原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
虔心禮佛 I Was a Monk from the Womb
三藏又罵道：「潑猢猻胡說。我自出娘肚皮，就做和尚，如今奉旨西來，虔心禮佛求經，又不是利祿之輩，有甚運退時？」三藏又骂道：「泼猢狲胡说。我自出娘肚皮，就做和尚，如今奉旨西来，虔心礼佛求经，又不是利禄之辈，有甚运退时？」
逐句解 Line by line
三藏又罵道：「潑猢猻胡說。
三藏又骂道：「泼猢狲胡说。
Tripitaka scolded him again: "Wretched ape, you talk nonsense.
潑猢猻, wretched macaque, is one rung ruder than the 潑猴 of the line before. He is escalating.
我自出娘肚皮，就做和尚，如今奉旨西來，虔心禮佛求經，又不是利祿之輩，有甚運退時？」
我自出娘肚皮，就做和尚，如今奉旨西来，虔心礼佛求经，又不是利禄之辈，有甚运退时？」
From the moment I came out of my mother's belly I have been a monk. Now I travel west by imperial command, worshipping the Buddha with a sincere heart and seeking scriptures. I am not one of your seekers after profit and place — what fall in fortune could I be having?"
A bare question-word 甚, shén. 利祿 pairs profit with official salary, the two things a monk has formally given up, and he uses it to place himself outside the whole system in which luck rises and falls.
The defence is theologically impeccable and beside the point. Tripitaka argues that a man with no worldly ambitions cannot suffer a reversal of worldly fortune, which is true and does not address what Pilgrim said.
It is also, as a claim about himself, not quite honest. He has spent this chapter reining in his horse to compose poems about when he will see the emperor again. The man who says he is no seeker after place was measuring the distance home in verse a few hours ago.