原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
下回分解 Listen to the Next Chapter
畢竟不知怎麼處治，性命死活若何，且聽下回分解。毕竟不知怎么处治，性命死活若何，且听下回分解。
逐句解 Line by line
畢竟不知怎麼處治，性命死活若何，且聽下回分解。
毕竟不知怎么处治，性命死活若何，且听下回分解。
In the end there is no knowing how the matter will be dealt with, nor whether his life is to be spared — so listen to the next chapter for the telling.
畢竟 is "in the end, after all"; 處治 is to deal with, to dispose of; 性命死活 is whether he lives or dies. Then 且聽下回分解, "and hear the next chapter's telling," with 分 read fēn — the fixed closing formula that ends every chapter of the novel.
The chapter ends on its formula of suspense: the fate of the captured Bajie left hanging, the resolution promised for next time. 且聽下回分解 is the signature device of the chaptered novel, inherited straight from the professional storyteller, who broke each session at a moment of danger to make sure the audience came back — the cliffhanger, several centuries before the serial.
The break is well chosen thematically. The chapter has driven from the 意馬's failed rescue right up to the threshold of the 心猿's recall, and then stopped with the Mind-Monkey refusing and his messenger a prisoner. The disintegration named in the title couplet stands unrepaired as the curtain falls, and the work of putting it back together is carried over, unfinished, into the chapter that follows.