Canonical Classics ← 第八十二回
第八十二回
chàqiúyáng
yuánshéndào

The Fair Girl Seeks the Yang · The Primal Spirit Guards the Way

永墮輪迴苦
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

永墮輪迴苦 If It Is Meat Wine

jiǔguǒshìjiǔmiǎnqiǎngchīleháijiànchénggōngruòshìhūnjiǔlezhījièyǒngduòlúnhuí。」jiǔguǒshìjiǔmiǎnqiǎngchīleháijiànchénggōngruòshìhūnjiǔlezhījièyǒngduòlúnhuí。」


逐句解 Line by line

jiǔguǒshìjiǔmiǎnqiǎngchīleháijiànchénggōng jiǔguǒshìjiǔmiǎnqiǎngchīleháijiànchénggōng

"If this wine is truly a plain wine, your disciple will force himself to drink it, and still come to see the Buddha and accomplish the work;"

The petition turns into a conditional oath, and the balance of the two clauses is the shape of a legal instrument. In 勉強 the second character is qiǎng, to compel — so it is not merely reluctance but forcing himself. And is , the full reading after the adverb for still, so the sense is will yet manage to see the Buddha.

ruòshìhūnjiǔlezhījièyǒngduòlúnhuí。」 ruòshìhūnjiǔlezhījièyǒngduòlúnhuí。」

"and if it is a meat wine, and breaks your disciple's vow, then let him fall forever into the bitterness of the wheel of rebirth."

The matching clause, and the penalty he names for himself is the one he named to Pilgrim earlier: 輪迴, samsara, the round of rebirth. He is not asking to be excused. He is asking to be judged on whether the thing in the cup is what she says it is.


總評 Commentary

The prayer is a conditional oath and it is scrupulously fair. He does not ask for a way out; he asks to be held to the truth of the matter. If the wine is what she claims, he will drink it under protest and expects to be forgiven. If it is not, he accepts the worst penalty his religion holds.

This is the answer to the narrator's accusation earlier in the scene. Everyone says the Tang Monk is a monk of a true heart — so how does he come to be talking to a woman fiend? The reply is that he is standing in a demon's hall with a wedding cup in his hand, and he is spending the moment putting his case to heaven.