三升俸糧 Three Sheng Of Stipend Grain
三藏道：「貧僧素手進拜，怎麼敢勞賜齋？」道士笑云：「你我都是出家人，見山門就有三升俸糧，何言素手？敢問老師父，在何寶山？到此何幹？」三藏道：「贫僧素手进拜，怎么敢劳赐斋？」道士笑云：「你我都是出家人，见山门就有三升俸粮，何言素手？敢问老师父，在何宝山？到此何干？」
逐句解 Line by line
"This poor monk has come to call empty-handed," said Tripitaka. "How should I presume to trouble you for a meal?"
素手 is bare hands — arriving without a gift, which in Chinese social practice is a real embarrassment. The character 素 also means plain or meatless, as in 素齋 a line ago, so the phrase quietly rhymes with the vegetarian food being offered. He is being modest about turning up with nothing.
The Daoist smiled. "You and I are both of us men who have left the household. Wherever we see a temple gate there are three shēng of stipend grain waiting. Why speak of empty hands?"
A lovely piece of professional solidarity, and completely sincere in form. 出家人 — one who has left the household — covers Buddhist and Daoist clergy alike, which is the argument Eight Rules made at the gate. The 三升俸糧 is a proverbial entitlement: a 升 is a dry measure of about a litre, and the sense is that any religious house owes any travelling religious a meal. He is telling his guest that hospitality is not a favour but a right.
"May I ask, venerable master — from what precious mountain? And on what business here?"
And there is the question the whole plan turns on. 寶山, precious mountain, is the polite way of asking where a monk's house is, the way English asks what parish. It is impeccable manners. It is also the one piece of information that decides whether four men live or die, and he has buried it at the end of a compliment.
This is the trap, and it is made entirely of good manners. He puts his guest at ease by insisting the meal is owed rather than given, and then — while the guest is grateful and relaxed — asks him politely where he is from.
The argument he uses to do it is the same one Eight Rules made outside the gate: we are in the same trade, the robes differ and the practice is one. It was true then and it is true now. What has changed is that a man who agrees with it is using it as an anaesthetic.
And Tripitaka's reply is going to be complete, accurate and fatal. He has no reason to lie, no reason to suspect, and every reason to answer a courteous question courteously. That is the whole of his character and it is about to cost him everything.