原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
上無父母 Nothing to Be Unclean About
樵子道：「長老，你是個出家人，上無父母，下無妻子，死便死了，有甚麼不乾淨？」樵子道：「长老，你是个出家人，上无父母，下无妻子，死便死了，有甚么不干净？」
逐句解 Line by line
樵子道：「長老，你是個出家人，上無父母，下無妻子，死便死了，有甚麼不乾淨？」
樵子道：「长老，你是个出家人，上无父母，下无妻子，死便死了，有甚么不干净？」
The woodcutter said, "Elder, you are one who has left the household. Above you have no parents, below you have no wife or children. If you die, you die. What is there for you to be unclean about?"
出家人 is one who has gone out of the household — the standard term for a monk, and the woodcutter uses it to make his point: no ties above, none below. 妻子 takes 子 at the full zǐ, a literary compound meaning wife and children together. 乾 is gān again — the third time in three segments, and each speaker means something different by it.
The woodcutter has correctly identified the doctrine and turned it into a consolation. A monk has cut his ties; therefore a monk's death costs nobody anything.
It is meant kindly and it is the hardest thing anyone says to Tripitaka in this chapter. He is about to explain, at length, exactly what his death would cost.