Read The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 2 Online
Authors: Unknown
3
. Master Zhou . . . :
Lady Peach-Blossom
is the name of a Yuan drama, which tells the story of a woman exorcist by the same name who she outwits the tricks of a devious fortune-teller, Master Zhou.
4
. Master Ghost Valley: Guiguzi. See JW 1, chapter 10, n. 18.
5
. “Square-sky” halberd: the weapon is a figured halberd with side blades, and the
whole
head resembles the Chinese graph,
tian
, meaning sky. The semblance probably provided the name. See Zhou, plate 83, 14.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
1
. Nidānas cease: in Buddhist doctrine, there is the cycle of twelve linked causes in existence (
shi’er yinyuan
), from which it is the religion’s aim to set men free. “Cease” literally is
fu
, to fall prostrate, to yield, to submit, and to be subdued. The cycle of causes consists of ignorance (
avidyā
,
wuming
), which causes the phenomenon of the aggregates (
sa
ṁ
skāra, xing
), which causes the phenomenon of consciousness (
vijñāna, shi
), which causes the phenomenon of name and form (
nāmarūpa, ming se
), which causes the phenomenon of the six senses (
ṣ
a
ḍ
āyatana
,
liuru
), which causes the phenomenon of contact (
sparśa, chu
), which causes the phenomenon of sensations (
vedanā, shou
), which causes the phenomenon of desire (
tr
ṣ
nā, ai
), which causes the phenomenon of grasping (
upādāna, qu
), which causes the phenomenon of coming into existence (
bhava, you
), which causes the phenomenon of birth (
jāti, sheng
), which causes the phenomenon of old age and death (
jarāmara
ṇ
a, lao si