Canonical Classics ← 第七十九回
第七十九回
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Seeking the Cave to Seize the Fiend He Meets the Old Man of Longevity · At Court the True Sovereign Rescues the Infants

就是教也
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

就是教也 That Is The Whole Teaching

sānzàngjiào:「shōushíwáng。」guówángyòuliúqiújiàoxíngzhědào:「xiàcóngshǎotānyīngōngduōfánbǎishìjiāngchángduǎnbìngyánniánjiùshìjiào。」sānzàngjiào:「shōushíwáng。」guówángyòuliúqiújiàoxíngzhědào:「xiàcóngshǎotānyīngōngduōfánbǎishìjiāngchángduǎnbìngyánniánjiùshìjiào。」


逐句解 Line by line

sānzàngjiào:「shōushíwáng。」 sānzàngjiào:「shōushíwáng。」

Tripitaka called, "Disciples, pack up and take leave of the king."

The pilgrims have been in this kingdom for two chapters and Tripitaka's first instruction on getting his face back is to leave. He has not enjoyed himself.

guówángyòuliúqiújiào guówángyòuliúqiújiào

The king pressed them hard to stay and begged for instruction.

苦留求教 — pressing them to stay and asking to be taught. Having been refused an elixir he now asks the monks for doctrine, which is the first sensible request he has made in the chapter.

xíngzhědào:「xiàcóngshǎotānyīngōngduōfánbǎishìjiāngchángduǎnbìngyánniánjiùshìjiào。」 xíngzhědào:「xiàcóngshǎotānyīngōngduōfánbǎishìjiāngchángduǎnbìngyánniánjiùshìjiào。」

Pilgrim said, "Your Majesty, from now on be less greedy for the pleasures of the flesh, build up more hidden merit, and in all things make up what is short from what is long. That is enough by itself to drive out sickness and lengthen your years, and it is the whole of the teaching."

is cháng, length — 將長補短, using the long to patch the short, is still ordinary Chinese for balancing things out. 陰功, hidden merit, is good done where nobody sees it and no credit accrues — the opposite of a shrine with four seasons of offerings, which is what the king tried to buy Tripitaka's heart with in the chapter's third passage.


總評 Commentary

This is Wukong's one piece of doctrine in the whole chapter and it is thirty-three characters of practical advice with nothing supernatural in it: want less, do more good quietly, balance your affairs. He offers no scripture and no technique.

It is also a precise reply to everything that has gone wrong here. The king's appetite let the demon in; his willingness to buy merit publicly is what made the shrine offer possible; and the medicine he wanted was a way of not balancing anything. Wukong answers the actual case.