四眾分餐 The Four Share the Meal
遂此四人分吃那飯，那飯熱氣騰騰的。行者道：「這飯多時了，卻怎麼還熱？」土地跪下道：「是小神知大聖功完，才自熱來伺候。」須臾飯畢，收拾了缽盂，辭了土地、山神，那師父才攀鞍上馬，過了高山。正是：滌慮洗心皈正覺，餐風宿水向西行。遂此四人分吃那饭，那饭热气腾腾的。行者道：「这饭多时了，却怎么还热？」土地跪下道：「是小神知大圣功完，才自热来伺候。」须臾饭毕，收拾了钵盂，辞了土地、山神，那师父才攀鞍上马，过了高山。正是：涤虑洗心皈正觉，餐风宿水向西行。
逐句解 Line by line
So the four of them shared out that rice among them, and the rice went up in clouds of steam.
Both 那 are nà, that — the bowl is already in front of them. 分吃 is fēn: to divide a thing and eat it, four ways.
Pilgrim said, "This rice has stood a long while — how is it still hot?"
還 is hái, still, and not huán, to give back. Notice who asks. Wukong is the one member of the party who spots when the physics of a scene is wrong, and he raises it with his mouth full.
The earth-spirit knelt and said, "It was your humble spirit — knowing the Great Sage's labour was accomplished, only then did I warm it to wait upon you."
小神 — your minor godhead — is how a small local deity refers to himself in front of a large one. 伺候 is to wait upon somebody, and it is a servant's word. The earth-spirit is being careful.
In a little while the meal was done. They put away the almsbowl, took leave of the earth-spirit and the mountain god, and only then did the Master climb to the saddle and cross over the high mountain.
Three 了 in one sentence, every one of them the light le that marks a thing done. 那師父 is nà. And the sentence closes the 金兜山 episode on the map as well as in the story: the mountain is crossed and behind them.
It was just as they say: Scouring the thoughts and washing the heart, they took refuge in right awakening; dining on wind and lodging by water, they turned toward the West.
A couplet inside a prose sentence. It is announced by 正是, the standard signal that verse is coming, yet the woodblock does not set it on a line of its own — it runs straight on inside the paragraph — so it is encoded here as the edition made it, as prose. 正覺 is jué, awakening, the Sanskrit saṃbodhi, and not jiào, sleep. 宿 is sù, to lodge for a night; the same character also reads xiǔ for a single night's stay and xiù for one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions.
The steaming rice is a small marvel handled with the novel's usual economy. Wukong notices the oddity, the earth-spirit explains it, and the explanation is itself a compliment: the food was warmed at the exact moment the Great Sage's work was done. Nothing is made of the miracle. It works as a parting courtesy from the local powers, and the story moves on within a sentence.
Structurally the passage is a scene change. A meal is finished, the bowl put away, farewells made, a horse mounted and a mountain crossed — four clauses, one sentence, and the entire 金兜山 ordeal is behind them. The novel habitually marks the end of a trial with this kind of brisk tidying-up, and the effect is to make catastrophe feel like weather: violent, total, and then simply over.
The closing couplet raises a small editorial question. It is introduced by 正是, the usual cue for verse, and yet the 世德堂本 printed in 維基文庫 does not set it as a verse line — it runs on inside the prose. The chapter's ten announced set-pieces are each followed by verse typeset as verse; this one is not, and it is encoded accordingly. The couplet's own language is thoroughly stock: 滌慮洗心 comes from the vocabulary of inner cultivation, 餐風宿水 from the vocabulary of hard travelling.