DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷四
筵會假賃
The host only pays.
A Kaifeng banquet is a contracted product. The 茶酒司 rents the furniture and vessels, the 廚司 supplies food and drink, the 白席人 run the floor — together, the 四司人. Crews keep territories, rate schedules and a rule against overcharging. The host's entire job is money.
READ THE CONTRACT ↓00 / THE DIVISION OF LABOR
Four bureaus, three of them named.
The text names three specializations and then closes the set with a count. The fourth member of the 四司人 is not identified in the entry — the page keeps the gap instead of filling it.
茶酒司
Furniture, vessels, trays and wine gear — rented by the tea-wine bureau.
椅桌陳設 · 器皿合盤 · 酒檐動使之類廚司
Food and drink, supplied by the kitchen bureau.
吃食下酒白席人
Trays, invitations, seating, attendance at the honored place, singing and urging wine — the floor crew.
托盤 · 下請書 · 安排坐次 · 尊前執事 · 歌說勸酒未名
The entry counts four but names three. The page does not supply the fourth.
DUTY / NOT STATED01 / THE CONTRACT
Five clauses keep the host out of the work.
The delivery terms as Meng gives them, in his order. Each clause is quoted in the working text below; nothing here is added to the entry.
舉意便辦ON DEMAND
Garden parties, pavilions, temples, sightseeing with invited guests — the event is arranged the moment it is wanted.
各有地分TERRITORY
Each crew has its own beat. The text does not say whether the turf is licensed or customary.
承攬排備CONTRACT + PREPARE
They take on the engagement and make the preparations.
自有則例RATE SCHEDULES
Established rate schedules govern the work.
不敢過越取錢NO OVERCHARGING
They dare not charge beyond the schedule — price discipline stated in the text itself.
1. The banquet breaks into bureaus.
凡民間吉凶筵會，椅桌陳設，器皿合盤，酒檐動使之類，自有茶酒司管賃。吃食下酒，自有廚司。以至托盤、下請書、安排坐次、尊前執事、歌說勸酒，謂之「白席人」。總謂之「四司人」。
WORKING TRANSLATION
For ordinary families' banquets, auspicious or funerary, the chairs and tables, the vessels and trays, the wine-load gear and such movable equipment were rented through the 茶酒司. Food and drink came from the 廚司. And the carrying of trays, the delivery of invitations, the arranging of seats, the attendance at the honored place, the singing and the urging of wine — that was the 白席人. Together they were called the 四司人.
GALOK READING
Meng's scope word is 凡民間 — this system belongs to ordinary households, not the court. The division of labor is by object and by motion: one bureau owns the furniture, one owns the food, one owns the floor. The page keeps the fourth slot empty because the text does.
2. The clauses end where the host begins: paying.
欲就園館亭榭寺院遊賞命客之類，舉意便辦，亦各有地分，承攬排備，自有則例，亦不敢過越取錢。雖百十分，廳館整肅，主人只出錢而已，不用費力。
WORKING TRANSLATION
For garden parties, pavilions, temples or sightseeing with invited guests — the event was arranged the moment it was wanted. Each crew had its own territory, took on the engagement and prepared it, kept to established rate schedules, and dared not charge beyond them. However many hundreds of items a banquet involved, the hall ended orderly — and the host's only task was to pay, with no effort required.
GALOK READING
The final sentence is the entry's thesis. 雖百十分 concedes scale — hundreds of pieces, hundreds of portions — and the answer stays the same: the system absorbs the complexity, the hall comes out orderly, and the host pays. It is a claim about service capacity, not about prices; the entry never prints a single rate.
The count is secure. The fourth name is not.
Three bureaus are named; the fourth is not identified in the entry. The page preserves the count and the gap.
The Southern Song Lin'an record expands banquet staffing into a fuller four-bureau, six-bureau system — background only, not a gloss on Meng's text.
Siku-family variant forms in this entry; the working text uses the standard characters and keeps the variants in the trail.
Auspicious and funerary banquets — the system's whole scope.
The bureau that rents furniture, vessels and wine gear.
The bureau that supplies food and drink.
Trays, invitations, seating, attendance, singing, urging wine.
The collective name; its fourth member is unnamed in the text.
Each crew's beat; the text does not explain its legal basis.
Entry 34 finishes the rental arc with its most abstract product: not a vehicle, not a funeral, not standing labor — a whole event, delivered to contract. The banquet is produced by specialists and governed by schedules; the household's contribution is money.
主人只出錢而已，不用費力。04 / SOURCE TRAIL
The division is textual. The fourth bureau stays unnamed.
The primary text is read against the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111) and the Gutenberg transcription #24137. The 夢粱錄 comparison is background for the later system; the unnamed fourth member and the legal basis of 地分 remain open.