Chapter 49: Tripitaka meets disaster and sinks to a water home; To bring salvation, Guanyin reveals a fish basket.
A fish escaped from Guanyin's pond.
“[…] if Master had been drowned or eaten already by him, then there would be no need for us to engage in this bitter quest. We might as well go off in another direction as quickly as possible. How about that?”: Sometimes it sounds like they want him to die so they can quit…
“After journeying for over a hundred miles toward the bottom…”: I know this book is fantasy!China but sometimes the author exaggerates so much.
“Chan and Dao, nurtured, lead to the same essence”: Both Buddhism and Daoism are righteous and true paths.
“Water's the source
To moisten wood.
And wood, thriving, brings forth strong, bright fire.
The conjoined Five Phases will all differ:
That's why they strive, each changing colors”: The five phases are water, wood, fire, metal and earth, all having been mentioned in this poem. They all become the next one and they are always in struggle and harmony at the same time.
“They courted death for Sakyamuni's sake”: Sakyamuni is the Buddha Siddharta Gautama. He is also called Sakyamuni because the kingdom he was a prince of was called Shakya.
“Once his head emerges, you give him one of those garlic-pounding blows squarely on the top of his skull”: This is a reference to when you crush or you mince garlic to make them release their flavour and smell.
Guanyin and her basket
Our heroes on a “turtle”…
End of volume 2!
We finished volume 2, everybody. We only have 50 chapters to go, 2 volumes. I have to apologise because I haven’t always been timely and we could be almost halfway through volume 3 were it not for my life getting in the way.
Still! I hope you enjoyed this volume, I liked it better than volume 1 at times. We’ll start volume 3 the 3rd of May, in case someone has to borrow it from the library.
Have a nice day, wherever you are.
My copy of volume 2 has one more chapter, to get to chapter 50.