空山靈雨 Empty Mountain, Spiritual Rain7 / 45

香 Incense

香Incense

妻子說：『良人，你不是愛聞香麽！My wife said, “Husband, do you not love fragrant scents?我曾託人到鹿港去買上好的沈香線；I asked someone to buy some incense sticks of the finest agarwood in Lukang;現在已now they have

妻子说：『良人，你不是爱闻香么！我曾托人到鹿港去买上好的沈香线；现在已

經寄到了．』她說着，便抽出妝臺底抽屜，取了一條沈香線，燃着，再插在小宣鑪中．arrived.” As she spoke, she opened the bottom drawer of her dressing table, took out an agarwood incense stick, lit it, and placed it in a small Xuande censer.

经寄到了．』她说着，便抽出妆台底抽屉，取了一条沈香线，燃着，再插在小宣𬬻中．

我說：『在香煙繞繚之中，得有清談．給我說一個生番故事罷．不然，就給我談佛．』I said, “Amid the curling incense smoke, we ought to have some refined conversation. Tell me a story about the indigenous tribes—or else, talk to me about the Buddha.”

我说：『在香烟绕缭之中，得有清谈．给我说一个生番故事罢．不然，就给我谈佛．』

妻子說『生番故事，太野了．佛更不必說，我也不會說．』My wife said, “Stories about the tribes are too wild. As for the Buddha, there is even less need to speak of him; I would not know how.”

妻子说『生番故事，太野了．佛更不必说，我也不会说．』

『你就隨便說些你所知道底罷。“Just tell me whatever you happen to know.橫豎我們都不大懂得；After all, neither of us understands very much;你且說什麽是佛法罷．』for a start, tell me what the Dharma is.”

『你就随便说些你所知道底罢。横竖我们都不大懂得；你且说什么是佛法罢．』

『佛法麽？“The Dharma?一一色，一一聲，一一香，一一味，一一觸，一一造作，一一思維，都是佛法；Every color, every sound, every scent, every taste, every touch, every action, and every thought is the Dharma;

『佛法么？一一色，一一声，一一香，一一味，一一触，一一造作，一一思维，都是佛法；

惟有愛聞香底愛不是佛法．』only the love in your love of fragrance is not the Dharma.”

惟有爱闻香底爱不是佛法．』

『你又矛盾了！“Now you are contradicting yourself!這是什麽因明？』What sort of Buddhist logic is that?”

『你又矛盾了！这是什么因明？』

『不明白麽？“You do not understand?因爲你一愛，便成爲你底嗜好；The moment you love something, it becomes a predilection of yours;那香在你聞覺中，便不是本然的香and then, as you perceive that fragrance, it is no longer the fragrance as it is

『不明白么？因为你一爱，便成为你底嗜好；那香在你闻觉中，便不是本然的香

了．』in itself.”

Loading the interactive reader…

What it’s about

The narrator's wife produces fine incense from Lugang, lights a strand and sets it in a small burner. Surrounded by curling smoke, he asks for conversation—perhaps an Indigenous story, perhaps something about the Buddha. She declines both subjects before agreeing to explain Buddhist teaching in her own teasing way: every color, sound, scent, taste, touch, action and thought is Buddha-dharma, but his love of smelling fragrance is not.

When he calls that claim contradictory, she distinguishes the scent itself from his attachment to it. Once he loves it as a personal taste, the fragrance in his perception is no longer fragrance in its original nature. The point arrives through flirtation rather than sermon. Incense, an object used in devotion, tempts the would-be student into aesthetic possession, while the wife becomes the sharper philosopher. The miniature does not demand that sensation be rejected; it asks how quickly attentive enjoyment hardens into preference and how desire changes the very object it claims merely to appreciate.

When it was written 背景

Xu Dishan studied religion comparatively and wrote on Buddhism as well as Christianity, making the easy coexistence of domestic intimacy and Buddhist terminology characteristic of his work. Lugang in Taiwan was known as a trading port and center of incense manufacture, so the imported strand also connects the room to Xu's southern maritime world. The wife's list loosely follows Buddhist classifications of sense fields and mental activity, while 因明 names Buddhist logic; her joke is informed enough to undercut her claim that she cannot talk about doctrine. Learners need not master the technical system to grasp the contrast between 香 and 愛聞香. The repeated sensory nouns enact the abundance that Buddhist analysis observes without allowing the self to possess it.

Words in this chapter 生词