分明要瞞著你 Bajie Owns the Ruse
八戒聞得此言，叩頭上告道：「哥啊，分明要瞞著你，請你去的，不期你這等樣靈。饒我打，放我起來說罷。」行者道：「也罷，起來說。」眾猴撒開手。那獃子跳得起來，兩邊亂張。行者道：「你張甚麼？」八戒道：「看看那條路兒空闊，好跑。」行者道：「你跑到那裡？我就讓你先走三日，老孫自有本事趕轉你來。快早說來，這一惱發我的性子，斷不饒你。」八戒闻得此言，叩头上告道：「哥啊，分明要瞒着你，请你去的，不期你这等样灵。饶我打，放我起来说罢。」行者道：「也罢，起来说。」众猴撒开手。那呆子跳得起来，两边乱张。行者道：「你张甚么？」八戒道：「看看那条路儿空阔，好跑。」行者道：「你跑到那里？我就让你先走三日，老孙自有本事赶转你来。快早说来，这一恼发我的性子，断不饶你。」
逐句解 Line by line
Hearing these words, Bajie knocked his head and confessed: "Brother, plainly I did mean to keep it from you and coax you into going — I never reckoned you would be so uncannily sharp.
Caught out, Bajie confesses everything at once — which is its own kind of cunning. 聞得, wén de, "having heard"; 分明, fēn míng, "plainly, I admit it"; 瞞著, mán zhe, the "-ing" form, keeping it hidden; 不期, bù qī, "I never reckoned on it."
Spare me the beating, let me up, and I'll tell it all."
饒我打, ráo wǒ dǎ: let me off the flogging.
Pilgrim said: "Very well — get up and speak."
也罷, yě bà: "so be it, all right then."
The host of monkeys let go their hold.
撒開手, sā kāi shǒu: they let go their grip.
The Blockhead sprang up and looked wildly to either side.
跳得起來, tiào de qǐ lái, "managed to get up"; 亂張, luàn zhāng, to peer wildly about. He is not admiring the scenery.
Pilgrim said: "What are you gawking at?"
張, zhāng, here means to crane the neck and stare — nothing to do with the surname or with opening anything.
Bajie said: "I'm seeing which stretch of road is broad and open — good for running."
The excuse is transparent and Bajie knows it. 那條路兒, nà tiáo lù'r, "that stretch of road," with the pointing 那 and a soft 兒 on the end.
Pilgrim said: "And where would you run to?
And this 那 is the questioning one: 那裡, nǎ lǐ, "to where."
Even were I to give you three days' head start, this old Sun has the craft to fetch you back.
趕轉, gǎn zhuǎn, "to chase you down and turn you round" — a quiet boast about the somersault-cloud, which crosses a hundred and eight thousand lǐ at a bound. Three days' start would be no start at all.
Out with it, and quickly — if this stirs my temper up, I'll not spare you at all."
發性子, fā xìng zi, to let one's temper off the leash; 斷不, duàn bù, "absolutely not."
Bajie's confession is disarmingly complete — he admits outright that the whole errand was a ruse to coax Wukong back — and it turns the previous scene inside out. What softened the Great Sage was not really the invocation of Guanyin but the pig's shrewd reading of the Mind-Monkey's own restless attachment. Bajie is a good deal craftier than "Blockhead" allows.
The comedy then caps itself with his eyeing of the escape route while pretending to survey the terrain, and with Wukong's flat reply that three days' head start would make no difference. The quarrel settled, the way is clear for Bajie to tell what actually befell the master, which the next passage takes up.