原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
玉真觀大仙
The Great Immortal of Jade-Truth Abbey
那菩薩到山腳下，有玉真觀金頂大仙在觀門首接住，請菩薩獻茶。菩薩不敢久停，曰：「今領如來法旨，上東土尋取經人去。」大仙道：「取經人幾時方到？」菩薩道：「未定，約摸二三年間，或可至此。」遂辭了大仙，半雲半霧，約記程途。有詩為證。詩曰：那菩萨到山脚下，有玉真观金顶大仙在观门首接住，请菩萨献茶。菩萨不敢久停，曰：「今领如来法旨，上东土寻取经人去。」大仙道：「取经人几时方到？」菩萨道：「未定，约摸二三年间，或可至此。」遂辞了大仙，半云半雾，约记程途。有诗为证。诗曰：
萬里相尋自不言，万里相寻自不言，
卻云誰得意難全。却云谁得意难全。
求人忽若渾如此，求人忽若浑如此，
是我平生豈偶然。是我平生岂偶然。
傳道有方成妄說，传道有方成妄说，
說明無信也虛傳。说明无信也虚传。
願傾肝膽尋相識，愿倾肝胆寻相识，
料想前頭必有緣。料想前头必有缘。
逐句解 Line by line
那菩薩到山腳下，有玉真觀金頂大仙在觀門首接住，請菩薩獻茶。
那菩萨到山脚下，有玉真观金顶大仙在观门首接住，请菩萨献茶。
When the Bodhisattva reached the foot of the mountain, the Golden-Crowned Great Immortal of the Jade-Truth Abbey met her at the abbey gate and invited her to take tea.
玉真觀 (Jade-Truth Abbey) and its 金頂大仙 are Daoist; the Immortal will reappear in the novel's final chapters to guide Tripiṭaka up Vulture Peak.
菩薩不敢久停，曰：
菩萨不敢久停，曰：
The Bodhisattva, not daring to linger, said:
「今領如來法旨，上東土尋取經人去。」
「今领如来法旨，上东土寻取经人去。」
“I now bear the Tathāgata's command, to go up to the Eastern Land and seek out a scripture-pilgrim.”
大仙道：「取經人幾時方到？」
大仙道：「取经人几时方到？」
The Great Immortal said: “When will the scripture-pilgrim arrive?”
菩薩道：「未定，約摸二三年間，或可至此。」
菩萨道：「未定，约摸二三年间，或可至此。」
The Bodhisattva said: “It is not fixed; reckoning roughly, in two or three years he may reach this place.”
The two-or-three-year estimate is one of the novel's gentle ironies: the pilgrimage will in fact take fourteen.
遂辭了大仙，半雲半霧，約記程途。有詩為證。詩曰：
遂辞了大仙，半云半雾，约记程途。有诗为证。诗曰：
Then she took her leave of the Great Immortal and, half by cloud and half by mist, noted the stages of the road. There is a poem to attest it. The poem says:
為證 — “as proof”; 為 is read wèi. 詩曰 introduces the eight-line regulated poem.
萬里相尋自不言，
万里相寻自不言，
Ten thousand li I journey to seek, yet speak not of it,
An enigmatic regulated poem on the search for the destined seeker. 相尋 — to seek out; 相 is read xiāng.
卻云誰得意難全。
却云谁得意难全。
yet they say: whose heart's desire is ever wholly met?
求人忽若渾如此，
求人忽若浑如此，
If the seeking of another be all at once like this,
是我平生豈偶然。
是我平生岂偶然。
then is the whole course of my life a thing of mere chance?
傳道有方成妄說，
传道有方成妄说，
To preach the Way by mere method becomes idle talk;
傳 here is chuán (to transmit).
說明無信也虛傳。
说明无信也虚传。
to expound it plainly, yet without faith, is but empty transmission.
虛傳 — a transmission in vain; 傳 again chuán.
願傾肝膽尋相識，
愿倾肝胆寻相识，
I would pour out heart and liver to find a kindred mind,
相識 — an acquaintance, a kindred soul; 相 is xiāng.
料想前頭必有緣。
料想前头必有缘。
and reckon that ahead there must surely be a karmic bond.
緣 — the predestined affinity that will bind Guanyin to the pilgrim she seeks.
總評 Commentary
Guanyin's first earthly encounter is with a Daoist immortal — a small but telling detail in a Buddhist mission. The exchange is brief and courteous, and supplies the chapter's only timetable: the pilgrim is two or three years off (the novel will quietly overrun this by more than a decade).
The attached regulated poem is one of the novel's deliberately obscure verses, a meditation on the difficulty of finding the right person and on the karmic affinity (緣) that alone makes such a meeting possible. Its paradoxes about preaching — method without faith is “empty transmission” — quietly restate the chapter's anxiety that the scriptures will be wasted on the unworthy.
Following Anthony C. Yu, the verse's final turn toward 緣 is the point: Guanyin's search is not random but providential, and the bond she trusts will be found “ahead” is the very thread the whole novel follows. Plaks reads such interludes as the narrative quietly theorizing its own design.