原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
險些兒諕殺 You Nearly Frightened Me Dead
那唐僧方然正性道：「住持，險些兒諕殺我也。你帶我進去。」那唐僧方然正性道：「住持，险些儿諕杀我也。你带我进去。」
逐句解 Line by line
那唐僧方然正性道：「住持，險些兒諕殺我也。
那唐僧方然正性道：「住持，险些儿諕杀我也。
Then the Tang Monk collected himself and said, "Prior, you very nearly frightened me to death.
The fifth and last 諕 of the chapter, xià. 正性 is to set your own nature straight again — a phrase from meditation, used here for a man getting his breath back after a fright.
你帶我進去。」
你带我进去。」
Take me inside."
Five characters, and the fear is gone entirely. He addresses the caretaker as 住持, prior — a promotion of several ranks, delivered without a thought.
He gets to his feet, promotes the man who frightened him, and asks to be taken inside. The whole episode from bell to recovery takes four passages and is over.
Calling a lamp-tending servant the prior is a small thing and very characteristic. Tripitaka is unfailingly courteous in exactly the way that flatters whoever is in front of him, which is a virtue and, this chapter, the mechanism by which he has been taken in.