"Sweeping the floor is afraid of hurting ants' lives, but cherishing moths' gauze lanterns" comes from the 27th Journey to the West, "Tang Sanzang, the holy monk, hates chasing the Monkey King in the three plays of corpse demon". The full text is as follows:
Jumping out of the three realms, not in the five elements, spotless, all troubles are empty, sweeping the floor is afraid of hurting the lives of ants, cherish moth gauze lamps, do not fish with hooks in the pool, often put caged birds, watch the tiger fight behind the mountains, listen to the birds in the forest, and look at the world coldly.
Not in the three realms and five elements, unless the heart is polluted by vulgar dust, nothing else can be thought of. Sweeping the floor is afraid of hurting the life of ants, so cherish the life of moths. You can't catch fish in the pond with a hook. Birds in cages are often released. When you are free, you can watch tigers fight on the mountain. When you are free, you can listen to birds in the Woods. You can see the world without worry.
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These two poems were quoted by the Tang Priest when he exhorted the Monkey King to abandon evil and do good. It uses metaphor, vivid image, difficult and simple, fully embodies the moral concept of "compassion is good" of Tang priest, and expounds the Buddhist commandment of "not killing"
Although the author preached many Buddhist dogmas in the book, he objectively exposed the sadness, ridiculousness, pity and sadness of this concept of "never forgetting kindness" through the experience of Tang Priest and his disciples, and received a good irony effect. Tang Priest is soft-hearted, always doing good deeds, but always proving that his compassion has not brought good results in front of facts. His quip became a great satire on the Buddhist doctrine of compassion and not killing.