原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
下回分解 To Be Continued
畢竟這去,不知三藏幾時得面佛求經,且聽下回分解。毕竟这去,不知三藏几时得面佛求经,且听下回分解。
逐句解 Line by line
畢竟這去,不知三藏幾時得面佛求經,且聽下回分解。
毕竟这去,不知三藏几时得面佛求经,且听下回分解。
In the end, going on from here, we do not know in what season Tripitaka got to face the Buddha and seek the scriptures. Let us listen to the explanation in the next chapter.
The standard 話本 closer, carrying 回 (unlike Ch.56, which prints 且聽下分解 without it). 分解 fēn jiě. 得 dé, attainment.
The formula is the storyteller's, and it is doing its ordinary work of holding an audience over to the next sitting. What it asks about, though, is the thing the chapter has just spent itself not answering: 幾時得面佛求經 — in what season will he get to face the Buddha and seek the scriptures.
There is a quiet joke in it. Wukong has just faced the Buddha, in person, at the Thunderclap Monastery, and come away with nothing but permission to go on walking. The scriptures were never the business of this chapter; the pilgrimage has to be made on foot regardless of who has already been to the destination.
Ch.58 closes with the party restored and forty-two chapters still to run.