Canonical Classics ← 第八回
第八回
我wǒ佛fó造zào經jīng傳chuán極jí樂lè
觀guān音yīn奉fèng旨zhǐ上shàng長cháng安ān

The Buddha Creates the Sutra, Preaching the Ultimate Bliss · Guanyin Receives the Edict and Proceeds to Chang'an

人心一念
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script 繁
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

人心一念 A Single Thought

大dà聖shèng道dào：「我wǒ已yǐ知zhī悔huǐ了le，但dàn願yuàn大dà慈cí悲bēi指zhǐ條tiáo門mén路lù，情qíng願yuàn修xiū行xíng。」這zhè才cái是shì：大dà圣shèng道dào：「我wǒ已yǐ知zhī悔huǐ了le，但dàn愿yuàn大dà慈cí悲bēi指zhǐ条tiáo门mén路lù，情qíng愿yuàn修xiū行xíng。」这zhè才cái是shì：

人rén心xīn生shēng一yí念niàn，人rén心xīn生shēng一yí念niàn，
天tiān地dì盡jìn皆jiē知zhī。天tiān地dì尽jìn皆jiē知zhī。
善shàn惡è若ruò無wú報bào，善shàn恶è若ruò无wú报bào，
乾qián坤kūn必bì有yǒu私sī。干qián坤kūn必bì有yǒu私sī。

逐句解 Line by line

大dà聖shèng道dào：「我wǒ已yǐ知zhī悔huǐ了le，但dàn願yuàn大dà慈cí悲bēi指zhǐ條tiáo門mén路lù，情qíng願yuàn修xiū行xíng。」這zhè才cái是shì： 大dà圣shèng道dào：「我wǒ已yǐ知zhī悔huǐ了le，但dàn愿yuàn大dà慈cí悲bēi指zhǐ条tiáo门mén路lù，情qíng愿yuàn修xiū行xíng。」这zhè才cái是shì：

The Great Sage said: "I already know repentance; I only beg the greatly merciful one to point me a path, and I will gladly cultivate myself." This was indeed a case of:

這才是, now this is a case of, is the cue for the closing verse.

人rén心xīn生shēng一yí念niàn， 人rén心xīn生shēng一yí念niàn，

Let the human heart give rise to a single thought,

一念 is one thought, a single movement of the mind; the 一 takes yí before the falling tone of 念.

天tiān地dì盡jìn皆jiē知zhī。 天tiān地dì尽jìn皆jiē知zhī。

and Heaven and Earth will know it through and through.

The claim is about jurisdiction. One thought and heaven and earth already know — there is no window in which an intention stays private.

善shàn惡è若ruò無wú報bào， 善shàn恶è若ruò无wú报bào，

If good and evil met with no requital,

The if-clause is a set-up, and the next line knocks it down. 善惡 puts them in the order the maxim needs, good first.

乾qián坤kūn必bì有yǒu私sī。 干qián坤kūn必bì有yǒu私sī。

then the cosmos itself must harbor partiality.

乾 is qián in 乾坤, the trigram, not the gān that means dry. The line finishes the argument by making the alternative absurd: if good and evil went unpaid, the universe would be playing favourites — and it does not.

總評 Commentary

The monkey gives way. His line — 我已知悔了, I know repentance now — is the hinge of his whole arc, the moment defiance turns into a request for directions. The narration marks the weight of it with four lines on how transparent the universe is to a change of mind.

The verse is one of the novel's plainest statements of its moral physics: one thought of the heart is registered instantly by heaven and earth, and good and evil must be paid out, or the cosmos would be crooked. Yu notes how the lines take a private turn and make it a public law — the repentance is logged the moment it happens, and the redemption follows from that.

Plaks reads this as the true climax of the chapter's spiritual argument. Everything since the opening lyric has been bending toward it: the unruly xīnyuán, the mind-monkey,, having exhausted rebellion, at last forms the one right intention, and the machinery of salvation — pilgrim, head-band and journey — can be started up to meet him.