Sanzang said, "You have brought down great trouble.

The rebuke that follows is the moral centre of the chapter, and it opens with the charge of having brought down disaster on them both. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 十分 reads 分 as fēn.

Though they were highway robbers, even had they been taken before a magistrate they would not have merited death;

The first argument is legal, not religious: highway robbery was not a capital offence, so even a magistrate would not have hanged them. 強徒 reads 強 as qiáng.

you, for all your powers, needed only to have driven them off — how could you go and beat them all to death?

And the second follows from it: you could have driven them off, so killing them all was surplus to requirements. 就都打死 reads 都 as dōu.

This is taking life without cause. How can you be a monk?

Now the religious charge, and it is the sharpest thing he says: taking life for no cause — so how can you be a monk? 做得和尚 reads 得 as dé.

A man who has left the household sweeps the floor for fear of harming an ant, and shades the lamp out of pity for moths and insects.

The famous picture of monastic scruple: sweeping the floor carefully in case there are ants under the broom, putting gauze round a lamp so moths cannot fly into it. Both are real practices, and both are being held up beside a man who has just clubbed six people to death.

How could you, without telling black from white, beat them dead at a stroke?

不分皂白, 'not telling black from white', is still ordinary Chinese for acting without discrimination — the characters are the black and white of dyed cloth. 分 is read fēn.

You have not a shred of mercy or love of good in your heart.

And the verdict, with nothing left to soften it: not a shred of mercy in you.

It is well that this was in the wild hills, where there is no one to investigate;

Then the argument slides, revealingly, from morals to consequences: lucky for us there was nobody out here to see it. 早還是 reads 還 as hái; 山野中 reads 中 as zhōng.

but if we came to a town, and someone chanced to jostle you, and you fell to violence and beat and wounded people with your cudgel, then even I could not stand clear of it — how should I get free?"

And slides further. What he is really afraid of now is being the travelling companion of a killer in a town with witnesses. 行兇 reads 行 as xíng; 執著 uses the ongoing-action 著 (zhe); 做得白客 reads 得 as dé.

Wukong said, "Master, if I had not killed him, he would have killed you."

One sentence, and the entire counter-argument: if I had not killed him, he would have killed you. The disciple's realism against the master's absolutes is the chapter's real subject, and neither of them is simply wrong.

Sanzang said, "I, who have left the household, would sooner die than do violence.

The reply is the doctrine of harmlessness carried to its end: I would rather be killed than kill. It is a real position, sincerely held, and it is the one thing Wukong cannot answer. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 行兇 reads 行 as xíng.

Were I to die, it would be but one life; but you have killed six of them — how is that to be explained?

He even does the arithmetic: my death would be one life; you have taken six.

If this matter were brought before the authorities, even had your own father been the magistrate, it could not be argued away."

And back to the courts again — not even a magistrate who was your own father could argue this away. 老子 here takes the light 子 (zi).

The Pilgrim said, "I will not deceive you, Master: five hundred years ago, when I held Flower-Fruit Mountain and reigned there as a monster, I killed I know not how many men.

Wukong's answer is his own history, offered without apology: five hundred years ago on Flower-Fruit Mountain he killed more men than he can count, and the world made him a Great Sage for it. 行者 reads 行 as xíng; 稱王為怪 reads 為 as wéi; 多少 reads 少 as shǎo.

Supposing, as you say, it had come before the authorities and I had drawn a few charges upon myself — why, then I should never have become the 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven.'"

The logic is defiant and, on its own terms, sound: a monkey who worried about charge sheets would never have become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. 假似, 'supposing', reads 似 as sì; 得些狀告 reads 得 as dé.

Sanzang said, "It was just because you had no restraint and no rule, running riot in the world, cheating Heaven and deceiving those above, that you suffered that calamity of five hundred years ago.

And Sanzang turns the same history straight round on him. That lawlessness is not a credential; it is why you spent five hundred years under a mountain. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 之難, 'that calamity', reads 難 as nàn.

Now that you have entered the gate of the Buddha, if you still do violence as you did then, taking life at every turn, you cannot go to the Western Heaven, cannot be a monk. Too wicked! Too wicked!"

The rebuke ends in a threat and an exclamation: go on like this and you forfeit the journey and the robes together. 忒惡，忒惡 — too wicked, too wicked — with 忒 read tè. Two syllables, repeated, and they cost him his disciple. 還像 reads 還 as hái; 行兇 reads 行 as xíng; 去不得 and 做不得 both take 得 as dé.