地裂山崩 The Mountain Splits
伯欽聽說，領著三藏，一行人回東即走。走了五七里遠近，又聽得那猴高叫道：「再走，再走。」三藏又行了許遠，下了山，只聞得一聲響喨，真個是地裂山崩。眾人盡皆悚懼。只見那猴早到了三藏的馬前，赤淋淋跪下，道聲：「師父，我出來也。」對三藏拜了四拜，急起身，與伯欽唱個大喏道：「有勞大哥送我師父，又承大哥替我臉上薅草。」謝畢，就去收拾行李，扣背馬匹。那馬見了他，腰軟蹄矬，戰兢兢的立站不住。蓋因那猴原是弼馬溫，在天上看養龍馬的，有些法則，故此凡馬見他害怕。伯钦听说，领着三藏，一行人回东即走。走了五七里远近，又听得那猴高叫道：「再走，再走。」三藏又行了许远，下了山，只闻得一声响喨，真个是地裂山崩。众人尽皆悚惧。只见那猴早到了三藏的马前，赤淋淋跪下，道声：「师父，我出来也。」对三藏拜了四拜，急起身，与伯钦唱个大喏道：「有劳大哥送我师父，又承大哥替我脸上薅草。」谢毕，就去收拾行李，扣背马匹。那马见了他，腰软蹄矬，战兢兢的立站不住。盖因那猴原是弼马温，在天上看养龙马的，有些法则，故此凡马见他害怕。
逐句解 Line by line
When Boqin heard this, he led Sanzang and the whole party off eastward for home.
His work all but done, Boqin turns the party for home. 領著, 'leading', keeps the ongoing-action 著 (zhe): he is still shepherding the monk even as he goes.
They had gone some five or seven li when again they heard the monkey call out, "Keep going — keep going!"
The monkey is not saying hello. 再走，再走 — keep going, keep going — is him telling them to get further off before the mountain comes apart. 里 (lǐ) is again the unit of distance.
Sanzang went on a good way further, and once he was down off the mountain, there came a great crashing sound — truly it was as if the earth split and the mountain crumbled.
地裂山崩 — the earth splits, the mountain crumbles. Four characters, and the whole cataclysm is delivered.
Everyone was struck with dread.
Everyone is terrified, which after that noise seems reasonable. 盡, 'all, entirely', is read jìn.
And there was the monkey, already at Sanzang's horse before them, kneeling stark and bare, calling, "Master, I am out!"
He is not walking out of the wreckage; he is simply there, at the horse's head, before anyone can look. 赤淋淋 means stark naked, stripped bare — five hundred years in a rock will do that to a wardrobe, and the chapter is about to make a running joke of it.
He bowed to Sanzang four times, sprang up, and made a great salute to Boqin, saying,
Four full bows to the monk, then a loud ceremonial salute to the hunter: 拜了四拜 and a 大喏. The most ungovernable creature in Heaven is on his very best behaviour.
"I have troubled you, elder brother, to escort my master, and I thank you for clearing the grass from my face."
薅草 is weeding, pulling grass up by the roots — which is exactly what Boqin did to his face a few minutes ago. He thanks the man with a farmer's word and a rough sort of warmth.
His thanks done, he went at once to gather the baggage and cinch up the horse.
No one asks him. He picks up the luggage and sees to the horse the moment the thanks are over, which is what a disciple does.
But the horse, at the sight of him, went weak in the loins and buckled at the hoof, trembling so that it could not stand.
腰軟蹄矬 — loins gone soft, hooves buckling. The horse's legs simply stop working, and the narrator is setting up a punchline.
For the monkey had once been the Bima'wen — the keeper of the dragon-horses in Heaven, with certain arts to his name — and so ordinary horses are afraid at the sight of him.
And here it is, for anyone who read the early chapters. 弼馬溫 (Bì mǎ wēn), Protector of the Horses, was the derisory little stable post Heaven fobbed Wukong off with — he took it as the insult it was, and the whole rebellion grew out of the slight. Horses, it turns out, still recognise their old supervisor and want nothing to do with him.
The rescue finishes with a cataclysm. Warned by the monkey to get clear, Boqin hurries everyone down the slope; then the mountain breaks open with a crash 'as if the earth split', and Wukong is loose — standing at the horse's head in an instant, naked, delighted, bowing his thanks.
His conduct is all deference: four bows for the master, a loud salute for the hunter, immediate attention to the baggage and the horse. The Great Sage who could not be governed by Heaven is putting on a display of being a model disciple, and the contrast with the rebel of the earlier chapters is exactly the point.
Then the passage ends on a joke. The horse shudders at the sight of him and the narrator explains why: Wukong once held the humiliating heavenly post of 弼馬溫, keeper of the celestial stables, the very appointment whose meanness sent him into revolt. The animals have not forgotten their old warden. It is a light touch that quietly re-establishes his entire history of pride and fall.