原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
回末結煞 Chapter Close
畢竟不知那獃子凶吉如何，且聽下回分解。毕竟不知那呆子凶吉如何，且听下回分解。
逐句解 Line by line
畢竟不知那獃子凶吉如何，且聽下回分解。
毕竟不知那呆子凶吉如何，且听下回分解。
After all, there is no knowing whether the blockhead's fortune was ill or fair — pray hear it told in the next chapter.
畢竟不知 “in the end one does not know” (那獃子 那 nà, 子 zi). 凶吉如何 “whether ill or auspicious.” 且聽下回分解 “pray listen to the next chapter's telling,” 分 fēn — the storyteller's stock formula closing the chapter.
The chapter ends on the storyteller's customary hook. Bajie has been found trussed in the grove, his fate for the moment unresolved — whether ill or fair, the teller will not yet say. With the formula “pray hear it told in the next chapter,” the narration suspends the thread and invites the listener onward, closing the 四聖試禪心 episode on a note of comic suspense that leaves Bajie's rescue, and his chastening, for the telling to come.