大聖認菩薩 The Great Sage Knows the Bodhisattva
師徒們正說話處，早驚動了那大聖。大聖在山根下高叫道：「是那個在山上吟詩，揭我的短哩？」菩薩聞言，徑下山來尋看。只見那石崖之下，有土地、山神、監押大聖的天將，都來拜接了菩薩，引至那大聖面前。看時，他原來壓於石匣之中，口能言，身不能動。菩薩道：「姓孫的，你認得我麼？」大聖睜開火眼金睛，點著頭兒高叫道：「我怎麼不認得你，你好的是那南海普陀落伽山救苦救難大慈大悲南無觀世音菩薩。承看顧，承看顧。我在此度日如年，更無一個相知的來看我一看。你從那裡來也？」师徒们正说话处，早惊动了那大圣。大圣在山根下高叫道：「是那个在山上吟诗，揭我的短哩？」菩萨闻言，径下山来寻看。只见那石崖之下，有土地、山神、监押大圣的天将，都来拜接了菩萨，引至那大圣面前。看时，他原来压于石匣之中，口能言，身不能动。菩萨道：「姓孙的，你认得我么？」大圣睁开火眼金睛，点着头儿高叫道：「我怎么不认得你，你好的是那南海普陀落伽山救苦救难大慈大悲南无观世音菩萨。承看顾，承看顾。我在此度日如年，更无一个相知的来看我一看。你从那里来也？」
逐句解 Line by line
As mistress and disciple were speaking, they had already startled the Great Sage.
處 is chù, 了 the light le, 那 the pointing nà. He hears them before he sees them — and he has had nothing to hear for five hundred years.
The Great Sage cried out from the foot of the mountain: "Who is that chanting verse up on the mountain, laying bare my shame?"
那個 is the question word here, who, with 那 read nǎ. 揭我的短 is lifting the lid on somebody's weak spot; 揭短 is still exactly what Chinese says today for bringing up the thing a person would rather not hear about. His first words in five centuries are a complaint about the reviews.
The Bodhisattva, hearing this, came straight down the mountain to seek him out.
看 is kàn. 徑下山來 is straight down the mountain — the same brisk word that took her straight down from the Spirit Mountain earlier in the chapter.
She saw beneath the stone cliff the local god, the mountain spirit, and the heavenly generals guarding the Great Sage all come to bow and receive her, and they led her before the Great Sage.
天將 are the heavenly generals posted to guard him; 將 is jiàng. Five hundred years on, they are still on duty, and they bow to her before they let her through.
Looking, she found him pressed within a stone casket, able to speak but unable to stir his body.
In 不能 the 不 keeps bù before the rising tone of 能. A mouth that works and a body that does not: the worst possible arrangement for this particular prisoner.
The Bodhisattva said: "You of the surname Sun, do you know me?"
In 認得 the complement 得 is the light de. She does not use his title. She calls him the one whose surname is Sun.
The Great Sage opened wide his fiery eyes and golden pupils, nodded his head, and cried aloud: "How could I not know you! You are none other than the greatly merciful, greatly compassionate Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara of the Southern Sea, of Mount Potalaka, who rescues from suffering and distress — Namo Guanshiyin!
He answers with her entire job title, unabbreviated, from memory. 點著 is nodding, the ongoing-action 著 read zhe. 不認得 takes bú and the light de. 落伽 is Potalaka, 伽 read qié; in 救難 the 難 is nàn; 南無, Sanskrit namas, I bow to, is read ná mó and not by its everyday values.
I am favored by your regard, favored by your regard!
承看顧 is a humble thank-you for being noticed at all.
Here I pass each day like a year, with not one soul who knows me coming to give me so much as a look.
相知 is somebody who knows you; 相 is xiāng. Each 一, in 一個 and 一看, takes yí. The bravado drops out of the sentence halfway through.
Where have you come from?"
那裡 is the question word, where, 那 read nǎ.
The poem wakes him, and the chapter gets its central reunion. Pinned inside his stone box, able to talk but not to move, Sun Wukong recognises Guanyin at once and reels off her full string of titles. It is the first kindness anyone has shown him in five hundred years, and he seizes it.
The scene turns on the pathos underneath the swagger. His complaint — 我在此度日如年，更無一個相知的來看我一看, that every day here is a year and nobody who knows him has come even to look — is among the most affecting lines in the early novel. The monkey who took on the whole of heaven has been reduced to wanting one visitor.
Yu notes that the elaborate recitation of her epithets is more than formula. It is evidence that he is ready: he knows precisely who holds the power to release him, and he greets her not as a gaoler but as a rescuer. The recognition that opened each disciple's conversion reaches here its most important instance, the mind-monkey acknowledging the mercy that will redeem him.