第七十八回 · 可能不死 Can A Monk Live Without Dying — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

可能不死 Can A Monk Live Without Dying

國guó丈zhàng笑xiào道dào：「西xī方fāng之zhī路lù，黑hēi漫màn漫màn有yǒu甚shén好hǎo處chù？」三sān藏zàng道dào：「自zì古gǔ西xī方fāng乃nǎi極jí樂lè之zhī勝shèng境jìng，如rú何hé不bù好hǎo？」那nà國guó王wáng問wèn道dào：「朕zhèn聞wén上shàng古gǔ有yǒu云yún：『僧sēng是shì佛fó家jiā弟dì子zǐ。』端duān的dì不bù知zhī為wéi僧sēng可kě能néng不bù死sǐ，向xiàng佛fó可kě能néng長cháng生shēng？」国guó丈zhàng笑xiào道dào：「西xī方fāng之zhī路lù，黑hēi漫màn漫màn有yǒu甚shén好hǎo处chù？」三sān藏zàng道dào：「自zì古gǔ西xī方fāng乃nǎi极jí乐lè之zhī胜shèng境jìng，如rú何hé不bù好hǎo？」那nà国guó王wáng问wèn道dào：「朕zhèn闻wén上shàng古gǔ有yǒu云yún：『僧sēng是shì佛fó家jiā弟dì子zǐ。』端duān的dì不bù知zhī为wéi僧sēng可kě能néng不bù死sǐ，向xiàng佛fó可kě能néng长cháng生shēng？」

逐句解 Line by line

國guó丈zhàng笑xiào道dào：「西xī方fāng之zhī路lù，黑hēi漫màn漫màn有yǒu甚shén好hǎo處chù？」国guó丈zhàng笑xiào道dào：「西xī方fāng之zhī路lù，黑hēi漫màn漫màn有yǒu甚shén好hǎo处chù？」

The Royal Father-in-Law said with a laugh, "The road to the west is black and endless — what good is there in it?"

甚 is shén here, the questioning "what," not the shèn that means very. 黑漫漫 — pitch dark and going on for ever. The sneer is aimed at the whole journey.

三sān藏zàng道dào：「自zì古gǔ西xī方fāng乃nǎi極jí樂lè之zhī勝shèng境jìng，如rú何hé不bù好hǎo？」三sān藏zàng道dào：「自zì古gǔ西xī方fāng乃nǎi极jí乐lè之zhī胜shèng境jìng，如rú何hé不bù好hǎo？」

Tripitaka said, "From of old the west has been the excellent land of Utmost Bliss — how should it not be good?"

極樂 jí lè is Sukhavati, the Pure Land of the Buddha Amitabha — literally utmost joy, and the paradise most Chinese Buddhists actually hoped to be reborn into. Tripitaka answers a sneer with a place name.

那nà國guó王wáng問wèn道dào：「朕zhèn聞wén上shàng古gǔ有yǒu云yún：『僧sēng是shì佛fó家jiā弟dì子zǐ。』那nà国guó王wáng问wèn道dào：「朕zhèn闻wén上shàng古gǔ有yǒu云yún：『僧sēng是shì佛fó家jiā弟dì子zǐ。』

The king asked, "I have heard it said from high antiquity that monks are disciples of the Buddha's house.

The king, unlike his father-in-law, is asking a real question. He is also asking it as a dying man of the only holy person in the room who is not already selling him something.

端duān的dì不bù知zhī為wéi僧sēng可kě能néng不bù死sǐ，向xiàng佛fó可kě能néng長cháng生shēng？」端duān的dì不bù知zhī为wéi僧sēng可kě能néng不bù死sǐ，向xiàng佛fó可kě能néng长cháng生shēng？」

"What I truly do not know is this: can one who becomes a monk avoid dying? Can one who turns to the Buddha live long?"

The question the whole chapter has been built to ask, and it comes from the king. 端的 takes 的 at dì — truly, exactly — not the light de that links a modifier to its noun. 為 is wéi, the copular one: to BE a monk. And 長 is cháng, long — one of the eight places in this chapter where the character is not the zhǎng of seniority.

總評 Commentary

The king asks whether religion can stop him dying. It is the question he has been asking for three years, it is the question that has put eleven hundred and eleven children in baskets, and it is the first time in the chapter that anyone has put it plainly.

He is asking the wrong man in one sense and exactly the right one in another. Tripitaka cannot extend anybody's life. What he can do — and is about to spend sixteen lines doing — is explain why the question is the wrong question.

Notice also that the king is being courteous and curious, and that his father-in-law has just been neither. The novel keeps giving this king small decencies. He is not the villain of the chapter and it will not let the reader forget it.