千般解數 A Thousand Kinds Of Move
逐句解 Line by line
This one with the gold-banded cudgel, a thousand kinds of move;
解數 is the technical term for a set sequence in martial arts, the way a kata or a form is. 解 is xiè in this compound, not the everyday jiě, to loosen or explain, and the novel is consistent about it.
that one with the square-heaven halberd, a hundred sorts of towering skill.
The 方天戟 or square-heaven halberd is Lu Bu's weapon from the Three Kingdoms, so handing it to the third fiend is a piece of casting. 崢嶸 literally describes a mountain that is steep and forbidding, used here of technique.
Bajie's muckrake fiercer still and stronger; the second fiend's long spear handsome and able too.
長 is cháng here, long, not zhǎng, elder — a spear, not a senior. The poem is pairing the six off two by two, and this line is the middle pair.
Little Sha Monk's precious staff no common thing, minded to strike men dead;
小沙僧, little Sha Monk, is affectionate rather than diminutive — he is the youngest of the three disciples and the poem keeps saying so.
the old fiend chief's steel sabre quick and keen, lifting a hand without mercy.
The couplet balances exactly: Sha Monk has intent, the old fiend has none. 有心 against 無情 is the whole moral difference between the two sides compressed into four characters.
Now the poem does what battle poems normally do, and pairs the fighters off. Wukong against the roc, Bajie against the elephant, Sha Monk against the lion. Read the couplets as a seating plan and the fight becomes legible.
Notice that the weapons carry the characterisation. Wukong gets a thousand moves and the roc a hundred, and that ten-to-one ratio is the poem's opinion of who is better. Bajie's rake is fierce and strong, which is praise for a farm tool. Sha Monk's staff is simply not ordinary, which is the least the poem can say about anyone.
The last couplet is the sharp one. Sha Monk means to kill and the old fiend feels nothing about it, and the poem sets those side by side without comment. Intending harm and being incapable of caring are not the same failing, and the chapter is going to spend a long time on the difference.