都是有字的 Every One of Them Had Words
伽葉卻才進閣檢經，一一查與三藏。三藏卻叫：「徒弟們，你們都好生看看，莫似前番。」他三人接一卷，看一卷，卻都是有字的。傳了五千零四十八卷，乃一藏之數。收拾齊整，馱在馬上；剩下的，還裝了一擔，八戒挑著。自己行囊，沙僧挑著。行者牽了馬，唐僧拿了錫杖，按一按毘盧帽，抖一抖錦袈裟，才喜喜歡歡，到我佛如來之前。正是那：伽叶却才进阁检经，一一查与三藏。三藏却叫：「徒弟们，你们都好生看看，莫似前番。」他三人接一卷，看一卷，却都是有字的。传了五千零四十八卷，乃一藏之数。收拾齐整，驮在马上；剩下的，还装了一担，八戒挑着。自己行囊，沙僧挑着。行者牵了马，唐僧拿了锡杖，按一按毘卢帽，抖一抖锦袈裟，才喜喜欢欢，到我佛如来之前。正是那：
逐句解 Line by line
Only then did Kāśyapa go into the loft to check out the scriptures, and went over them with Tripitaka one by one.
⚠ 一一查與三藏 — checked them over with him, one at a time. That is the auditing the first handover did not get, and it is the second disciple who does it. ⚠ 卻才 — only then. The bowl has changed hands and the work begins. The book puts the two events in that order and does not comment.
And Tripitaka called out, "Disciples — every one of you look carefully, and let it not be like last time."
⚠ 莫似前番 — let it not be as it was before. Tripitaka has learned exactly one thing from this whole affair, and it is to check the goods. ⚠ 好生看看 — take a good careful look. The doubled verb, which usually softens an instruction, is here doing the opposite: it means look properly. The man who wept over blank paper an hour ago is now running an inspection.
The three of them took a scroll and looked at a scroll, and every one of them had words in it.
⚠ 接一卷，看一卷 — took one, looked at one. The rhythm is exactly the rhythm of the blank-page discovery an hour ago, where three brothers opened three scrolls in three shrinking sentences. The book has rebuilt that moment and reversed the result. ⚠ 卻都是有字的 — and every one of them had words. Seven characters, and after everything, that is the whole of the good news.
Five thousand and forty-eight scrolls were handed over, which is the count of one full basket.
⚠⚠ 五千零四十八 — and this is the number the whole chapter has been walking towards. It is not invented: 5,048 is the total given in the Kaiyuan catalogue of 730, the standard Tang reckoning of the Buddhist canon, and it was still the byword for a complete set when this novel was written. ⚠ 一藏之數 — the count of one basket. The middle character is zàng, a canonical collection, and it is the same word as in Tripitaka's own name. He is carrying home exactly one of himself. ⚠ Hold the number. It comes back twice more in this chapter and it does not come out even — the closing accounts are eight scrolls short of a round reckoning, and the novel does something with that.
It was all packed up neat and loaded on the horse;
Eight characters of luggage. The book is counting the load again, exactly as it did the first time, and the totals are about to differ. 收拾齊整 — packed up tidily. The same phrase it used at the first handover.
and what was left over made up another shoulder-load besides, which Pigsy carried.
⚠ 還裝了一擔 — made up one more pole-load. ONE. The first time there were two, and Pigsy and Sha Monk carried one each. ⚠ So the true scriptures are lighter than the blank ones. Five thousand scrolls of text weigh less than whatever was in that first bundle, and the book gives you the arithmetic without a word of comment. 擔 — the load itself, dàn, not the dān of carrying it.
Their own baggage Sha Monk carried.
⚠ Eight characters, and they are the quiet joke of the passage. Pigsy carries the scriptures; Sha Monk carries the luggage. ⚠ 自己行囊 — their own bundles. He has been carrying that for a hundred chapters and he is still carrying it at the gate of paradise. Nobody has ever offered to take it.
Pilgrim led the horse; the Tang monk took up his ringed staff, settled his Vairocana cap with a pat and shook out his brocade cassock, and only then, in high good spirits, came before our Buddha the Tathāgata.
⚠ 按一按 and 抖一抖 — a pat at the cap, a shake at the robe. The verb doubled around the number one, which is how Chinese makes an action small and quick, and it is the gesture of a man checking himself before he goes in. ⚠ Staff, cap, cassock: the same three objects, in the same order, that he vested in at the Jade-Truth Abbey at the start of the day. The chapter has brought them back for the last time. ⚠ 才喜喜歡歡 — only THEN was he happy. Not when he arrived, not when he was given the scriptures the first time, not when he crossed the river. Now, holding the real ones, straightening his hat.
And this is how it was:
The cue, and the last of this chapter's two sites for it. The first announced the bathing poem at the Daoist abbey, at the very beginning of the day. What follows is four lines that sum up the whole affair, and one of them is rude about a saint.
The bowl changes hands and the work begins — and this time it is audited. Kāśyapa goes over the scrolls with Tripitaka one at a time, and Tripitaka, who has learned exactly one thing from this whole affair, tells his disciples to look carefully and let it not be like last time. The three of them take a scroll and look at a scroll, in the same rhythm as the blank-page discovery, with the result reversed.
The number is 5,048, and it is real. That is the total in the standard Tang catalogue of the Buddhist canon, compiled in 730, and it was still the byword for a complete set when this novel was written. The book calls it the count of one basket — using the very word that is Tripitaka's own name. He is carrying home exactly one of himself.
And the load has changed. The first time there were two pole-loads besides the horse; this time there is one. The true scriptures are lighter than the blank ones, and the novel gives you that arithmetic without a syllable of comment. Sha Monk, meanwhile, is still carrying the luggage.