The Pilgrim, bold by nature, would brook no discussion; he stepped forward, folded his hands at his breast, and made a bow to the six men, saying:

He does not stop to discuss it: he walks up to six armed men, folds his hands at his chest and bows, which is mockery dressed as courtesy. In 那容分說, 'as if he would allow discussion', 那 is the rhetorical 'how would he' and reads nǎ; in 對那六個人 the same character simply points, and reads nà.

"Sirs, what is the reason you block the road of this poor monk?"

列位, 'you gentlemen', is the polite plural — the form you would use on a committee. Addressed to six men holding spears, it is doing all the comic work of the scene. 甚麼 reads 甚 as shén.

The men said, "We are the great kings who cut the highways, the mountain lords of generous heart.

Stock highwayman's bombast: great kings who cut the highways, mountain lords of generous heart. They are robbers, and they announce themselves like a charity. 那人 reads 那 as nà; 行好心 reads 行 as xíng.

Our great names have long been noised abroad — you must not have heard.

Our names are famous everywhere; you have obviously not got out much. In 你量不知 the character 量 carries the sense 'to presume, to reckon' and is read liàng.

Set down your goods at once and we will let you pass; but say so much as half a 'no,' and we will grind you to bone and pulp."

Hand it over or be ground to bone and pulp, delivered in four-character blocks that land like drumbeats. 教你, 'make you', reads 教 as jiào.

The Pilgrim said, "I too am a great king by inheritance, a mountain lord of many years' standing — yet I have never heard that you sirs had any great names."

He answers boast with boast, claims a longer pedigree in banditry than theirs, and adds the needle that their famous names have somehow never reached him. 聞得 takes 得 as de; 有甚大名 reads 甚 as shén.

The men said, "You do not know them; then let me tell you, and hear:

Then let me tell you — and the passage's whole point is that they do.

one is called Eye-that-Sees-and-Delights, one Ear-that-Hears-and-Rages, one Nose-that-Smells-and-Covets, one Tongue-that-Tastes-and-Longs, one Mind-that-Conceives-and-Lusts, and one Body-that-is-Rooted-in-Care."

The six names decode the chapter title. These are the 六賊, the Six Robbers, which is the standard Buddhist figure for the 六根, the six sense-faculties that rob a mind of its peace: eye, ear, nose, tongue, mind and body. Each has been yoked here to the passion that besets it — delight, anger, craving, longing, lust and care — so that Eye-that-Sees-and-Delights and the rest are less a gang than a diagram. To kill them is to still the senses, which is why the title can celebrate a massacre.

Wukong laughed and said, "So you are six petty thieves. You do not even know that this monk is your own master, yet you come to block my way.

Wukong gets the allegory instantly, which is worth noticing: he dismisses them as 六個毛賊, six petty thieves, and claims to be their 主人公, their rightful master — because in the figure being drawn, the disciplined mind is exactly what ought to command the senses. 不認得 reads 得 as de.

Bring out the treasures you have robbed, and I will divide them with you in seven equal shares, and let you off."

And then, having established that he is their lawful lord, he demands a seven-way split of their loot — six shares for them, one for him. It is pure impudence, and it is also the only offer on the table. 把那打劫 reads 那 as nà; 均分 reads 分 as fēn.