原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
下回分解 To Be Continued
畢竟不知此去端的如何，且聽下回分解。毕竟不知此去端的如何，且听下回分解。
逐句解 Line by line
畢竟不知此去端的如何，且聽下回分解。
毕竟不知此去端的如何，且听下回分解。
There is no knowing, in the end, how this journey will really turn out; listen to the next chapter, and it will be explained.
The storyteller's sign-off, with one word changed. 端的 means the truth of a matter as against how it looks — and 的 in it reads dì, not the everyday toneless de. The Kāngxī dictionary cites the phrase inside its 丁歷切 entry and closes by noting that 底 was the form used in Song books, never this character.
The storyteller's closing formula, and the chapter puts one telling word in it. It does not ask what will happen next; it asks 此去端的如何, how the journey will really turn out — and 端的 is the word for the truth of a thing as against its appearance.
That is a fair last word here. The chapter began with a monastery that looked like Thunderclap, a sign read short by one character, and a Buddha who was a demon in a borrowed shape. It ends with the Great Sage alone on a hilltop, everybody else in a cellar, and the question of what is really the case still wide open.