活命之恩 Come and Meet My Mother
那樵子道：「老爺，向西南去不遠，就是舍下。請老爺到舍，見見家母，叩謝老爺活命之恩，送老爺上路。」那樵子道：「老爷，向西南去不远，就是舍下。请老爷到舍，见见家母，叩谢老爷活命之恩，送老爷上路。」
逐句解 Line by line
The woodcutter said, "Your reverence, a little way to the south-west is my own poor house.
舍下, the humble dwelling below, is the polite way to name your own home, and 舍 is shè in it — the dwelling reading, which the machinery misses here and gets right two lines later in the phrase for a thatched cottage.
Come to my house, your reverence, and see my mother, and let her bow her thanks for the kindness of saving my life, and send you on your road."
舍 again as shè. 家母 is the humble term for one's own mother, and 活命之恩, the kindness of a life kept alive, is the standard formula for the largest debt one person can owe another. The invitation is not hospitality; it is a debt being brought home to be discharged properly.
The whole last movement of the chapter starts here, and it starts because Tripitaka stopped on his way out of a garden to insist a stranger be untied.
The woodcutter wants his mother to do the thanking, which is the correct order of things. A debt of this size belongs to the household rather than to one person, and the senior member has to acknowledge it. He has been tied to a tree for two days and his first thought on being freed is protocol.