齊天大聖 The Name That Frightens Them
幸觀世音菩薩出現，指化貧僧，說西天大雷音寺有三藏真經，可以超度亡者昇天，差貧僧來取，因賜號三藏，即倚唐為姓，所以人都呼我為唐三藏。我有三個徒弟。第一個姓孫，名悟空行者，乃齊天大聖歸正。」群妖聞得此名，著了一驚道：「這個齊天大聖，可是五百年前大鬧天宮的？」唐僧道：「正是，正是。第二個姓豬，名悟能八戒，乃天蓬大元帥轉世。第三個姓沙，名悟淨和尚，乃捲簾大將臨凡。」幸观世音菩萨出现，指化贫僧，说西天大雷音寺有三藏真经，可以超度亡者升天，差贫僧来取，因赐号三藏，即倚唐为姓，所以人都呼我为唐三藏。我有三个徒弟。第一个姓孙，名悟空行者，乃齐天大圣归正。」群妖闻得此名，着了一惊道：「这个齐天大圣，可是五百年前大闹天宫的？」唐僧道：「正是，正是。第二个姓猪，名悟能八戒，乃天蓬大元帅转世。第三个姓沙，名悟净和尚，乃卷帘大将临凡。」
逐句解 Line by line
"By good fortune the Bodhisattva Guanyin appeared and instructed this poor monk, saying that at the Great Thunderclap Monastery in the Western Heaven there were three baskets of true scripture, able to deliver the dead and raise them to heaven; and she sent this poor monk to fetch them, and so bestowed on me the title Sanzang — Three Baskets. Taking Tang for a surname, I am therefore called by everyone the Tang Monk of the Three Baskets.
The name explained, at last, to three monsters. 三藏 renders the Sanskrit Tripiṭaka, the Three Baskets into which the whole Buddhist canon is divided — scripture, discipline and commentary. It is a title, not a name, and it is the scripture he is going to fetch. Two readings: 差 is chāi, dispatched on a commission, and both 為 are wéi, the copular — took Tang as a surname, call me as Tang Sanzang.
"I have three disciples.
Five characters, and the reader can feel the room change. Everything before this has been credentials. This is the part that matters.
"The first is surnamed Sun, and named Wukong the Pilgrim; he is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, come back to the right way."
歸正 — returned to the correct path — is the formula for a rebel brought over. Tripitaka is not boasting; he is being precise, and the precision is what does the damage. The title 齊天大聖 is the one Wukong wrung out of Heaven ninety chapters ago and it still carries.
Hearing that name, the crowd of demons took a fright and said, "This Great Sage Equal to Heaven — is he the one who made the great uproar in Heaven five hundred years ago?"
The line the passage exists for. These three have been in this cave for a thousand years and they still know the name. A reading: 著 in 著了一驚 is zháo, the fright landing on them — the same reading and the same construction that chapter 4 seals at 著了一下.
The Tang Monk said, "He is, he is.
Four characters, and there is something close to relief in them. The most frightened man in the cave has just discovered that his own disciple's reputation has arrived ahead of him.
"The second is surnamed Zhu, and named Wuneng the Eight Rules; he is the Grand Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, born again into the world.
天蓬大元帥, Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, was Pig's rank before he was thrown out of heaven for harassing the moon goddess and reborn into a sow's litter. 八戒, Eight Rules, is the set of eight precepts a lay Buddhist takes — a joke of a name for the least abstemious character in the novel.
"The third is surnamed Sha, and named Wujing the Monk; he is the Curtain-Raising General, come down among mortals."
A reading: 將 in 捲簾大將 is jiàng, a general — chapter 4 seals the same reading at 上天大將 — and not the jiāng that does grammatical work elsewhere. The Curtain-Raising General held the canopy at the Jade Emperor's throne, and was exiled for breaking a crystal cup.
The deposition finishes with the disciples, and the roll-call is the chapter's turning point. Tripitaka names them by their celestial ranks — the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, the Curtain-Raising General — and the demons stop the recitation dead at the first one.
That single interruption is worth the whole passage. Three creatures who have lived in this cave for a thousand years, undisturbed, running the same fraud on the same prefecture year after year, still know what happened in Heaven five hundred years ago. Wukong's reputation has outlasted his rebellion and reaches further than he does.
And notice what has actually saved Tripitaka's life. Not prayer, not virtue, not the guardian spirits the Sentinels said were with him. He was stripped, washed and about to be sliced, and what stopped it was a name — spoken by a shaking man on his knees, in answer to a question his captors only thought to ask because somebody was making a noise at the gate. The chapter that is about appearances has been rescued, for the moment, by a reputation.