原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
西方極樂境
The Paradise of the West
謝罷，各分班而退，各執乃事，共樂天真。果然是：谢罢，各分班而退，各执乃事，共乐天真。果然是：
瑞靄漫天竺，虹光擁世尊。瑞霭漫天竺，虹光拥世尊。
西方稱第一，無相法王門。西方称第一，无相法王门。
常見玄猿獻果，麋鹿啣花；常见玄猿献果，麋鹿啣花；
青鸞舞，彩鳳鳴；青鸾舞，彩凤鸣；
靈龜捧壽，仙鶴噙芝。灵龟捧寿，仙鹤噙芝。
安享淨土祗園，受用龍宮法界。安享净土祗园，受用龙宫法界。
日日花開，時時果熟。日日花开，时时果熟。
習靜歸真，參禪果正。习静归真，参禅果正。
不滅不生，不增不減。不灭不生，不增不减。
煙霞縹緲隨來往，寒暑無侵不記年。詩曰：烟霞缥缈随来往，寒暑无侵不记年。诗曰：
去來自在任優游，去来自在任优游，
也無恐怖也無愁。也无恐怖也无愁。
極樂場中俱坦蕩，极乐场中俱坦荡，
大千之處沒春秋。大千之处没春秋。
逐句解 Line by line
謝罷，各分班而退，各執乃事，共樂天真。果然是：
谢罢，各分班而退，各执乃事，共乐天真。果然是：
Their thanks rendered, they parted into ranks and withdrew, each to his own charge, sharing the joy of the unspoiled nature. Truly it was:
天真 — the innate, uncontrived nature; 果然是 is the storyteller's tag introducing the descriptive verse.
瑞靄漫天竺，虹光擁世尊。
瑞霭漫天竺，虹光拥世尊。
Auspicious haze drifts over India's sky; rainbow light enfolds the World-Honored One.
天竺 is the old name for India; 世尊 (bhagavat) is the Buddha.
西方稱第一，無相法王門。
西方称第一，无相法王门。
The Western land is named the foremost — the gate of the formless Dharma-King.
無相 (animitta, formless) and 法王 (Dharma-King) are epithets of the Buddha's domain; 相 here is xiàng.
常見玄猿獻果，麋鹿啣花；
常见玄猿献果，麋鹿啣花；
Ever are dark apes seen offering fruit, and elaphure bearing flowers in their mouths;
青鸞舞，彩鳳鳴；
青鸾舞，彩凤鸣；
blue simurghs dance, gaudy phoenixes call;
鸞 and 鳳 are auspicious phoenix-birds of paradise imagery.
靈龜捧壽，仙鶴噙芝。
灵龟捧寿，仙鹤噙芝。
numinous tortoises proffer long life, immortal cranes hold magic fungus in their bills.
芝 is the lingzhi, the fungus of immortality.
安享淨土祗園，受用龍宮法界。
安享净土祗园，受用龙宫法界。
They dwell at ease in the Pure Land's Jeta Grove, and enjoy the Dharma-realm of the Dragon Palace.
祗園 is the Jetavana, the grove where the Buddha often taught; 法界 is the dharmadhātu.
日日花開，時時果熟。
日日花开，时时果熟。
Day upon day the flowers bloom; hour upon hour the fruits grow ripe.
習靜歸真，參禪果正。
习静归真，参禅果正。
Cultivating stillness, they return to the real; investigating Chan, their fruit comes to perfection.
歸真 and 果正 braid Daoist and Buddhist diction — a hallmark of the novel's syncretism.
不滅不生，不增不減。
不灭不生，不增不减。
Neither perishing nor arising, neither waxing nor waning.
A direct echo of the Heart Sūtra's 不生不滅，不增不減.
煙霞縹緲隨來往，寒暑無侵不記年。詩曰：
烟霞缥缈随来往，寒暑无侵不记年。诗曰：
Mist and rose-cloud, faint and far, drift to and fro; heat and cold cannot intrude, and the years go unreckoned. A poem says:
The closing couplet of the rhapsody; 詩曰 then introduces the quatrain that follows.
去來自在任優游，
去来自在任优游，
Coming and going as they please, they roam at leisure,
也無恐怖也無愁。
也无恐怖也无愁。
with neither dread nor any sorrow.
恐怖 (fear) echoes the Heart Sūtra's 無有恐怖.
極樂場中俱坦蕩，
极乐场中俱坦荡，
In the field of Ultimate Bliss all is open and serene,
極樂 (jí lè) is Sukhāvatī, the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
大千之處沒春秋。
大千之处没春秋。
and in the Great-Thousand worlds there is no spring or autumn.
大千 abbreviates the “three-thousand great-thousandfold world,” the Buddhist cosmos; timelessness is its mark.
總評 Commentary
After the assembly disperses, the narration pauses for a set-piece rhapsody (賦) on the Western Paradise, capped by a quatrain. The mode is descriptive rather than dramatic: a still, radiant tableau of a realm where flowers and fruit are perpetual and the seasons do not turn.
The verse is saturated with Heart Sūtra language — 不滅不生，不增不減 and 也無恐怖 — so that the paradise is defined doctrinally, by the absence of arising, cessation and fear, not merely pictorially. As Yu notes, the novel's paradises are always also lessons; the timelessness of 沒春秋 images nirvāṇa as much as it images a garden.
Structurally the passage marks the threshold between the Buddha's return and the great commission. The serenity it conjures is the very condition the eastward transmission is meant to extend to 南贍部洲, the violent mortal continent named a few scenes later — the contrast the chapter is built to draw.