The established Northern Song title for an emperor's daughter.
DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷四
公主出降
Clear the way.
Meng remembers an imperial daughter's wedding through what the street saw: a road watered ahead of the procession, hundreds of dowry platforms, palace women in paired formation, canopies and fans, then an ornate sedan carried by twelve men. The page follows that visible order.
FOLLOW THE PROCESSION ↓00 / TERM STATE
The title carries its own chronology.
Huizong changed the official title in 1113; weddings seen in the later capital years could formally be described as 帝姬降嫁.
Meng writes the restored/common title in the finished book. The reason for that wording remains open.
01 / WATERED ROAD
水路
Here 水路 describes street preparation. Several dozen Street Office soldiers move ahead carrying cleaning tools and gilded silver water buckets, sprinkling the road to suppress dust and clear the procession route.
STREET SPRINKLING / DUST CONTROL / PROCESSIONAL CLEARANCE02 / PROCESSION SECTION
The wedding arrives in layers.
This sequence follows Meng's textual order. It visualizes relative procession structure, while quantities and dimensions remain in the historical units given by the source.
水路
Street Office soldiers with sweeping equipment and water buckets move first, sprinkling the route.
檐床數百
Hundreds of carrying platforms bear bedding, dress and other dowry goods. The annotated edition records a major collation issue here: Deng Zhicheng proposed reading 擔床, a platform with long carrying poles used for display and transport.
宮嬪數十
Palace women ride in paired formation with pearl ornaments, elaborate headwear and red-gold robes. A blue canopy leads; red-gold ceremonial fans frame the group.
金銅檐子
The sedan is described in unusual material detail: trimmed palm covering, vermilion beams, gilded-copper cloud and phoenix ornaments, bead curtains, gold-thread decoration, carved figures and green cords fixed by gold fish-shaped hooks.
03 / HISTORICAL DIMENSIONS
Meng gives a body to the sedan.
The units stay as written. No modern metric conversion is imposed on a remembered object whose textual transmission and practical construction still require caution.
高五尺許HEIGHT / APPROX.
深八尺DEPTH
闊四尺許WIDTH / APPROX.
內容六人CAPACITY
兩竿十二人CARRIERS
1. Street preparation is part of ceremonial display.
公主出降，亦設儀仗、行幕、步障、水路（凡親王、公主出，則有之，皆係街道司兵級數十人，各執掃具、鍍金銀水桶，前導灑之，名曰「水路」）。
WORKING TRANSLATION
When an imperial daughter married, the procession included ceremonial guards, traveling screens and the so-called 水路. For a prince or princess traveling out, several dozen Street Office soldiers went ahead with cleaning tools and gilded silver water buckets, sprinkling the route.
GALOK READING
The procession begins with municipal labor. Ceremony modifies the street before the central figures arrive.
2. Dowry and attendants create mass before the principal vehicle appears.
用檐床數百，鋪設房臥，並紫衫卷腳幞頭天武官抬舁。又有宮嬪數十，皆真珠釵插、吊朵、玲瓏簇羅頭面，紅羅銷金袍帔，乘馬雙控雙搭。青蓋前導，謂之「短鐙」。前後用紅羅銷金掌扇遮簇。
WORKING TRANSLATION
Hundreds of carrying platforms bore dowry furnishings and dress, carried by Tianwu soldiers in purple garments and wrapped-foot headwear. Dozens of palace women followed in elaborate jewelry and red-gold robes, riding in pairs, framed by a blue canopy and ceremonial fans.
GALOK READING
Meng remembers density through repeated quantity words: hundreds of loads, dozens of attendants, paired riders, repeated screens and fans.
3. The sedan becomes an object inventory.
乘金銅檐子，覆以剪棕。朱紅梁脊，上列渗金銅鑄雲鳳花朵。檐子約高五尺許，深八尺，闊四尺許，內容六人。四維垂繡額珠簾，白藤間花。匡箱之外，兩壁出欄檻，皆縷金花，裝雕木人物、神仙。出隊兩竿十二人，竿前後皆設綠絲絛，金魚勾子勾定。
WORKING TRANSLATION
The princess rode in a gold-and-copper sedan covered with trimmed palm fiber. Meng lists vermilion structural members, gilded copper cloud-and-phoenix ornaments, dimensions, bead curtains, gold-thread decoration, carved figures and carrying poles with green cords fixed by gold fish-shaped hooks.
GALOK READING
The detail shifts from public route to crafted surface. The street-scale procession ends in close observation of one vehicle.
Two words change how the procession is imagined.
The book's title uses 公主; Huizong's court formally used 帝姬 after 1113. The page preserves both chronological states.
Deng Zhicheng proposed 擔床. Yang's annotation supports that reading with comparable carrying platforms used for gifts and ceremonial loads.
The text itself explains this as road sprinkling by Street Office personnel. The page therefore treats it as a prepared street, with no river-route interpretation.
Entry 30 turns a royal marriage into an urban sequence: municipal preparation, logistics, personnel and crafted display occupy the same street.