第八十二回 · 或刻如來 The Willow Becomes a Buddha — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

或刻如來 The Willow Becomes a Buddha

行xíng者zhě道dào：「一yí樣yàng是shì楊yáng木mù，一yí樣yàng是shì檀tán木mù。楊yáng木mù性xìng格gé甚shèn軟ruǎn，巧qiǎo匠jiàng取qǔ來lái，或huò雕diāo聖shèng像xiàng，或huò刻kè如rú來lái，裝zhuāng金jīn立lì粉fěn，嵌qiàn玉yù裝zhuāng花huā，萬wàn人rén燒shāo香xiāng禮lǐ拜bài，受shòu了le多duō少shǎo無wú量liàng之zhī福fú。行xíng者zhě道dào：「一yí样yàng是shì杨yáng木mù，一yí样yàng是shì檀tán木mù。杨yáng木mù性xìng格gé甚shèn软ruǎn，巧qiǎo匠jiàng取qǔ来lái，或huò雕diāo圣shèng像xiàng，或huò刻kè如rú来lái，装zhuāng金jīn立lì粉fěn，嵌qiàn玉yù装zhuāng花huā，万wàn人rén烧shāo香xiāng礼lǐ拜bài，受shòu了le多duō少shǎo无wú量liàng之zhī福fú。

逐句解 Line by line

行xíng者zhě道dào：「一yí樣yàng是shì楊yáng木mù，一yí樣yàng是shì檀tán木mù。行xíng者zhě道dào：「一yí样yàng是shì杨yáng木mù，一yí样yàng是shì檀tán木mù。

Pilgrim said, "One is willow and one is sandalwood."

The pairing is chosen for hardness, not for beauty. Willow is soft and cheap; sandalwood is dense, fragrant and expensive. Any Ming reader would have expected the expensive one to come off better, and the parable is about to disappoint them.

楊yáng木mù性xìng格gé甚shèn軟ruǎn，巧qiǎo匠jiàng取qǔ來lái，或huò雕diāo聖shèng像xiàng，或huò刻kè如rú來lái，裝zhuāng金jīn立lì粉fěn，嵌qiàn玉yù裝zhuāng花huā，萬wàn人rén燒shāo香xiāng禮lǐ拜bài，受shòu了le多duō少shǎo無wú量liàng之zhī福fú。杨yáng木mù性xìng格gé甚shèn软ruǎn，巧qiǎo匠jiàng取qǔ来lái，或huò雕diāo圣shèng像xiàng，或huò刻kè如rú来lái，装zhuāng金jīn立lì粉fěn，嵌qiàn玉yù装zhuāng花huā，万wàn人rén烧shāo香xiāng礼lǐ拜bài，受shòu了le多duō少shǎo无wú量liàng之zhī福fú。

"Willow is soft by nature. A skilled craftsman takes it and carves a sacred image or cuts a figure of the Tathagata; it is gilded and coated with powder, inlaid with jade and dressed with flowers, and ten thousand people burn incense and bow before it, and it receives blessings beyond measure."

The list is doing the arguing. Every verb in it is something done to the willow — taken, carved, gilded, powdered, inlaid, dressed — and the wood is passive throughout, which is precisely Pilgrim's recommendation. 如來 is the Tathagata, the Thus-Come-One, one of the standard titles of a Buddha. 量 is liàng in the closing phrase, the measuring sense, so the blessings are literally without measure.

總評 Commentary

The parable inverts the obvious hierarchy of materials, and that inversion is the whole lesson. Soft wood ends up on the altar; hard wood, as we are about to see, ends up under the hammer. Softness is not weakness here, it is workability.

There is a genuinely Daoist shape to this. The Daodejing repeatedly prefers water to stone, the yielding to the rigid, on the grounds that what bends outlasts what resists. Pilgrim has already quoted the Confucians; now he is arguing like a Daoist, and he will finish by describing an oil press. The chapter's title promises Daoist inner alchemy and the chapter delivers it first as woodwork.

The image of the gilded willow Buddha is also a quiet joke about how sanctity is made. Ten thousand people bow to a piece of cheap wood because a craftsman shaped it and somebody applied gold leaf. The novel is fond of this sort of observation and never quite presses it into cynicism.