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，领著三藏，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.
Boqin, his part all but done, turns his party homeward. 領著 ("leading," with the durative 著 read zhe) shows him still shepherding the monk down the mountain.
They had gone some five or seven li when again they heard the monkey call out, "Keep going — keep going!"
The monkey's cries — 再走，再走 — urge them to get clear before the mountain breaks. 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.
The mountain's rupture is rendered in the four-character flourish 地裂山崩 ("the earth splits, the mountain crumbles").
Everyone was struck with dread.
The whole company is seized with fear; 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!"
赤淋淋 — "stark naked, all bare" — marks his condition after five centuries in the rock; he appears before the horse in an instant.
He bowed to Sanzang four times, sprang up, and made a great salute to Boqin, saying,
The elaborate courtesies (拜了四拜, four full bows; a 大喏, a loud ceremonial salute) show the newly freed Great Sage on his best behaviour before monk and hunter alike.
"I have troubled you, elder brother, to escort my master, and I thank you for clearing the grass from my face."
薅草 — "weeding, pulling grass" — recalls Boqin's grooming of the overgrown monkey in the previous passage; he thanks the hunter with rough warmth.
His thanks done, he went at once to gather the baggage and cinch up the horse.
He sets to work at once as a disciple should, taking up the baggage and readying the horse.
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.
The horse's terror — 腰軟蹄矬, "loins gone weak, hooves buckling" — is a comic touch that sets up the explanation to follow.
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.
The joke rewards the reader who recalls the earlier chapters: 弼馬溫 (Bìmǎwēn), "Protector of the Horses," was the petty stable-office in Heaven that Wukong was fobbed off with — and took as a grievous insult. Even now, horses know their old overseer and quail before him.
The rescue completes itself with a cataclysm. Warned by the monkey to get clear, Boqin hurries the party down the slope; then the mountain breaks with a crash "as if the earth split," and Wukong is free at last — appearing in an instant at the horse's head, naked and eager, bowing his thanks.
His conduct here is all deference: four bows to the master, a loud salute to the hunter, prompt attention to the baggage and the horse. The formerly ungovernable Great Sage is on display as a model disciple, and the contrast with the rebel of the earlier chapters is part of the point.
The passage ends on comedy. The horse shudders at the sight of him, and the narrator explains why: Wukong once held the derisory Heavenly post of 弼馬溫, keeper of the celestial horses — the very appointment whose meanness drove him to rebellion. The animals still remember their old warden. It is a light touch, but it quietly re-establishes the whole backstory of his pride and fall.