The first paragraph of Volume II is almost infrastructural. Width, barriers, channels and rules come before spectacle. The avenue looks grand because access is choreographed.
1. A broad street does not mean an open street.
坊巷御街，自宣德樓一直南去，約闊二百餘步，兩邊乃御廊，舊許市人買賣於其間，自政和間官司禁止，各安立黑漆杈子，路心又安朱漆杈子兩行，中心御道，不得人馬行往，行人皆在廊下朱杈子之外。杈子裏有磚石甃砌御溝水兩道，宣和間盡植蓮荷，近岸植桃李梨杏，雜花相間，春夏之間，望之如繡。
The Imperial Avenue ran straight south from Xuande Tower and was more than two hundred bu wide. Imperial corridors stood on both sides. Merchants had formerly been allowed to trade within them, but from the Zhenghe period the authorities prohibited this and set up black-lacquered barriers. Two rows of vermilion-lacquered barriers were also placed in the roadway. The central imperial way was closed to ordinary people and horses; pedestrians kept beneath the corridors, outside the vermilion barriers. Inside the barriers ran two stone-lined imperial drainage channels. During the Xuanhe period they were planted throughout with lotus; peach, plum, pear and apricot trees stood near the banks, mixed with other flowers. In spring and summer, the view was like brocade.
Meng gives the avenue a width of more than two hundred bu, then immediately divides that breadth into controlled strips. The central imperial route is unavailable to ordinary people and horses. Pedestrians are displaced outward beneath the corridors and beyond the vermilion barriers.
The text preserves a historical measure. Galok keeps it as “more than two hundred bu” rather than manufacturing a precise modern-meter conversion from a unit whose practical value can vary by period and context.
2. The text records a policy change in the street itself.
Meng remembers that merchants had once been permitted to trade within the imperial corridors. During the Zhenghe period, the authorities prohibited that activity and installed black lacquered barriers. The street therefore carries a visible before-and-after: commercial use is remembered, then physically restricted.
3. Control infrastructure becomes scenery.
The two imperial drainage channels do not disappear when the avenue becomes ornamental. Instead, Meng says lotus and water lilies filled them, while peach, plum, pear and apricot trees stood near the banks among other flowers. Administrative control, drainage and landscape design occupy the same strip of street.
His closing phrase is visual rather than institutional: in spring and summer, the avenue looked “like brocade.” Entry 08 then leaves this controlled cross-section and begins naming the offices, markets, relay hostel and food businesses distributed along the route.