都燒得乾淨 Burnt Clean Away
好獃子,尋了些朽松、破竹、乾柳、枯藤,點上一把火,烘烘的都燒得乾淨。師徒卻才放心前來。好呆子,寻了些朽松、破竹、干柳、枯藤,点上一把火,烘烘的都烧得干净。师徒却才放心前来。
逐句解 Line by line
That fine blockhead went and found some rotten pine, split bamboo, dry willow and withered vine, put a light to it, and the whole place went up roaring and burnt clean away.
乾 is gān twice in one sentence — dry willow, and burnt clean. They are the fourth and fifth sites in the chapter and the base offers qián, the trigram, at every one of the five. 得 takes de in 燒得, joining the burning to its result. 烘烘 doubles the roar of a fire.
Master and disciples only then set out again with easy minds.
卻才 — only then, not until. Eight characters, and it is the last sentence of the chapter's action: the party gets back on the road, which is where Chapter 72 found them.
Eight Rules collects rotten pine, split bamboo, dry willow and withered vine, and burns the place to the ground. The four kinds of fuel are named individually, which is this book's habit whenever anybody does anything thoroughly.
And then the party rides on with easy minds, which is the chapter's last quiet joke. Nothing has been resolved. The seven are alive and gone to an uncle nobody has met; the master ate nothing; the disciples have between them lost an argument, a fight and an afternoon. What they have achieved is an empty burnt house.