原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
辭寺西行
Leaving the Monastery for the West
真個八戒領那皇帝前行，沙僧伏侍師父上馬，行者隨後。只見那本寺五百僧人齊齊整整，吹打著細樂，都送出山門之外。行者笑道：「和尚們不必遠送，但恐官家有人知覺，泄漏我的事機，反為不美。快回去，快回去。但把那皇帝的衣服冠帶，整頓乾淨，或是今晚明早，送進城來，我討些封贈賞賜謝你。」眾僧依命各回訖。行者放開大步，趕上師父，一直前來。正是：真个八戒领那皇帝前行，沙僧伏侍师父上马，行者随后。只见那本寺五百僧人齐齐整整，吹打着细乐，都送出山门之外。行者笑道：「和尚们不必远送，但恐官家有人知觉，泄漏我的事机，反为不美。快回去，快回去。但把那皇帝的衣服冠带，整顿干净，或是今晚明早，送进城来，我讨些封赠赏赐谢你。」众僧依命各回讫。行者放开大步，赶上师父，一直前来。正是：
西方有訣好尋真，金木和同卻煉神。西方有诀好寻真，金木和同却炼神。
丹母空懷懞懂夢，嬰兒長恨杌樗身。丹母空怀蒙懂梦，婴儿长恨杌樗身。
必須井底求明主，還要天堂拜老君。必须井底求明主，还要天堂拜老君。
悟得色空還本性，誠為佛度有緣人。悟得色空还本性，诚为佛度有缘人。
逐句解 Line by line
真個八戒領那皇帝前行，沙僧伏侍師父上馬，行者隨後。
真个八戒领那皇帝前行，沙僧伏侍师父上马，行者随后。
Sure enough, Eight Rules led that emperor ahead, Sha Monk attended the master onto his horse, and Pilgrim came behind.
Deictic 那皇帝: 那 = nà. 前行 / 行者: 行 = xíng.
只見那本寺五百僧人齊齊整整，吹打著細樂，都送出山門之外。
只见那本寺五百僧人齐齐整整，吹打着细乐，都送出山门之外。
Then the five hundred monks of the monastery, in trim array, struck up a delicate music and saw them all out beyond the mountain gate.
Deictic 那本寺: 那 = nà. Durative 吹打著 著 = zhe; 都 = dōu. 細樂: 樂 = yuè ("music").
行者笑道：「和尚們不必遠送，但恐官家有人知覺，泄漏我的事機，反為不美。
行者笑道：「和尚们不必远送，但恐官家有人知觉，泄漏我的事机，反为不美。
Pilgrim laughed: "Reverends, no need to see us far; only I fear the palace folk may have someone who gets wind of it, leaking my scheme, which would turn out badly.
反為不美: 為 = wéi ("turn out"). 知覺: 覺 = jué ("to perceive"). 事機 = "the plan, the plot."
快回去，快回去。
快回去，快回去。
Get back quickly, get back quickly.
快回去, repeated — Wukong hurrying the monks off.
但把那皇帝的衣服冠帶，整頓乾淨，或是今晚明早，送進城來，我討些封贈賞賜謝你。」
但把那皇帝的衣服冠带，整顿干净，或是今晚明早，送进城来，我讨些封赠赏赐谢你。」
Only, take that emperor's clothes, cap, and belt, put them in order and clean, and send them into the city tonight or early tomorrow, and I'll get you some grant of reward and thanks."
Deictic 那皇帝: 那 = nà. 整頓乾淨: 乾 = gān ("clean, dry"). 冠帶: 冠 = guān ("cap").
眾僧依命各回訖。
众僧依命各回讫。
The monks obeyed the order and each withdrew.
依命各回訖 = "obeyed and all went back."
行者放開大步，趕上師父，一直前來。正是：
行者放开大步，赶上师父，一直前来。正是：
Pilgrim strode out, caught up with the master, and came straight on. Indeed:
放開大步 = "loosed his stride." The narrator's tag 正是 introduces the closing verse; the couplet is spliced off at the colon (：).
西方有訣好尋真，金木和同卻煉神。
西方有诀好寻真，金木和同却炼神。
In the West there is a secret, good for seeking the True; / when Metal and Wood are joined in accord, the Spirit is refined.
First couplet of the verse. 金木 (Metal and Wood) name Pilgrim (mind/metal) and Eight Rules (wood/nature) in the book's Five-Phases (五行) allegory; 和同 = "joined in concord," and 煉神 = "to refine the spirit."
丹母空懷懞懂夢，嬰兒長恨杌樗身。
丹母空怀蒙懂梦，婴儿长恨杌樗身。
The Cinnabar Mother vainly cradles a muddled dream; / the Infant forever grieves its worthless, stunted frame.
嬰兒 (the "Infant") is the inner-alchemical child of the elixir — standalone, 兒 = ér; 長恨 長 = cháng ("long, ever"). 杌樗 = a useless stump-tree, i.e. a worthless body; 丹母 = the "cinnabar mother," the matrix of the elixir.
必須井底求明主，還要天堂拜老君。
必须井底求明主，还要天堂拜老君。
One must, at the bottom of the well, seek the enlightened lord; / one must also, in the halls of Heaven, do homage to Lord Lao.
井底求明主 recalls the drowned king fished from the well; 還要 還 = hái ("moreover"); 拜老君 recalls the elixir begged at Tuṣita.
悟得色空還本性，誠為佛度有緣人。
悟得色空还本性，诚为佛度有缘人。
Awaken to Form-and-Emptiness and revert to the original nature; / truly this is the Buddha delivering those of karmic affinity.
悟得: 得 = dé. 還本性: 還 = huán ("to revert"). 色空 = Form-and-Emptiness (Buddhist); 誠為佛度 為 = wéi, 佛 = fó.
總評 Commentary
The company takes leave of Precious-Grove Monastery, and the passage closes on a set-piece verse — hence its four-chip, "with rhapsody" presentation. The prose is brief and practical: Wukong hurries the five hundred escorting monks back, wary that word of the true king's revival could leak to the impostor's court, and arranges for the royal robes to be smuggled into the city after. The care he takes over secrecy is the plot tightening before the palace scene.
The verse lifts the episode into allegory. Its language is the vocabulary of Daoist inner alchemy laid over the pilgrim band: 金木和同 — Metal and Wood "joined in concord" — names the disciplined cooperation of Wukong (mind/metal) and the others in the Five-Phases scheme, while the 丹母 (Cinnabar Mother) and the 嬰兒 (the Infant, the nascent elixir-self) are the standard actors of the 內丹 drama. The couplets fold the chapter's own events into that frame — the enlightened lord sought "at the bottom of the well," the homage paid "to Lord Lao" in Heaven — so that the rescue of a murdered king reads at once as narrative and as a parable of awakening to 色空, Form-and-Emptiness, and reverting to the original nature.