原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
戴得頭巾 How to Wear a Headcloth
我們如今都是和尚，眼下要做俗人，卻怎麼戴得頭巾？就是邊兒勒住，也沒收頂繩處。」我们如今都是和尚，眼下要做俗人，却怎么戴得头巾？就是边儿勒住，也没收顶绳处。」
逐句解 Line by line
我們如今都是和尚，眼下要做俗人，卻怎麼戴得頭巾？
我们如今都是和尚，眼下要做俗人，却怎么戴得头巾？
We are monks as of now, and we are to be laymen right away — so how are we supposed to wear headcloths?
This is the best question anyone asks in the chapter. 得 here is de again, the possibility shape: how can it be worn. A headcloth was wound and tied, and the tying assumed hair.
就是邊兒勒住，也沒收頂繩處。」
就是边儿勒住，也没收顶绳处。」
Even if the brim grips, there is nowhere to draw the crown-cord tight."
勒 is lēi now, to pull something tight around — the other reading, two passages after the lè of putting the screws on. 頂繩 is the cord across the crown that holds the wrapped cloth in place, and Bajie is pointing out that it has nothing to bear against on a shaved skull.
A shaved head is not just recognisable, it is the wrong shape to hide. The headcloth needs hair to grip, so the disguise fails at the exact point it is meant to work.
Bajie has raised a real engineering objection and it will get a real engineering answer — needle, thread, two headcloths cut open and sewn into one. That is the level this chapter operates at, and it is a long way from the usual staff and cloud.