DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷四
皇后出乘輿
Riding out, by rank.
Meng defines the empress's vehicle by difference: wider than a wedding palanquin, dressed in dragons, escorted like the imperial train but reduced. Then the entry descends the ladder — wedding palanquins without the phoenix, ox carts for titled women and commoners — and at every rung, something can be rented.
DESCEND THE LADDER ↓Three vehicles, one descending rule.
The ladder is Galok's synthesis of the entry's own order. Each tier names its rider, ornament and escort as the text gives them, and marks what the text says — or stays silent about — regarding rental.
輿
The empress dowager and the empress ride out in what the entry calls the 輿 — a palanquin slightly wider than a wedding sedan, patterned all over with dragons.
檐子
Weddings of commoner and noble families use the same palanquin Entry 30 measured — without the ridge's copper phoenix.
坐車子
Titled women, palace families and commoners ride a cart built on the palanquin pattern: six seats, railings fore and aft, an axle through two red wheels, long shafts and a single ox.
Similar to the emperor's train — and missing two marks.
The entry defines the empress's escort by subtraction from the imperial outing. Two objects stay with the emperor alone.
The procession equipment resembles the emperor's outing.
The same kind of train, smaller in number.
The imperial procession marker and the clearing-and-warning call do not travel with the empress.
1. The term comes first, defined against the wedding sedan.
皇太后、皇后出乘者，謂之「輿」。比檐子稍增廣，花樣皆龍，前後簷皆剪棕，儀仗與駕出相似而少，仍無駕頭、警蹕耳。
For the empress dowager and the empress, the vehicle of a formal outing was called the 輿. It was slightly wider than a wedding palanquin, patterned all over with dragons, with trimmed palm at both canopies. Its escort resembled the imperial train but was smaller, and it did not carry the 駕頭 or the 警蹕.
Meng defines rank through subtraction. The entry never describes the empress's vehicle from zero: it starts from the wedding sedan of Entry 30 and widens it, then cuts the imperial train down to size. Hierarchy here is a series of differences, not a list of absolutes.
2. The ladder descends — and every rung rents.
士庶家與貴家婚嫁，亦乘檐子，只無脊上銅鳳花朵，左右兩軍，自有假賃所在。以至從人衫帽衣服從物俱可賃，不須借。餘命婦王宮士庶通乘坐車子，如檐子樣制，亦可容六人，前後有小勾欄，底下軸貫兩挾朱輪，前出長轅約七八尺，獨牛駕之，亦可假賃。
For weddings, commoner and noble families also used the palanquin, only without the copper phoenix ornament on its ridge; rental places for them existed, and even attendants' shirts, hats, clothing and accessories could be rented, with no need to borrow. Other titled women, palace families and commoners rode the 坐車子, built on the palanquin pattern, also seating six, with small railings fore and aft, an axle below running through two red wheels, long shafts of about seven or eight 尺 extending ahead, drawn by a single ox — also available for rent.
The imperial term sits at the top of a ladder whose lower rungs are commercial. The ornament Entry 30 inventoried on the princess's sedan — the gilded copper cloud-and-phoenix — is exactly what the rented wedding palanquin lacks. What stays constant down the ladder is not decoration but the vehicle pattern itself: the cart repeats the palanquin's six-seat body. Rank changes ornament and draft; the rental market distributes the form.
Three places where the witnesses divide.
The Siku-family witness prints 檐; modern transcriptions print 簷. The site keeps 檐, consistent with Entries 29–30.
The Siku witness prints 不須借措; the punctuated working text ends at 不須借. The extra 措 is kept visible here rather than harmonized away.
The text asserts rental depots exist but does not explain 兩軍. Entry 28's uniformed services and Entry 30's Tianwu carriers make a guard-command reading natural; the page does not assert it.
The vehicle term reserved here for the empress dowager and the empress.
The shoulder-borne palanquin; Entry 30 documents its construction.
Six seats, railings, red wheels and long shafts, drawn by one ox.
Women holding court rank titles.
The operative commercial word across Entries 31–34.
The procession marker and the clearing-and-warning call reserved to the emperor's train.
Entry 31 turns the empress's outing into a gradient the whole city can step onto: the same palanquin form, less ornament, rented clothes, a hired ox cart. The court defines the top; the market operates the rest.
亦可假賃。Rank is textual. Rentals are textual. Institutions stay cautious.
The primary text is read against the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111) and the Gutenberg transcription #24137, crosschecked entry by entry. Orthographic variants are preserved in the collation panel; the 左右兩軍 referent and the trailing 措 are left unresolved.