原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
買匹布兒 Scraped Off My Own Teeth
八戒道：「嘴臉，這是甚麼私房？都是牙齒上刮下來的，我不捨得買來嘴吃，留了買匹布兒做件衣服，你卻嚇了我的。還分些兒與我。」八戒道：「嘴脸，这是甚么私房？都是牙齿上刮下来的，我不舍得买来嘴吃，留了买匹布儿做件衣服，你却吓了我的。还分些儿与我。」
逐句解 Line by line
八戒道：「嘴臉，這是甚麼私房？
八戒道：「嘴脸，这是甚么私房？
Bajie said: "You have a face on you. What private money is this?
嘴臉 thrown back at Wukong — the same word used of Bajie twice already in this chapter.
都是牙齒上刮下來的，我不捨得買來嘴吃，留了買匹布兒做件衣服，你卻嚇了我的。
都是牙齿上刮下来的，我不舍得买来嘴吃，留了买匹布儿做件衣服，你却吓了我的。
Every bit of it was scraped off my own teeth. I could not bring myself to spend it on food for my mouth. I kept it to buy a length of cloth and have a garment made, and you have frightened it out of me.
得 is the light de in 不捨得, linking the verb to its outcome. 兒 keeps ér.
還分些兒與我。」
还分些儿与我。」
Give me some of it back at least."
還 reads hái — even so, all the same. 分 is the verb fēn, to share out.
Scraped off my own teeth is a vivid way of saying he went without to save it, and in his case it is close to literal. The money came from meal-offerings; every fen of it represents a mouthful he was given and did not eat. For Bajie, whose appetite is his defining feature, that is an extraordinary act of self-denial.
What he wanted it for is the detail that turns the joke. Not food, not drink — cloth, to have a garment made. Wukong noticed a passage ago that his brother has not even a pair of trousers, and it turns out Bajie had noticed too and was doing something about it, one meal at a time.
The novel does not soften this and it does not sentimentalise it either. Bajie is still greedy, still lazy, still lying about the hoard's existence five minutes ago. He is also a man who saved half a tael over several years to buy himself something to wear, and has just lost it to his brother's practical joke.