原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
千千萬萬 Thousands Upon Thousands Killed
你想你離了東土，一路西來，卻也過了幾重山場，遇著許多妖怪，常把你拿將進洞。老孫來救你，使鐵棒，常打死千千萬萬。你想你离了东土，一路西来，却也过了几重山场，遇着许多妖怪，常把你拿将进洞。老孙来救你，使铁棒，常打死千千万万。
逐句解 Line by line
你想你離了東土，一路西來，卻也過了幾重山場，遇著許多妖怪，常把你拿將進洞。
你想你离了东土，一路西来，却也过了几重山场，遇着许多妖怪，常把你拿将进洞。
Think back: since you left the Land of the East and came west along this road, you have crossed several ranges of mountain country and met a great many demons, and they have carried you off into their caves times without number.
Two readings to watch. 重 is chóng, a layer or fold — range upon range, not weight. And 遇著 takes 著 as zháo, the reading for a meeting that came off, the second of the chapter's six.
老孫來救你，使鐵棒，常打死千千萬萬。
老孙来救你，使铁棒，常打死千千万万。
Old Monkey came to save you, used the iron rod, and killed them by the thousand and the ten thousand.
千千萬萬 doubles both numbers, which in Chinese means "more than anyone counted" rather than any particular figure.
Pilgrim changes tack from evidence to history, and the history is on his side. Every previous version of this scene ended with his master in a cave and himself at the door with a club.
But the argument he actually makes is a strange one to put to a monk, and he does not notice. He is asking to be trusted on the grounds of how many living creatures he has killed. Tripitaka's whole objection is that lives are not to be discarded, and his disciple's credentials are a body count.