肉眼凡胎 With Fleshly Eyes I Slighted You
老王道：「孤先見列位時，只以為唐朝遠來行腳僧，其實肉眼凡胎，多致輕褻。適見孫師、豬師、沙師起舞在空，方知是仙是佛。老王道：「孤先见列位时，只以为唐朝远来行脚僧，其实肉眼凡胎，多致轻亵。适见孙师、猪师、沙师起舞在空，方知是仙是佛。
逐句解 Line by line
The old prince said, "When I first saw you gentlemen I took you for nothing but wandering monks come a long way from Tang. With fleshly eyes in a mortal frame I slighted you a good deal.
為 is wéi in 以為, to take something for. 肉眼凡胎 is the phrase the chapter has been waiting for: eyes of flesh in a body of common clay, the standard Buddhist expression for ordinary perception that cannot see what is really there. He is apologising, and he is doing it in the exact vocabulary of the argument the whole chapter has been having about faces.
Just now, seeing Master Sun, Master Zhu and Master Sha dance up into the air, I knew at last that you are immortals or buddhas.
And here they get names. 孫師, 豬師, 沙師 — Master Sun, Master Zhu, Master Sha, their surnames with the word for teacher attached. It is the first time in the chapter that anybody in Yuhua has called the disciples anything but ugly, a goblin, a spirit or a monster. 是仙是佛 answers, in the same four-part shape, the question the princes shouted at dinner: are you men or monsters.
The apology is the chapter's turning point and it is built out of the chapter's own language. Eyes of flesh; are you this or that. He is answering the question his sons asked with a weapon in their hands.
The names matter more than the apology. Master Sun, Master Zhu, Master Sha: surnames and a title of respect, in place of pig-goblin, monkey spirit and the Kitchen God.
What convinced him was not an argument. Nobody explained anything to this man; his sons told him what they saw, and he believed them, and now he is on his feet apologising for having used his eyes.