閉門不出 The Gate Barred
說不了，只見門裡小妖來報：「大王，那兩個和尚又來門前索戰哩。」妖精道：「賢妹所見甚長，再不出去，看他怎麼。」急傳令教：「小的們，把門關緊了。正是『任君門外叫，只是不開門』。讓他纏兩日，性攤了回去時，我們卻不自在受用唐僧也？」那小妖一齊都搬石頭，塞泥塊，把門閉殺。说不了，只见门里小妖来报：「大王，那两个和尚又来门前索战哩。」妖精道：「贤妹所见甚长，再不出去，看他怎么。」急传令教：「小的们，把门关紧了。正是『任君门外叫，只是不开门』。让他缠两日，性摊了回去时，我们却不自在受用唐僧也？」那小妖一齐都搬石头，塞泥块，把门闭杀。
逐句解 Line by line
Before she had finished, a little demon came in from the gate to report: "Great King, those two monks are back at the gate again, offering battle."
說不了: 了 is liǎo, "to finish" — not the tag le that marks something done, which is what the same character will be two lines from now. 哩 the spoken tag, li; 那兩個 points, nà.
The fiend said: "Worthy sister, your judgement reaches far. I will not go out again, and we shall see what they can do."
所見甚長: 甚 is the intensifier shèn, "very," and 長 is zhǎng — of judgement, "far-reaching" rather than "lengthy." 看他怎麼 keeps 看 as kàn. He converts her prohibition into a policy of sitting still.
He hastily gave the order: "You little ones, shut the gate fast.
傳令教: 教 jiào, "ordered." And here is the promised contrast — 關緊了 takes 了 as the tag le, where 說不了 two lines back took it as liǎo, "finish."
It is just as the saying goes: 'Let them cry outside the gate as they please — the one thing is, don't open it.'
A rhyming proverb, quoted inside the speech and fenced in 『』: let them shout outside the gate as much as they like, the one rule is don't open it. The demon governs by maxim exactly as he argued by statute at his gate — a creature of formulas from beginning to end.
Let them pester us a couple of days; when their spirit flags and they go away, shall we not then enjoy the Tang Monk at our ease?"
性攤了: 攤 is tān, "to go slack, to spread out limp," here of resolve rather than of dough. 纏, to pester; 受用, to have the enjoyment of. The whole plan is to outlast them.
So the little demons all together hauled up stones, stopped the cracks with lumps of mud, and shut the gate dead.
都 dōu, "all." 塞 is sāi, "to plug, to stop up" — the everyday reading, not the sài of a frontier pass. 石 shí. In 閉殺 the character 殺 again kills nobody: it simply pushes the verb to its limit, so the gate is shut dead.
Told he cannot win, the demon's answer is to make himself unreachable, and the passage is a small study in how a creature of rules behaves when frightened. He quotes a proverb to license the decision — 任君門外叫，只是不開門, let them shout outside as they please, just don't open the gate — exactly as he cited the law of 冒名頂替 to justify his grievance earlier. His whole conduct runs on formulas: he keeps accounts, he argues statutes, he governs by maxim, and now he defends himself with a saying.
The stratagem is also a confession. Walling up your own front door with stones and mud grants everything the 鱖婆 said about you. He cannot fight Wukong, so he will refuse to be fought.
The arithmetic — 讓他纏兩日，性攤了回去, let them pester us a couple of days and their resolve will slacken — is perfectly reasonable against ordinary besiegers and hopeless against this one. Wukong's answer will not be to wait at the gate; it will be to go over the demon's head entirely. The sealed gate that was meant as a defence becomes, within two passages, the exact reason the pilgrims look elsewhere.