make a wager with you. If you have the skill to somersault clear of my right palm, I'll count you the winner: no more need of weapons or bitter war — I'll ask the Jade Emperor to go dwell in the West and yield the Palace of Heaven to you. But if you cannot leap free of my palm, then go back down to the world as a fiend, cultivate yourself a few more kalpas, and come quarrel again."
一觔斗 takes yì before 觔 (jīn, level tone). 右手掌中 keeps 中 as zhōng, within. 下界為妖 keeps 為 as wéi. The terms of the bet are absurdly generous — the throne of Heaven against a few more centuries of study — and the generosity is the bait. The hook is the monkey's own confidence.
The Great Sage, hearing this, laughed to himself: "This Tathāgata is a great fool! My one somersault goes a hundred and eight thousand li, and his palm is not a foot across — how could I fail to leap clear?"
好獃 (hǎo dāi) is a right fool. 一觔斗 takes yì, and so does 一尺 before 尺 (chǐ, dipping tone) — the unit stays chǐ, roughly a foot, in our readings rather than being converted. The private gloating is what makes the scene funny. He believes he is being handed the throne by an idiot.
Quickly he called out: "If you put it so, can you make good your word?" The Buddha said: "I can, I can!" — and spread open his right hand, which was about the size of a lotus leaf.
做得主張 is to be able to make the call and answer for it — can you actually deliver? 似 is sì, resembles. Then the detail the whole trap hangs on: the open hand is 荷葉大小, about the size of a lotus leaf. Big enough to see clearly, small enough to laugh at.
This is the famous wager, and the structural pivot of the whole Havoc-in-Heaven arc. The Buddha does not fight. He proposes a bet, baited precisely with the monkey's proudest power — the cloud-somersault that crosses 108,000 lǐ in one bound. Leap clear of my palm and the throne is yours; fail, and go back below to study a few more kalpas. The monkey looks at a hand the size of a lotus leaf, decides the Buddha is a fool, and accepts.
The comedy is exact, and cruel. The monkey reasons in distances: his jump is astronomically longer than the hand is wide, so losing is not a possibility he needs to consider. What he cannot grasp is that the palm is not a quantity at all. The wager stages, as physical farce, the limit of the 心猿 — a mind of boundless cleverness that still thinks entirely inside space and number, and so cannot see the order of being that contains it. His confidence (暗笑, the private smirk) is the thing that dooms him.
Note our house practice with the measure: 一尺 is given as yì chǐ rather than silently turned into an English foot, so that the texture of the original measure survives in the readings. The episode's logic is the chapter's whole thesis in miniature — raw capacity, however vast, is not wisdom, and cannot get outside it. As Plaks observes, the palm stands for the encompassing Absolute, the dharmadhātu, inside which every one of the monkey's transformations is a local event.