第八十回 · 勿以善小 No Evil However Small — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

勿以善小 No Evil However Small

今jīn日rì一yí個gè妖yāo精jīng的de性xìng命mìng，捨shě不bù得de，要yào去qù救jiù他tā？」唐táng僧sēng道dào：「徒tú弟dì呀ya，古gǔ人rén云yún：『勿wù以yǐ善shàn小xiǎo而ér不bù為wéi，勿wù以yǐ惡è小xiǎo而ér為wéi之zhī。』今jīn日rì一yí个gè妖yāo精jīng的de性xìng命mìng，舍shě不bù得de，要yào去qù救jiù他tā？」唐táng僧sēng道dào：「徒tú弟dì呀ya，古gǔ人rén云yún：『勿wù以yǐ善shàn小xiǎo而ér不bù为wéi，勿wù以yǐ恶è小xiǎo而ér为wéi之zhī。』

逐句解 Line by line

今jīn日rì一yí個gè妖yāo精jīng的de性xìng命mìng，捨shě不bù得de，要yào去qù救jiù他tā？」今jīn日rì一yí个gè妖yāo精jīng的de性xìng命mìng，舍shě不bù得de，要yào去qù救jiù他tā？」

Today it is one demon's life, and you cannot bear it, and you want to go and save her?"

In 捨不得 the 得 is the unstressed de — the verb 捨, to let go, with the ability to complete it negated. It is the everyday phrase for being unable to give a thing up.

唐táng僧sēng道dào：「徒tú弟dì呀ya，古gǔ人rén云yún：『勿wù以yǐ善shàn小xiǎo而ér不bù為wéi，勿wù以yǐ惡è小xiǎo而ér為wéi之zhī。』唐táng僧sēng道dào：「徒tú弟dì呀ya，古gǔ人rén云yún：『勿wù以yǐ善shàn小xiǎo而ér不bù为wéi，勿wù以yǐ恶è小xiǎo而ér为wéi之zhī。』

The Tang Monk said, "Disciple, the ancients said: 'Do not leave a good thing undone because it is small; do not do an evil thing because it is small.'

Both instances of 為 are wéi, the plain verb "to do," not the wèi of doing something for a purpose. This is the dying instruction Liu Bei left his son in the third century, recorded in the histories and repeated ever since; a Chinese schoolchild still meets it. (Lowering 為 from the fourth tone to the second also pulls the 不 in front of it from bú to bù.)

總評 Commentary

Tripitaka answers a body count with a maxim about small things, and the mismatch is the whole disagreement. Pilgrim is arguing from scale — thousands killed, one demon now. His master answers that size is precisely what must not be weighed.

The quotation is beautifully chosen and it is not a religious text at all. It is a dying king's advice to his heir about how to govern, which gives it a weight in Chinese ears that no sutra could supply here. Tripitaka has reached past his own tradition for the most universally agreed sentence available.

And it is unanswerable, which is why Pilgrim stops arguing in the next passage. The trouble is not that his master is wrong about small goods and small evils. It is that the maxim says nothing whatever about how to tell which is which.