Canonical Classics ← 第八十八回
第八十八回
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Chan Reaches Yuhua and a Dharma Assembly Is Held · The Mind-Ape and the Wood and the Earth Take Disciples

高坐法位
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

高坐法位 Let Us Each Take One Too

wàngshīgāozuòwèiràngliǎngzhāoshuǎshuǎshì西fāngshàngzhīniàn。」sānzàngxīnrányǔnzhīwàngshīgāozuòwèiràngliǎngzhāoshuǎshuǎshì西fāngshàngzhīniàn。」sānzàngxīnrányǔnzhī


逐句解 Line by line

wàngshīgāozuòwèiràngliǎngzhāoshuǎshuǎshì西fāngshàngzhīniàn。」 wàngshīgāozuòwèiràngliǎngzhāoshuǎshuǎshì西fāngshàngzhīniàn。」

We beg our master to take the high seat of the dharma and let the two of us each take on a disciple for the fun of it, as something to remember of the road to the west."

法位 is the dharma seat, the raised place a teacher occupies — they are asking Tripitaka to sit in it, which formalises the whole arrangement. Then the register drops: 耍耍, for a bit of fun, is the same casual word Pilgrim used for going up to play with his rod over the courtyard. And 憶念, something to remember by, is the phrase that gives the passage its warmth — a souvenir of the journey.

sānzàngxīnrányǔnzhī sānzàngxīnrányǔnzhī

Tripitaka gladly consented to it all.

Seven characters, and the last of the chapter's four 欣然, willingly. is the formal verb for a superior granting a request. He has been made a patriarch and has agreed to the whole arrangement in one clause.


總評 Commentary

Bajie and Sha Monk ask for something Wukong did not: a disciple each, for the fun of it, as a keepsake of the road.

That word for keepsake is the one that lands. These are two beings who will one day finish this journey, and one of them is thinking about what he will have to remember it by.

It is also the chapter's title being made good. The Mind-Ape, the Wood and the Earth take disciples — all three of them, which is why the title names all three and not Bajie alone.