《西游记》中须菩提祖师的口诀及其相关的丹道意象

Patriarch Subodhi’s Oral Formulas and Their Related Images in the Xiyou ji

唐僧玄奘西行取经是《西游记》的主要内容,但小说却不由玄奘写起,反由虚构的孙悟空的出世讲起。我们究其原因,除了悟空在小说中扮演的角色位居关键外,另涉及《西游记》中一个挥之不去的主题:不死的追寻。此一追寻,主要由小说中也是挥之不去的内丹语汇表现出来。本文就文本论文本,仅处理《西游记》第二回须菩提祖师传给悟空的一首口诀及其相关的意象,因为这首歌诀实为《西游记》的丹道寓言的总枢,意义非凡。歌诀不长,修辞却相当精致,其中特色之最大者,是不同名词或意象配对成双,而其内涵往往又带有强烈的性暗示,例如日与月的结合、玉兔与金乌的媾合,以及龟与蛇的盘结等等,并及隐寓于其中的姹女与婴孩等阴阳的和合。本文博采丹家诸说,尤重魏伯阳的《周易参同契》、张伯端的《悟真篇》和或写于明清间的《性命圭旨》等丹经,正面处理须菩提祖师传给悟空的这首口诀,指出上述意象除其本身所具有的意涵外,另因某些情节发展而益具丹道上的意义,和《西游记》的主题发展关连尤大。虽然如此,本文最后仍结论道:上述具有性意涵的配对成双的意象,其实中文“譬喻”二字尽可传其神,道其韵,无非修辞而已。丹家或《西游记》中引用这些丹道的书家,无不希望炼家或读者得意便罢,其象捐之可也。

The novel Xiyou ji deals with Xuanzang’s pilgrimage to India for Buddhist scriptures.Curiously,the story does not begin with the appearance of Xuanzang;instead,it starts with the birth and the quest for immortality of one of his fictitious disciples,Sun Wukong.As one gets into the crucial role Wukong plays in the novel,one finds that Subodhi’s oral instructions,and other major,related images as well,may have to do with one of the multiple layers of allegory the story of Wukong develops:the allegory of internal alchemy,the search for an elixir capable of prolonging life indefinitely.The allegory is reinforced in the second chapter when Subodhi recites for Wukong oral formulas that allude to internal alchemy.One of the rhetorical devices of these instructions highlighted is paired images with strong sexual intimations.This paper attempts to decode those and other relevant images in the oral formulas,pointing out their significance in the allegorical framework of the novel.Furthermore,this paper ends with the poetics that lies behind these paired images:“piyu,”an analogy,simile,or more precisely,metaphor.Should one grasp the connotations of these elixir images related to Subodhi’s oral formulas,the adept of internal alchemy suggests that one forget them,since they are no more than piyu.In other words,they are not real.