不明走罷 Leave Before It Is Light
又被那二百四十家燈油大戶這家酬，那家請，略無虛刻。八戒遂心滿意受用，把洞裡搜來的寶物，每樣各籠些須在袖，以為各家齋筵之賞。住經個月，猶不得起身。長老吩咐：「悟空，將餘剩的寶物盡送慈雲寺僧，以為酬禮。瞞著那些大戶人家，天不明走罷。恐只管貪樂，誤了取經，惹佛祖見罪，又生災厄，深為不便。」行者隨將前件一一處分。次日五更早起，喚八戒備馬。又被那二百四十家灯油大户这家酬，那家请，略无虚刻。八戒遂心满意受用，把洞里搜来的宝物，每样各笼些须在袖，以为各家斋筵之赏。住经个月，犹不得起身。长老吩咐：「悟空，将余剩的宝物尽送慈云寺僧，以为酬礼。瞒着那些大户人家，天不明走罢。恐只管贪乐，误了取经，惹佛祖见罪，又生灾厄，深为不便。」行者随将前件一一处分。次日五更早起，唤八戒备马。
逐句解 Line by line
And besides, those two hundred and forty households of the lamp-oil levy were repaying them, this family and that family inviting them, with hardly an idle hour.
The scale of the racket, given as a number for the first time: two hundred and forty great households paid the oil levy. 略無虛刻 — scarcely an empty quarter-hour. The people they saved feed them in rotation, for weeks, and they cannot get away.
Eight Rules enjoyed himself to his heart's content, and of the treasures fetched out of the cave he tucked a little of each sort into his sleeve, to give as presents at each family's meatless feast.
The idiot has worked out a system. He is distributing the demons' stolen treasure as thank-you gifts at the dinners the town is giving him, out of his own sleeve, and being thanked for it. 遂心滿意 — heart followed and intention filled. Nobody stops him.
They stayed a full month and still could not get on the road.
猶不得起身 puts 不得 BEFORE the verb, which makes it the modal "could not" and gives the full dé. A month. The journey has stopped dead in a prefecture that will not stop feeding them.
The elder gave his order: "Wukong, take all the remaining treasures and send them to the monks of the Cloud-of-Compassion Monastery, by way of return for their courtesy.
The first sensible instruction the Tang Monk has given in two chapters, and it is about giving away loot. 以為酬禮 — as a return gift; 為 is wéi, to serve as.
Keep it from those great households, and let us go before it is light.
瞞著 — keeping it from them, with the sustained zhe: concealing, and going on concealing. And 走罷 ends on the light ba, the ordinary softening sound — not the fuller bà that the fixed phrase for "very well then" carries. The holy monk is proposing they sneak out of town.
I am afraid that if we go on being greedy for pleasure we shall spoil the scripture-fetching, and offend the Buddha Patriarch, and bring more disaster on ourselves, which would be most inconvenient."
And here he is, having learnt the chapter's lesson a month late. 貪樂 — greedy for pleasure — is exactly what the closing verse accused him of after the lantern festival, and he now says it about himself. 深為不便 has 為 as wéi once more.
Pilgrim thereupon dealt with each of the foregoing items one by one.
Ten characters, and they carry the most technically awkward reading in the chapter. 處分 means to dispose of a matter, to settle it, and its first character is read chǔ — not the chù that means a place. Ruling it that way moves the character from a falling tone to a dipping one, and the 一 sitting in front of it has to change with it; and then the first of the two 一 has to change again to match the second. One four-character phrase, three readings settled against each other, and none of it visible on the page.
Next day at the fifth watch he rose early and called Eight Rules to saddle the horse.
The night-watch returns for the last time, and it is telling the time again: 五更, the fifth of the five, so roughly three to five in the morning. It is the same character that woke a demon king at the third watch in the first batch because nobody was calling the hours.
A month goes by in one line, and it is the funniest failure in the chapter. Two hundred and forty households take it in turns to feed the men who saved them, and the pilgrims cannot get out of town. Eight Rules is handing round the demons' treasure at dinner parties as though it were his own.
Then the Tang Monk says the thing the chapter's closing verse accused him of, about himself, unprompted: if we go on being greedy for pleasure we shall spoil the work. It is the same fault that lost him to the lantern festival in the first place, and this time he catches it — a month late, and having eaten extremely well. The novel gives him the recognition without giving him the credit.
His solution is to leave before dawn without telling anyone, which is not obviously the behaviour of a holy man whom gratitude is chasing. He calls it keeping it from them. The disciples do not argue.