黃金滿布園地 Cover the Ground with Gold
八戒道：「師父，奇啊！我跟師父幾年，再不曾見識得路，今日也識得路了？」三藏說道：「不是。我常看經誦典，說是佛在舍衛城祗樹給孤園。這園說是給孤獨長者問太子買了，請佛講經。太子說：『我這園不賣，他若要買我的時，除非黃金滿布園地。』給孤獨長者聽說，隨以黃金為磚，布滿園地，才買得太子祗園，才請得世尊說法。我想這布金寺莫非就是這個故事？」八戒道：「师父，奇啊！我跟师父几年，再不曾见识得路，今日也识得路了？」三藏说道：「不是。我常看经诵典，说是佛在舍卫城祗树给孤园。这园说是给孤独长者问太子买了，请佛讲经。太子说：『我这园不卖，他若要买我的时，除非黄金满布园地。』给孤独长者听说，随以黄金为砖，布满园地，才买得太子祗园，才请得世尊说法。我想这布金寺莫非就是这个故事？」
逐句解 Line by line
Eight Rules said, "Master, what a thing! I have followed you for years and never once knew the road, and today I know the road too?" Tripitaka said, "Not so."
Eight Rules has misheard entirely. His master said Shravasti, meaning he has recognised where they are from a story; Eight Rules hears it as knowing the way, and is delighted to have been useful for once.
識得 — knowing, recognising — turns up twice in this one line and is the same word Pilgrim and Tripitaka were arguing over a page ago, in its everyday sense. The novel has just put a joke about recognition immediately after an argument about understanding, and the two disciples walk straight past it.
"I regularly read the scriptures and the canon, and they say the Buddha was at the city of Shravasti, in the Jeta Grove, the Garden of the Friendless. The story of this garden is that the Elder Anathapindika asked the prince to sell it to him, and invited the Buddha to expound scripture there."
祗樹給孤園 names the place in a single breath: the Jeta Grove and the Garden of the Friendless. Jeta was the prince who owned the trees; the Friendless were whom the rich layman fed, which is how he got his nickname.
The first character, 給, is not the everyday one meaning give. In this name it is read jǐ, to supply or provide — the layman's title means he who provides for the friendless. The chapter uses it nine times, every one of them part of this name, and so does the chapter's own couplet — the matched pair of lines that serves as its title.
長者 — the Elder — is the standard rendering for the Sanskrit title of a wealthy and respected householder. He is not a monk.
"The prince said, 'This garden of mine is not for sale. If he wants to buy it from me, it will have to be gold spread out to cover the ground.' The Elder Anathapindika, hearing this, thereupon made bricks of gold and covered the garden ground with them, and only then did he manage to buy the prince's Jeta Grove, and only then did he manage to invite the World-Honoured One to preach."
There is the name explained, and the whole story arrives inside a quotation the way an anecdote does when someone is remembering it out loud.
The prince meant the price as a refusal. He named the most absurd sum he could think of, and the layman paid it, and the refusal became the most famous act of giving in the tradition.
世尊 — the World-Honoured One — is one of the standard titles of a Buddha. And notice the two 才 in the second half: only then, only then. The Chinese puts the effort before each result, so the sentence itself has to be paid for twice.
"I am thinking this Gold-Spread Monastery may be that very story."
He is right, and it will take him until the middle of the night and an old monk's confession to find out how right.
Note how carefully he puts it. Not this is the place, but this may be that story — a scholar's hedge. The novel gives Tripitaka very few moments of competence and this is one of them, so it lets him be properly cautious about it.
The story Tripitaka tells here is the founding story of Jetavana, and it is one of the best known in Buddhism. A rich layman of Shravasti, famous for feeding the destitute, wanted to buy a park from Prince Jeta as a gift to the Buddha. The prince, meaning to be rid of him, said the price was as much gold as would cover the ground. The layman began carting gold in. The prince gave in, kept the trees as his own contribution, and the place ended up named for both of them.
That is why the two halves of the name sit oddly together — the Jeta Grove and the Garden of the Friendless. It is a joint dedication, and the Chinese preserves the seam. A Chinese reader in the Ming would have known the story the way an English reader knows the Good Samaritan, which is why the novel can drop the words gold spread on a signboard and expect it to ring.
Something quieter is going on as well. Pilgrim has just been shown to understand a scripture better than his master does. Some two hundred and twenty characters later, Tripitaka reads a signboard nobody else can read and tells a story nobody else knows. The novel is not humiliating him; it is dividing the labour, and the second half of this chapter needs exactly the kind of knowledge only he has.