DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷六
正月十四日
The crowd has a boundary.
The imperial procession as a sequence of visual signs and enforced boundaries: the 駕頭 as signal, guards in graded costume, lantern counts, and men who beat shouters until they bleed.
READ THE ORDER ↓1. The procession order.
正月十四日，車駕幸五嶽觀迎祥池，有對御（謂賜群臣宴也）。至晚還內圍子，親從官皆頂球頭大帽，簪花，紅錦團答戲獅子衫，金鍍天王腰帶，數重骨朵。天武官皆頂雙卷腳襆頭，紫上大搭天鵝結帶寬衫。殿前班頂兩腳屈曲向後花裝襆頭，著緋青紫三色這金線結帶望仙花袍，跨弓劍，乘馬，一紮鞍轡，纓紼前導。御龍直一腳指天一腳圈曲襆頭，著紅方勝錦襖子，看帶束帶，執御從物，如金交椅、唾盂、水罐、果壘、掌扇、纓紼之類。御椅子皆黃羅珠蹙背座，則親從官執之。諸班直皆襆頭錦襖束帶。每常駕出有紅紗帖金燭籠二百對，元宵加以琉璃玉柱掌扇燈。快行家各執紅紗珠絡燈籠。駕將至，則圍子數重，外有一人捧月樣兀子錦，覆於馬上。天武官十餘人，簇擁扶策，喝曰：「看駕頭！」次有吏部小使臣百餘，皆公裳，執珠絡球杖，乘馬聽喚。近侍餘官皆服紫緋綠公服，三衙太尉、知、玉帶羅列前導，兩邊皆內等子。選諸軍膂力者，著錦襖頂帽，握拳顧望，有高聲者捶之流血。教坊鈞容直樂部前引，駕後諸班直馬隊作樂，駕後圍子外左則宰執侍從，右則親王、宗室、南班官。駕近，則列橫門十餘人擊鞭，駕後有曲柄小紅繡傘，亦殿侍執之於馬上。駕入燈山，御輦院人員輦前喝「隨竿媚來」，御輦團轉一遭，倒行觀燈山，謂之「鴿旋」，又謂之「踏五花兒」，則輦官有喝賜矣。駕登宣德樓，遊人奔赴露台下。
WORKING TRANSLATION
On the fourteenth day of the first month the imperial carriage went to the Wuyue Temple and the Xiangxiang Pool, where the emperor banqueted his officials. By evening he returned to the palace. The enclosure: the personal attendants all wore ball-topped great hats with flowers, red brocade lion-fight shirts, gold-plated Heavenly King belts, and multiple truncheons. The Heavenly Warriors wore double-curled headcloths and purple swan-banded wide robes. the Palace Front wore backward-curled flowered headcloths in three colors of crimson, blue and purple with gold-threaded belts and Immortal-Viewing robes, carrying bows and swords, mounted, with a single set of harness and leading tassels. The Palace Dragons wore one-foot-up one-foot-curled headcloths and red square-victory brocade jackets, carrying the imperial objects — golden chairs, spittoons, water vessels, fruit stands, canopies, tassels. The imperial chair was yellow silk with pearl-embroidered back, carried by personal attendants. The lantern cages: normally two hundred pairs of red gauze with gold appliqué; for the Lantern Festival these were supplemented with glass-jade pillar and fan lanterns. Runners carried red gauze bead-net lanterns. As the carriage approached, enclosure rings formed in layers, and outside them one man held a moon-shaped cushion of brocade over his horse. A dozen or more Heavenly Warriors clustered around, shouting: Look to the jiaotou! Next came a hundred or so minor officials of the personnel ministry in formal dress, carrying beaded ball-staves, mounted and awaiting orders. The remaining officials wore purple, crimson and green formal dress; the three military commissioners and the palace comptroller in jade belts lined the advance guard, with palace guards on both sides. Men selected from the army for their strength wore brocade jackets and caps, fists clenched, eyes scanning; those who shouted too loudly were beaten until they bled. The Court Band led the music; behind the carriage the mounted guards played; outside the enclosure on the left sat the chief councillors, on the right the princes and imperial clansmen. As the carriage neared, a dozen or so gatekeepers cracked their whips; behind the carriage a small red embroidered parasol with curved handle was carried on horseback by a palace attendant. The carriage entered the lantern mountain, and the carriage-bureau men called out before it: Sui-gan mei-lai! The carriage made one circuit, viewed the lantern mountain backwards — this was called the pigeon-turn, also the five-flower walk — and the carriage officials received shouted rewards. The carriage ascended Xuande Tower, and the crowds surged to the platform below.
GALOK READING
The procession is a machine for making the emperor visible without making him accessible. The jiaotou — the imperial seat as processional signal — goes first, not the emperor. Guards in graded costume identify their positions by what they wear. The boundary is enforced by strongmen selected from the army who beat shouters until they bleed. The research lock forbids modern terms like riot police — the page says crowd boundary and keeps the violence textual. The carriage’s backward circle before the lantern mountain (the pigeon-turn, the five-flower walk) is the moment when control briefly becomes theater.
Numbers, boundaries, and one untranslated phrase.
The transmitted text gives 200 pairs of lanterns; a later quotation gives 100. The page follows the primary reading.
The procession shout is textually stable but resists translation. The page preserves the original without forcing a meaning.
The imperial carriage circled the lantern mountain backwards. Meng names the maneuver; the page preserves both names without illustrating the motion.
The processional sign that preceded the emperor.
Strong soldiers who beat loud spectators until they bled.
Textually stable, semantically open.
The imperial carriage’s backward circle before the lantern mountain.
Procession messengers carrying red silk lanterns.
P1 pending — the exact garment form remains unsettled.
Entry 48 is a study in visual control. Every guard wears a costume that identifies his position in the order; every boundary is enforced by men selected for strength. The procession reaches the lantern mountain and turns — and the crowd surges to the platform below. The spectacle reaches the people, but always inside a perimeter.
隨竿媚來。03 / SOURCE TRAIL
The order is textual. The shouting is preserved untranslated.
The primary text is read against the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111, 卷六) and the Gutenberg transcription #24137. The lantern count follows the primary reading (二百對); the later variant (一百對) is recorded. 隨竿媚來 remains untranslated per the research lock.