沙悟淨皈依 Sha Wujing Takes Refuge
那怪道：「我願皈正果。」又向前道：「菩薩，我在此間吃人無數，向來有幾次取經人來，都被我吃了。凡吃的人頭，拋落流沙，竟沉水底。這個水，鵝毛也不能浮。惟有九個取經人的骷髏浮在水面，再不能沉。我以為異物，將索兒穿在一處，閑時拿來頑耍。這去，但恐取經人不得到此，卻不是反誤了我的前程也？」菩薩曰：「豈有不到之理？你可將骷髏兒掛在頭項下，等候取經人，自有用處。」怪物道：「既然如此，願領教誨。」菩薩方與他摩頂受戒，指沙為姓，就姓了沙；起個法名，叫做個沙悟淨。當時入了沙門，送菩薩過了河，他洗心滌慮，再不傷生，專等取經人。那怪道：「我愿皈正果。」又向前道：「菩萨，我在此间吃人无数，向来有几次取经人来，都被我吃了。凡吃的人头，抛落流沙，竟沉水底。这个水，鹅毛也不能浮。惟有九个取经人的骷髅浮在水面，再不能沉。我以为异物，将索儿穿在一处，闲时拿来顽耍。这去，但恐取经人不得到此，却不是反误了我的前程也？」菩萨曰：「岂有不到之理？你可将骷髅儿挂在头项下，等候取经人，自有用处。」怪物道：「既然如此，愿领教诲。」菩萨方与他摩顶受戒，指沙为姓，就姓了沙；起个法名，叫做个沙悟净。当时入了沙门，送菩萨过了河，他洗心涤虑，再不伤生，专等取经人。
逐句解 Line by line
The monster said: "I am willing to take refuge in the right fruit."
Five characters, and the conversion is done. 那 is nà. The novel has spent far longer describing his face than it spends on his submission.
And he came forward, saying: "Bodhisattva, here I have eaten men beyond count; whenever scripture-pilgrims came this way, I devoured them all.
He volunteers, unprompted, that earlier scripture-pilgrims came this way and were eaten — which quietly makes his conversion the salvage of a route as much as of a soul. 間 is jiān, 數 is shù, 都 is dōu.
The heads of all I ate I cast into the flowing sands, and they sank straight to the bottom.
的 is the light linking de and 落 is luò. Everything he threw in went to the bottom — which is what makes the exception in the next line worth noticing.
In this water even a goose-feather will not float.
In 不能 the 不 keeps bù before the rising tone of 能.
Only the skulls of nine scripture-pilgrims float upon the surface and will not sink again.
Nine skulls that will not sink in water where a feather sinks. They are the remains of Tripiṭaka's own earlier incarnations, and they will later be strung into the raft that ferries the pilgrims over this very river.
Taking them for wondrous things, I strung them on a cord all together, and in idle hours brought them out to play with.
以為 is to take something for, 為 read wéi. 將 is the disposal jiāng, and 一處 takes yí. He has been using the skulls of holy men as a toy, and says so without embarrassment.
But now I fear the scripture-pilgrim may not reach here — would that not, on the contrary, ruin my own prospects?"
In 不得 the 不 keeps bù before the rising tone of 得; in 不是 it takes bú before the falling tone of 是.
The Bodhisattva said: "How could there be a reason for him not to come?
In 不到 the 不 takes bú before the falling tone of 到.
You may hang the skulls about your neck and await the scripture-pilgrim; they will have their use."
將 is the disposal jiāng. The instruction is to keep the evidence of his crimes and wear it round his neck.
The monster said: "If it be so, I will gladly receive your instruction."
教 is jiào, instruction. 領教誨 is accepting teaching rather than merely taking orders — the distinction the bodhisattva has been pressing since she named his crimes.
The Bodhisattva then laid her hand on his crown and gave him the precepts, taking "sand" for his surname; so he was named Sha, and given the religious name Sha Wujing.
指沙為姓 — she points at the sand and that is his surname, 為 read wéi. 沙悟淨 is Sand, Awakened to Purity, third in seniority of the three 悟 disciples.
Then and there he entered the gate of the Saṅgha, saw the Bodhisattva across the river, washed his heart and cleansed his thoughts, harmed life no more, and waited single-mindedly for the scripture-pilgrim.
The pun lands here. He has just been given the surname 沙, Sha, meaning sand, and now he enters the 沙門 — the Chinese for śramaṇa, the order of renouncers, where the first character is there for the sound and not the sand. The cannibal of the sandbank becomes a monk of the sand-gate. 洗心滌慮, washing the heart and rinsing the thoughts, is what conversion looks like from the inside.
He accepts, and the conversion turns on one gruesome detail. The nine skulls he has been playing with are the remains of scripture-pilgrims he ate — and, as the novel discloses much later, the bones of Tripiṭaka's own former lives. Guanyin tells him to keep them. They will become the raft that carries the pilgrims across the weak water.
This is the chapter's most striking piece of design: the crimes of the unconverted are turned into the instruments of salvation. The skulls that record his savagery are repurposed as the means of crossing, so that nothing in the fallen world is finally wasted, not even its wreckage.
The naming completes the second recruitment — 沙悟淨, Sand, Awakened to Purity, joining the 悟 generation. Yu points to the pun on 沙門, the śramaṇa order, as the seal on the transformation: the cannibal of the sands becomes a monk of the sand-gate, his ferocity disciplined into the patient waiting that will define him for the rest of the journey.