原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
半夜打個 One Stretch Of The Cudgel
行者笑道：「獃子嘴臉，不要虛驚。若論滿山滿谷之魔，只消老孫一路棒，半夜打個罄盡。」行者笑道：「呆子嘴脸，不要虚惊。若论满山满谷之魔，只消老孙一路棒，半夜打个罄尽。」
逐句解 Line by line
行者笑道：「獃子嘴臉，不要虛驚。
行者笑道：「呆子嘴脸，不要虚惊。
Pilgrim laughed. "What a face on you, idiot. No need for these groundless frights.
虛驚 is a fright with nothing behind it — an alarm at an alarm. Pilgrim is dismissing forty-eight thousand demons as a mood.
若論滿山滿谷之魔，只消老孫一路棒，半夜打個罄盡。」
若论满山满谷之魔，只消老孙一路棒，半夜打个罄尽。」
As for hills and valleys full of demons, all it needs is one stretch of Old Sun's cudgel, and by midnight I shall have beaten the whole lot clean away."
只消 is all it takes, nothing more required. 一路棒 is one run of the staff — a single sweep rather than a fight. And 罄盡 is emptied to the last, the word for a vessel with nothing left in it: not most of them, all of them.
Pilgrim's answer to the inventory is not to dispute a single figure. He accepts the hills and the valleys and the forty-eight thousand and proposes to deal with the lot before morning.
The vocabulary is worth hearing. Not a battle, not a campaign — one sweep of a stick, and a word for emptying a jar. He is describing a chore.
It is also the first time in the chapter that anybody has answered a number with a method. Bajie counted; the old man counted; Pilgrim proposes to do something.