酒樓

In the capital, wine houses generally set up decorated cailou and huanmen at their entrances. At Rendian, once inside the gate, a main corridor ran straight for more than a hundred paces; on both the north and south sides, courtyards and flanking corridors contained small private rooms. Toward evening the lamps and candles shone brightly above and below. Meng says that several hundred heavily made-up women gathered along the open, door-and-window frontage of the main corridor, waiting to be summoned by drinkers; from a distance, he says, they looked like immortals.

North past Yanglou and across Maxing Street were two east-west lanes known as the Large and Small Goods Rows, occupied by skilled craftspeople. The Small Goods Row connected with the houses of sex work in Ji’er Lane, while the Large Goods Row connected with paper shops. White Alum Tower was later renamed Fengle Tower. During the Xuanhe period it was rebuilt with three levels rising above one another and five towers facing each other, linked by flying bridges with railings. Light and shadow passed between them; pearl curtains, embroidered plaques and brilliant lamps filled the complex.

For the first few days after it opened, those who arrived first were rewarded with golden banners; after a night or two this stopped. On the Lantern Festival, a lotus lantern was placed in every roof ridge. Later, people were forbidden to climb the inner western tower because even its first level looked down into the palace precinct. In general, wine houses and entertainment markets were crowded like this regardless of wind, rain, heat or cold, through the day and into the night.

Among the named establishments were Renhe and Jiang shops outside Song Gate east of the prefectural city; Yicheng Tower, Yao Zhang’s Fourth Shop and Banlou to the west; Liulou below Jinliang Bridge; the Man Wang and Rulao Zhang houses at Caomen; Baxianlou to the north; Zhang Ba’s garden-residence zhengdian at Dailou Gate; the He Wang and Li Qi zhengdian at Zheng Gate; and Changqinglou by the east wall of Jingling Palace. Meng reports seventy-two zhengdian households in the capital. Beyond these he could not list them all; the remaining wine shops were called jiaodian.

For expensive and refined dishes to accompany wine, and for meals serving palace-connected elites, the foremost was Bai Chu. Next came Zhang Xiu in Anzhou Lane west of the prefectural city, the Li Qing household at Baokang Gate, Guo Chu in East Ji’er Lane, Song Chu behind Empress Zheng’s residence, the Li family at Zhuantong near Caomen, the Dice Li family east of the monastery, and the Huang Pang household. Along the streets by the nine bridge gates, wine houses faced one another with decorated towers and embroidered banners so dense they seemed to screen the sky. After the Zhenghe period, Changqinglou beneath the east wall of Jingling Palace was especially prosperous.