Canonical Classics ← 第八十回
第八十回
chàyángqiúpèiǒu
xīnyuánzhǔshíyāoxié

The Fair Girl, Nursing the Yang, Seeks a Mate · The Mind-Ape, Guarding His Master, Knows a Fiend

想是搬了
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原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

想是搬了 The Buddha Hid the Scrolls

sānzàngdào:「suīránshuōdeyǒudànzhī西tiānháizàili。」jièdào:「shīláishědesānzàngjīngzhīmenyàoxiǎngshìbānlesānzàngdào:「suīránshuōdeyǒudànzhī西tiānháizàili。」jièdào:「shīláishědesānzàngjīngzhīmenyàoxiǎngshìbānle


逐句解 Line by line

sānzàngdào:「suīránshuōdeyǒudànzhī西tiānháizàili。」 sānzàngdào:「suīránshuōdeyǒudànzhī西tiānháizàili。」

Tripitaka said, "What you say has reason in it, disciple, but I do not know where the road to the Western Heaven still lies."

Two -shaped points in one line. In 說得有理 the is the unstressed de that hangs a judgement on a verb — said it, and said it reasonably. And 那裡 here is the question word, as , "where" — this chapter uses 那裡 twelve times, eight of them as a question and four as a plain "over there."

jièdào:「shīláishědesānzàngjīngzhīmenyàoxiǎngshìbānle jièdào:「shīláishědesānzàngjīngzhīmenyàoxiǎngshìbānle

Bajie said, "Master, our Buddha Tathagata cannot bear to part with those Three Baskets of scripture. Knowing that we mean to fetch them away, I expect he has moved them;

In 捨不得 the is again the unstressed de: the verb , to let go, plus a negated ability to complete it. It is the everyday phrase for being unable to give something up. And the joke turns on 三藏 meaning both the Three Baskets of the canon and the monk sitting on the horse — Bajie has just said his master's name means a pile of books.


總評 Commentary

Bajie's theory is that the Buddha is hoarding. It is blasphemous, it is lazy, and it is the funniest line in the first third of the chapter, because it recasts the entire pilgrimage as a delivery that keeps failing because the sender keeps moving house.

Underneath the joke is a real complaint that the book returns to often: the journey has no visible end. Tripitaka has just asked where the road still lies, which is not a question about direction. He knows the direction. He wants to know how much is left, and nobody can tell him, so Bajie fills the silence with a gag.