原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
買命錢 Money To Buy A Life
行者道：「半分也沒得與你。」八戒罵道：「買命錢讓與你罷，好道也救我出去是。」行者道：「莫發急，等我救你。」行者道：「半分也没得与你。」八戒骂道：「买命钱让与你罢，好道也救我出去是。」行者道：「莫发急，等我救你。」
逐句解 Line by line
行者道：「半分也沒得與你。」
行者道：「半分也没得与你。」
Wukong said: "You will not get half a fen of it."
得 is again the light de — cannot manage to have.
八戒罵道：「買命錢讓與你罷，好道也救我出去是。」
八戒骂道：「买命钱让与你罢，好道也救我出去是。」
Bajie swore: "Keep it then as the price of my life. But you might at least get me out of here."
買命錢 — money paid to buy back a life. 罷 keeps bà. 好道 — surely, at any rate.
行者道：「莫發急，等我救你。」
行者道：「莫发急，等我救你。」
Wukong said: "Do not lose your temper. Let me rescue you."
發急 — to fly into a panic or a rage.
Bajie reframes the whole transaction in three characters. It was never a shakedown by a bailiff and never a joke between brothers; it was money paid to buy back a life. Keeping that framing lets him hand over the silver without conceding that he was fooled, which is the last dignity available to him.
And then the request underneath, which is the only thing he has actually wanted since he went into the water: get me out. He has argued about the money for four exchanges and has never once forgotten what the real business is. Neither has Wukong, who now says yes.