珍饈百味 A Hundred Flavours
二尊者即奉佛旨，將他四眾領至樓下。看不盡那奇珍異寶，擺列無窮。只見那設供的諸神鋪排齋宴，並皆是仙品、仙餚、仙茶、仙果，珍饈百味，與凡世不同。師徒們頂禮了佛恩，隨心享用。其實是：二尊者即奉佛旨，将他四众领至楼下。看不尽那奇珍异宝，摆列无穷。只见那设供的诸神铺排斋宴，并皆是仙品、仙肴、仙茶、仙果，珍馐百味，与凡世不同。师徒们顶礼了佛恩，随心享用。其实是：
逐句解 Line by line
The two venerables at once received the Buddha's command and led the four of them down to the foot of the loft.
奉佛旨 — received the Buddha's command. The same word for a decree that the chapter has used twice already, of the golden commission Guanyin was given and of the summons into the hall. The two who are about to demand a bribe begin by obeying instantly and without comment.
There was no end to the looking: rare treasures and strange gems, ranged out without limit.
⚠ 看不盡 — cannot finish looking. The same construction the Thunderclap set-piece used a few hundred characters ago about the treasure-pavilions, and the book is repeating it deliberately: the outside of this place was more than the eye could take in, and so is the inside. ⚠ It is also the first hint of the trouble. This is a room full of valuables, and two men are about to notice that their visitors have not brought any.
And they saw the gods whose office is the setting-out of offerings laying on a meatless banquet — and it was all immortal fare: immortal dishes, immortal tea, immortal fruit, a hundred flavours of delicacy, and nothing like the mortal world.
⚠ 設供 — the setting out of offerings. The last character is the offering itself, gòng, matching the catering monks at the third gate and the word for feeding monks that ran through the last two chapters. ⚠ 鋪排 — to lay out, to arrange. The verb, pū; the chain of ordinary readings gives the shopfront reading at all six of its sites in the novel. ⚠ 仙品、仙餚、仙茶、仙果 — the same character four times, at the head of four items. It is a menu written the way a menu is written, and the repeated word is doing the work of a heading.
Master and disciples bowed their heads to the ground in thanks for the Buddha's grace, and ate as much as they liked.
⚠ 隨心享用 — enjoyed it as their hearts pleased. Four characters, and after a hundred chapters of hunger, theft, stolen fruit and arguments about who carries the luggage, that is the whole reward: they got to eat as much as they wanted. 頂禮 — to touch the crown of the head to the ground, the deepest bow there is, and the same posture Tripitaka used before the Buddha a few hundred characters ago. They perform it for a meal.
And in truth it was:
⚠ The cue, and it occurs once in the chapter. 其實是 — in truth it was — is a set phrase, but not one of the common ones, so a reader who has learned to watch for truly it was or there is a poem to prove it may go straight past it. What follows is four lines about lunch.
The pilgrims are taken down to a room full of treasure and given a meal. The book spends thirty-two characters on the menu and four on the eating, and the four are the ones that matter: they ate as much as they liked. After a hundred chapters of stolen fruit, begged rice and arguments over the load, that is the reward.
The gods who lay the table are a named department — the ones whose office is setting out offerings — just as the monks who carried the news in were the catering staff. Heaven in this chapter is thick with people whose whole job is one small thing, and the book gives every one of them a title.
And underneath it the trouble is being set. This is a room where there is no end to the looking, full of rare treasures ranged out without limit, and the two men showing the visitors round are about to notice what the visitors have not brought.