DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷四
會仙酒樓
The silver standard.
Volume IV turns from renting banquets to running them. At the great shops — Renhe, and the Huixian House proper shop inside the new gate — the service gear was never short by a single item. Whoever you were, even two people drinking opposite each other drew a standard set that priced out near a hundred taels of silver.
WEIGH THE SET ↓00 / THE STANDARD SET
Whoever you were — the set was the set.
The text makes the tableware minimum rank-blind (不問何人) and party-size-blind: two drinkers trigger the full set, and the solo drinker's bowls were silver all the same (雖一人獨飲，碗遂亦用銀盂之類). Each row below is the entry's own item, in its own words.
The pour-bowl set — wine brought to the table and poured from service vessels, not drunk from the shop's stores.
一副Dish-and-cup sets — the place settings of the drinking surface.
兩副Fruit and dish plates, five of each kind — the cold stage of the table.
各五片Water-dish bowls, three to five — the wet accompaniments that frame the wine.
三五隻01 / WHAT THE SHOP DOES NOT COOK
The hot dishes arrive from outside.
Ask for food to go with the wine and the shop sends out for it (即使人外買). The great house is a silver service and a menu of vendors; seven items are named.
1. The shops that are never short.
如州東仁和店、新門裏會仙樓正店，常有百十分廳館，動使各各足備，不尚少闕一件。
WORKING TRANSLATION
Take the Renhe shop east of the prefecture, or the Huixian House proper shop inside the new gate: their hundred-fold halls and rooms were always fully equipped with movable service gear — never one item short.
GALOK READING
The section opens with 如 — "for instance" — because Entry 13 already surveyed the seventy-two proper shops. This page instantiates the standard through two named houses. What they stock is not food but 動使, the movable service gear, and the claim is completeness: 不尚少闕一件, not one piece short, ever.
2. The minimum, priced by the text itself.
大抵都人風俗奢侈，度量稍寬，凡酒店中不問何人，止兩人對坐飲酒，亦須用注碗一副，盤盞兩副，果菜碟各五片，水菜碗三五隻，即銀近百兩矣。雖一人獨飲，碗遂亦用銀盂之類。其果子菜蔬，無非精潔。若別要下酒，即使人外買軟羊、龜背、大小骨、諸色包子、玉板鮓、生削巴子、瓜薑之類。
WORKING TRANSLATION
On the whole, the capital's customs were lavish and its measure generous. In any wine house it did not matter who you were: even two people sitting opposite each other over a drink required one pour-bowl set, two dish-and-cup sets, five plates each of fruit and dishes, three to five water dishes — silver coming to nearly a hundred taels. Even a man drinking alone had bowls of silver and the like. The fruit and vegetables were unfailingly fine. And if other food was wanted to go with the wine, a servant was sent out to buy soft lamb, turtle-back cakes, large and small bones, every kind of bun, jade-board pressed fish, raw sliced pork, and pickled ginger.
GALOK READING
The entry prices its own scene: 即銀近百兩矣 — the set on the table is worth near a hundred taels. The figure is the text's own estimate, and the page does not convert it. What the section documents is a standard, not a splurge: the minimum applies to anyone (不問何人), to a party of two, to a drinker alone. Meanwhile the hot kitchen is partly outsourced — the shop's own pride is the silver on the table, and the cooked dishes are bought in from the street.
Three places the witnesses divide.
Gutenberg and the simplified cross-check print 果菜碟各五片; the Siku transcription prints 五斤. The page keeps 片 and records 斤 — the plate count, not a weight.
The Siku witness prints 新門裏; Gutenberg prints 裡. The page keeps 裏, the standard traditional form.
All three witnesses print 遂. Read adverbially — even drinking alone, the bowls were then of silver — the sentence stands. The page keeps the transmitted text and emends nothing.
A licensed great wine house; Entry 13 counts seventy-two of them.
The movable equipment of service — the stock the text says was never short.
The wine-pouring vessels of the table; one set to a party of two.
The paired plates and cups laid before each drinker.
The entry's own estimate of the set on the table; kept as an estimate.
The cooked accompaniments sent out for, not cooked on the premises.
Entry 35 opens Volume IV's food block with a paradox: the most expensive thing in the room is not for sale. The great houses compete on gear that is simply present — complete, silver, and brought out for anyone who sits down. Volume IV moved from the court's vehicles to the rental city; here the rental city shows what it can put on a table.
即銀近百兩矣。03 / SOURCE TRAIL
The set is textual. The silver stays an estimate.
The primary text is read against the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111) and the Gutenberg transcription #24137, crosschecked entry by entry. The 片/斤 plate count and the transmitted 碗遂 are kept visible in the collation panel; the near-hundred-tael figure is not converted.