發菩提心 Tripitaka Explains The Rescue
三藏道：「院主，你不要生疑，說我師徒們有甚邪意。早間打黑松林過，撞見這個女子綁在樹上。小徒孫悟空不肯救他，是我發菩提心，將他救了。到此，隨院主送他那裡睡去。」三藏道：「院主，你不要生疑，说我师徒们有甚邪意。早间打黑松林过，撞见这个女子绑在树上。小徒孙悟空不肯救他，是我发菩提心，将他救了。到此，随院主送他那里睡去。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, "Abbot, you must not harbour suspicions and say that my disciples and I have any improper intent.
甚 is shén here, the interrogative what, rather than the shèn of very that appears three times elsewhere in this chapter. Same character, two jobs, and only the sense tells them apart.
This morning we were passing through the Black Pine Wood and came upon this young woman bound to a tree.
The Black Pine Wood of the chapter's second heading. Tripitaka narrates it as a simple act of charity, which from inside his own head it was.
My little disciple Sun Wukong was unwilling to save her; it was I who raised the heart of enlightenment and rescued her.
菩提心 renders the Sanskrit bodhicitta, the resolve to seek awakening for the sake of all beings. It is the highest motive in Mahayana Buddhism, and Tripitaka is using it, quite sincerely, to describe the act that is about to get him abducted.
Now that we are here, send her wherever you please to sleep."
那 is nǎ again — 隨 plus the question word gives wherever, an open choice handed to the host rather than a place being pointed at.
Every word Tripitaka says here is true, and the whole speech is wrong. He did raise the heart of enlightenment. Wukong was unwilling. The rescue was an act of compassion by the book.
The novel is making an argument it has been building for eighty chapters: that compassion without discernment is not yet wisdom. Tripitaka's virtue is genuine and it is also, reliably, the mechanism by which he is captured. His disciple has fire-gold eyes that see through disguise; the master has a soft heart that cannot.
There is a small cruelty in the phrasing too. He offers her to the abbot's disposal as one might a parcel — send her wherever you like. The compassion that cut her down does not extend to asking her anything.