DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷七
三月一日開金明池瓊林苑
The pond opens.
On the first of the third month the court opens the Golden Bright Pond and Qionglin Garden: house rules, a bridge to five halls in the water, a bank of stalls, an angling shore and a shed for the dragon boat.
WALK THE POND ↓1. Rules, measurements and the bridge.
三月一日，州西順天門外，開金明池、瓊林苑，每日教習車駕上池儀範。雖禁從士庶，許縱賞，御史臺有榜，不得彈劾。池在順天門街北，周圍約九里三十步，池西直徑七里許。入池門內，南岸西去百餘步，有面北臨水殿。車駕臨幸，觀爭標、錫宴於此。往日旋以綵幄，政和間，用土木工造成矣。又西去數百步，乃仙橋。南北約數百步，橋面三虹，朱漆欄楯，下排雁柱，中央隆起，謂之「駱駝虹」，若飛虹之狀。橋盡處，五殿正在池之中心，四岸石甃向背。大殿中坐，各設御幄，朱漆明金龍牀，河間雲水戲龍屏風。不禁遊人。殿上下回廊，皆關撲錢物、飲食，伎藝人作場，勾肆羅列左右。橋上兩邊，用瓦盆內擲頭錢，關撲錢物、衣服、動使。遊人還往，荷蓋相望。
On the first day of the third month, outside the Shuntian Gate west of the prefectural city, the Golden Bright Pond and the Qionglin Garden are opened. Every day the court rehearses the procession of the imperial carriage up to the pond. Palace attendants, gentry and commoners alike are allowed to roam and enjoy it freely, and the Censorate has posted a notice that no one may be impeached for it. The pond lies north of the Shuntian Gate street, about nine li and thirty paces around; its straight span, taken on the west side, is given as about seven li. Inside the pond gate, going west along the south bank for a hundred-odd paces, there is a hall facing north over the water, where the emperor on his visits watches the boat race and is given a banquet. In earlier years it was set up for the occasion with colored tents; in the Zhenghe period it was built in earth and timber. A few hundred paces farther west is the Immortals’ Bridge, a few hundred paces long from south to north, three arches abreast, with red-lacquered railings and, below, a row of “goose posts” (the term for a zither’s bridges). The middle rises in a hump, called the “camel rainbow,” and has the look of a flying rainbow. Where the bridge ends, the Five Halls stand at the very center of the pond, the four banks lined with stone, the halls facing toward and away from one another. In the great hall in the middle a canopy is set up for each seat, with a red-lacquered couch of bright gold dragons and a screen of dragons at play among river, cloud and water. Visitors are not kept out. Along the upper and lower covered corridors of the halls, money, goods, food and drink are all thrown for; performers set up their stages, and the entertainment quarters are ranged to left and right. On both sides of the bridge people toss coins into earthenware basins and play for money, goods, clothing and furnishings. Visitors come and go, and lotus canopies meet the eye one after another.
The entry opens with a permission, not a landscape: daily rehearsals, free access for everyone from palace attendants to commoners, and a Censorate notice that no one may be impeached for going. Only then does the text start walking, along the south bank, with distances in paces. It dates exactly one thing, the waterside hall, which was a tented arrangement in earlier years and timber and earth in the Zhenghe period. The geometry is transmitted as written: a circuit of about nine li and a span of about seven li are not easily reconciled, and the text does not try. At the five halls the imperial seats are fully furnished (canopies, a gold dragon couch, a dragon screen) and the text says in a single line that visitors are not kept out. The same corridors are a market, so the court’s architecture and the throw-for-goods trade occupy one space. The bridge has its own small gambling, with coins thrown into clay basins.
2. The tower, the east bank and the stalls.
橋之南，立櫺星門，門裏對立綵樓，每爭標作樂，列妓女於其上。門相對街南，有磚石甃砌高臺，上有樓觀，廣百丈許，曰寶津樓。前至池門，闊百餘丈，下闞仙橋、水殿。車駕臨幸，觀騎射百戲於此。池之東岸，臨水近牆皆垂楊，兩邊皆綵棚幕次，臨水假賃，觀看爭標。街東皆酒食店舍、博易場戶、藝人勾肆、質庫，不以幾日解下，只至閉池，便典沒出賣。北去直至池後門，乃汴河西水門也。
South of the bridge stands the Lingxing Gate. Inside the gate, facing one another, are colored towers, and at every boat race, when music is played, singing girls are ranked on them. Across the street to the south of the gate is a high platform faced with brick and stone, with a tower on top about a hundred zhang broad, called Baojin Tower. In front it reaches to the pond gate, over a hundred zhang across, and looks down on the Immortals’ Bridge and the waterside hall. On his visits the emperor watches mounted archery and the hundred entertainments from here. Along the east bank, by the water and near the wall, there are weeping willows everywhere, and on either side colored booths and tent-stands rented out at the water’s edge for watching the boat race. The street to the east is all wine and food shops, gambling grounds, performers’ entertainment quarters and pawnshops; none is taken down after a few days, but they stay only until the pond closes, whereupon pledged goods are simply forfeited and sold off. Going north, straight to the rear gate of the pond, one reaches the west water gate of the Bian River.
The route now splits into two views of the same water. The tower is the court’s: a platform, a viewing structure and a sightline down onto the bridge and the hall, used for mounted archery and the hundred entertainments (the subject of entry 57). The east bank is the public’s: booths rented at the water’s edge for the race, and behind them a street of drink, food, gambling, performers and credit. The pawnshops are the revealing item: this is a temporary season whose stalls stay until the pond closes, and the text expects some people to lose what they pledged. The last sentence ties the pond to the Bian River’s west water gate, the only place where the entry connects the pleasure ground to the city’s waterways.
3. The quiet bank and the boathouse.
其池之西岸，亦無屋宇，但垂楊蘸水，烟草鋪堤，遊人稀少，多垂釣之士。必於池苑所買牌子，方許捕魚。遊人得魚，倍其價買之，臨水斫膾，以薦芳樽，乃一時佳味也。習水教罷，繫小龍船於此。池岸正北，對五殿，起大屋，盛大龍船，謂之「奧屋」。車駕臨幸，往往取二十日。諸禁衛班直，簪花，披錦繡撚金線衫袍、金帶、勒帛之類，結束競逞鮮新。出內府金槍、寶裝弓劍、龍鳳繡旗、紅纓錦轡，萬騎爭馳，鐸聲震地。
The west bank of the pond likewise has no buildings, only weeping willows dipping into the water and misty grass spread along the embankment. Few visitors come, and many of them are anglers. Only those who have bought a tally from the pond and garden office are allowed to fish. When a visitor lands a fish, the office buys it from him at double the price, and he slices it raw by the water to set before the fragrant wine cups, a fine taste of the moment. When the water drill is over, the small dragon boats are moored here. On the bank due north, facing the Five Halls, a large shed has been raised to hold the great dragon boat; it is called the “inner shed.” The emperor’s visits usually fall on the twentieth. The palace guards and the attendant corps pin flowers in their hair and tie themselves out in brocade, gold-thread tunics and robes, gold belts, silk sashes and the like, each vying to be the freshest and newest. Out of the inner treasury come gold-tipped spears, jewel-set bows and swords, embroidered dragon-and-phoenix banners, red tassels and brocade bridles. Ten thousand riders race one another and the clang of bells shakes the ground.
The west bank reverses everything on the east bank: no buildings, few visitors, anglers. Yet it is still run: fishing needs a tally bought from the pond office, and the catch is bought back at double the price and cut raw on the spot, so even the quiet shore is a small cash cycle. The boathouse closes the water story: small boats moor here after drill, the great dragon boat waits in a shed facing the Five Halls. The last sentences turn abruptly to the visit, which the text fixes at about the twentieth (it does not name the month, though the context implies the third). The guards’ costumes are listed in the vocabulary of display: flowers, brocade, gold, jeweled arms, tassels, and a ten-thousand-strong gallop that is heard before it is seen. The emperor himself is absent from the sentence; only his equipment moves.
Three readings fixed, one left open.
The Siku witness reads 有西北臨水殿. Modern editions read 面北 (“facing north”), which fits a hall on the south bank looking across the water. The page adopts 面北 and flags the choice.
The Siku witness has 閑池 (“idle pond”). 閉池 is the reading modern editions adopt, and the word entry 60 uses for the closing (自三月一日至四月八日閉池). The page adopts 閉池.
Siku has no 外 after 順天門; modern editions add it. The page keeps the Siku wording. The circuit of about nine li and the span of about seven li are given as written and are not reconciled.
The city gate outside which the pond and garden lie.
The three-arched bridge from the south bank to the Five Halls in the middle of the pond.
A game of chance in which a stake buys a throw for money or goods, played in the halls and on the bridge.
The boat contest for a prize, staged in front of the waterside hall; entry 54 narrates it.
The ticket bought from the pond and garden office that permits fishing.
The large shed, facing the Five Halls, in which the great dragon boat is kept.
Entry 53 walks the whole water once: gate, hall, bridge, halls, tower, east bank, west bank, shed. At each station the court’s furniture and the public’s trade share the same ground, and nothing is fenced except the fishing. The next entry takes the emperor onto the pond itself, where the boats are no longer parked but ordered by flags.
遊人還往，荷蓋相望。The walk is Meng’s. The measurements are as transmitted.
The primary text is read from the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111, 卷七); punctuation and the standardization of Siku variant glyphs are editorial. The 面北 in 面北臨水殿 and the 閉池 are adopted over the Siku readings; the Siku 砟膾 is normalized to 斫膾.