廊廡見屍 The Corpse Beneath the Gallery
那龍王前走，這獃子隨後。轉過了水晶宮殿，只見廊廡下，橫躺著一個六尺長軀。龍王用手指定道：「元帥，那廂就是寶貝了。」八戒上前看了，呀！原來是個死皇帝，戴著沖天冠，穿著赭黃袍，踏著無憂履，繫著藍田帶，直挺挺睡在那廂。八戒笑道：「難難難，算不得寶貝。想老豬在山為怪時，時常將此物當飯，且莫說見的多少，吃也吃夠無數，那裡叫做甚麼寶貝？」那龙王前走，这呆子随后。转过了水晶宫殿，只见廊庑下，横躺着一个六尺长躯。龙王用手指定道：「元帅，那厢就是宝贝了。」八戒上前看了，呀！原来是个死皇帝，戴着冲天冠，穿着赭黄袍，踏着无忧履，系着蓝田带，直挺挺睡在那厢。八戒笑道：「难难难，算不得宝贝。想老猪在山为怪时，时常将此物当饭，且莫说见的多少，吃也吃够无数，那里叫做甚么宝贝？」
逐句解 Line by line
The Dragon-King went ahead, and the blockhead followed behind.
那 = nà. One walks ahead, one follows, and neither is telling the other the truth.
They passed round the halls of the Crystal Palace, and there, beneath the covered walk, lay stretched out a body six chǐ in length.
廊廡 is the covered walkway running round a courtyard. 橫躺著: lying stretched out across it (著 = zhe). 六尺長軀: a body six chǐ in length (尺 = chǐ, kept in Chinese since English has no borrowed name for the measure; 長 = cháng).
The Dragon-King pointed with his hand and said: 'Marshal, there is the treasure.'
那廂: 'over there' (那 = nà). The flattest sentence in the chapter, and the dragon-king does not blink.
Bajie went up to look — ah!
呀！ once more — the character the narrator reaches for whenever a character's expectations collapse.
It was a dead emperor — wearing a sky-piercing crown, robed in ochre-yellow, shod in carefree slippers, girt with a Lantian jade belt — lying stiff and straight over there.
The regalia is listed in full, and every item says 'king.' 沖天冠 is the 'sky-piercing' crown with its upswept wings; 赭黃袍 the ochre-yellow robe reserved for the sovereign; 無憂履 the 'carefree' slippers; 藍田帶 a belt set with jade from Lantian, the most famous jade source in China. 戴著…繫著: worn and girded (著 four times = zhe; 繫 = jì, 'to fasten'). 那 = nà. This is not a corpse, it is a coronation portrait lying on its back.
Bajie laughed: 'No, no, no — this can't count as a treasure.'
難難難: three refusals in a row, 難 read nán and used here as a flat 'no good.' 算不得: doesn't count as (得 = dé).
'Back when Old Pig was a monster in the mountains, I used to make a meal of such things all the time; never mind how many I've seen — I've eaten more than I can count. However could you call this a treasure?'
And then the line that stops you. 在山為怪時: back when he was a monster in the mountains (為 = wéi). 將此物當飯: used to treat things like this as dinner (將 = jiāng; 當 = dàng, 'to treat as'). 無數: beyond counting (數 = shù). 那裡叫做甚麼寶貝: 'however could you call that a treasure?' — the questioning nǎ again, and 甚麼 = shén me. The pig who now guards a holy monk is turning up his nose at a corpse on the grounds of having eaten better.
The treasure is revealed and it is a dead emperor, laid out under the palace gallery in full regalia: sky-piercing crown, ochre robe, Lantian jade belt. The novel lingers over the trappings, which mark the body unmistakably as a king's — and then lets Bajie puncture the whole solemn tableau with four words. This can't count as a treasure.
His dismissal draws on his monstrous past for grimly funny effect. As a cannibal ogre in the mountains, he says, he ate such things by the score. It is a reminder of where these disciples came from, deployed for shock and laughter in the same breath: the pig who now guards a holy monk was once a devourer of the dead, and his connoisseur's disdain for one measly corpse is played entirely for comedy.
The scene turns on a double irony. Sent to fetch a treasure, Bajie refuses the one object of value in the room — the very body the whole expedition exists to recover. And the dragon-king, who must somehow persuade a pig that a dead king is worth carrying, now faces a sales problem that drives the haggling of the next passage.