DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷五
育子
A year of first rites.
The last section of Volume V counts a child's first year in rites: warming gifts before the birth, the navel stump attended and the fontanel treated on day three, the full-month washing and its ritual basin, a hundred days, and a first birthday read by the object the child grabs first.
READ THE CALENDAR ↓Three named acts around one basin.
At the full month the relatives gathered over scented water, fruit, colored coins, scallion and garlic, with several lengths of colored silk wound around the basin. Three of the rite's moves carry names in the text, and each is quoted below.
The colored silk wound around the basin — the rite's visible frame.
A hairpin stirred the water — the ceremony's opening motion.
Onlookers dropped coins into the water as the child was bathed.
The rite included one omen, quoted as TEXT: where a jujube stood upright in the basin, women competed to eat it, 以為生男之徵 — as a sign of bearing a boy. The page keeps the omen as a single recorded custom and draws no general conclusion from it.
The draw that reads a future.
At one year the trays were laid out on the ground — fruit and food, official patents, brush and inkstone, counting scales, classics, needlework — and the child was watched to see which it seized first: 觀其所先拈者，以為徵兆，謂之「試晬」. The entry calls this the great rite of infancy — 此小兒之盛禮也 — and closes Volume V on it.
1. Before the birth: gifts that share the pain.
凡孕婦入月，於初一日父母家以銀盆或錂或綵畫盆，盛粟稈一束，上以錦繡或生色帕覆蓋之，上插花朵及通草，帖羅五男二女花樣，用盤合裝，送饅頭，謂之「分痛」。並作眠羊、臥鹿羊、生果實，取其「眠臥」之義。並牙兒衣物䙀籍等，謂之「催生」。就蓐分娩訖，人爭送粟米炭醋之類。三日落臍炙囟。七日謂之「一臘」。
When a pregnant woman entered her final month, on the first day of the month her parents' family sent a silver basin, or one described as 錂, or a painted one — holding a sheaf of millet stalks, covered with brocade or a plain-silk scarf, flowers and Tongcao pasted above in the pattern of five boys and two girls, packed in trays with steamed bread: this was called the pain-sharing. They also made sleeping sheep, reclining deer, fresh fruit — for their meaning of sleep and lying-down — together with the infant's garments and a further item transmitted as 䙀籍: the birth-hastening. Once the child was delivered, people raced to send millet, charcoal and vinegar. On the third day the navel stump was attended to and a cautery treatment performed at the fontanel; the seventh day was called the first week.
Even before birth, the two households are transacting: the natal family's gifts are named for what they do — sharing the pain, hastening the birth. The first days of the child's life are equally procedural, and the text is at its most clinical here: day three, two treatments; day seven, a name. The volume that opened with an empress's procession ends counting an infant's first week in an ordinary household.
2. The basin, the hundred days, the draw.
至滿月則生色及繃繡錢，貴富家金銀犀玉為之，並果子，大展洗兒會。親賓盛集，煎香湯於盆中，下果子彩錢蔥蒜等，用數丈彩繞之，名曰「圍盆」。以釵子攪水，謂之「攪盆」。觀者各撒錢於水中，謂之「添盆」。盆中棗子直立者，婦人爭取食之，以為生男之徵。浴兒畢，落胎髮，遍謝坐客，抱牙兒入他人房，謂之「移窠」。生子百日，置會，謂之「百晬」。至來歲生日，謂之「周晬」。羅列盤盞於地，盛果木、飲食、官誥、筆研、筭秤等經卷針線應用之物，觀其所先拈者，以為徵兆，謂之「試晬」。此小兒之盛禮也。
At the full month came fresh silks and 繃繡錢 — a decorative item transmitted variously, left untranslated here — in wealthy houses of gold, silver, rhinoceros horn and jade — with fruit, and the washing assembly was held in grand style. Kin and guests gathered in force; fragrant water was boiled in the basin with fruit, colored coins, scallion and garlic dropped in, and several lengths of colored silk wound about it: the ringed basin. A hairpin stirred the water: the basin-stirring. The onlookers each dropped coins into the water: the basin-adding. Where a jujube stood upright in the basin, the women raced to eat it, taking it for an omen of bearing a son. The bathing done, the fetal hair was shaved, every seated guest was thanked, and the infant was carried into another room: the moving of the nest. At a hundred days a banquet was held: the hundred-days. At the next year's birthday came the anniversary: trays and cups were arrayed on the ground with fruit, food, official patents, brush and inkstone, counting scales, classics, needlework and the tools of use, and they watched which the child grasped first, taking it as an omen: the trial. This was the great rite of infancy.
The calendar closes on a divination performed by the child. Everything before the trial is gift and water — a social circuit with coins in the basin — and then the trays ask the one-year-old to declare a future. The page keeps the omen logic exactly as the text frames it: an omen, read from a standing jujube and a first grasp, within a single rite. Volume V, which began with occupational dress and a lending wine house, ends with a household measuring its newest member.
Rare characters, handled on the record.
The basin phrase is incomplete in Gutenberg (one basin term dropped). The Siku-family witness's rare form 𨱋 and the corrupted 麗 were both rejected in favor of the readable 錂, which the page adopts and the apparatus records.
The day-three treatment 炙囟 names the infant fontanel; the Siku transcription prints a rare graphic variant 𩕄. The page uses the readable 囟 per the research lock's character policy.
The first-birthday implements include counting scales — 筭秤 in the Siku-family witness. The corrupted 笄秤 sometimes seen in digital texts is rejected per the research lock.
Gutenberg prints 繃繡線 (thread); the Siku-family witness reads 繃繡錢 (money). The substantive reading follows the Siku per the source hierarchy; the 繃/綳 graph is orthographic only.
The Siku witness transmits 䙀 before 籍 in the infant-goods list; Gutenberg drops the character. The exact item is uncertain; the page keeps the transmitted form without a settled translation.
The final month of pregnancy, when the gift calendar began.
The natal family's late-pregnancy gift rites, named for their purposes.
The first-week rite, after the cord and font treatments of day three.
Silk ringed the basin, a hairpin stirred it, guests added coins.
The two anniversaries, each with its own gathering.
The first-birthday object draw, read as an omen of the child's future.
Volume V ends where its census began: with an ordinary household. The entry counts a child's first year the way Entry 40 counted trades — by observation, date by date — and closes the volume on its most hopeful rite, a baby choosing a future from a tray. The customs, entertainment, weddings and infants of these four entries are one social fabric, measured in days.
觀其所先拈者，以為徵兆。The calendar is textual. The rare characters are on the record.
The primary text is read against the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111, 卷五) and the Gutenberg transcription #24137. The 錂 reading, the 囟 character policy and the 筭秤 collation follow the research lock; the rare Siku forms 𨱋 and 𩕄 are recorded in the apparatus rather than printed.