DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷七
池苑內縱人關撲遊戲
Everything is a stake.
Within the pond and garden the throw-for-goods stalls cover jade, silk, carriages, land and singing girls; the pond sends up fish and lotus root, the palace workshop sends up toy boats, and the rest of the entry is performers, food and boats for hire.
READ THE STAKES ↓1. Everything can be staked.
池苑內，除酒家藝人占外，多以綵幕繳絡，鋪設珍玉、奇玩、匹帛、動使、茶酒器物關撲。有以一笏撲三十笏者。以至車馬地宅、歌姬舞女，皆約以價而撲之。出九和合，有名者任大頭、快活三之類，餘亦不數。池苑所進奉魚藕果實，宣賜有差。後苑作進小龍船，雕牙縷翠，極盡精巧。
Within the pond and garden, apart from the places held by wine sellers and performers, most of the space is hung about with colored curtains and spread with jade, curiosities, bolts of silk, furnishings and tea and wine vessels, all for throwing games. Some stake one tablet to win thirty. Even carriages and horses, land and houses, singing girls and dancing girls are all priced by agreement and thrown for. As for “chu jiu he he,” the famous ones are Ren Datou, Kuaihuo San and the like, and the rest are not worth counting. The fish, lotus root and fruit offered by the pond and garden are distributed by imperial decree according to rank. The Rear Garden workshop presented small dragon boats, carved in ivory and threaded with kingfisher green, the very height of delicacy.
The unit takes the throw-for-goods trade of entry 53 and gives it a scale. After the wine sellers and performers, most of the space belongs to curtained stalls displaying goods to throw for, and the list rises in value from jade and curiosities through silk and furnishings to carriages, land, houses and singing and dancing girls, all “priced by agreement.” The text states a stake ratio (one tablet against thirty) and gives no comment on any of this. Persons appear in the same list as property, without a change of tone. The unit then turns to the throne’s share: fish, lotus root and fruit are sent up from the pond office and distributed by decree, and the Rear Garden workshop sends up toy dragon boats in ivory and kingfisher inlay, which are the pond’s centerpiece in small.
2. Performers, food and boats for hire.
隨駕藝人池上作場者，宣、政間，張藝多、渾身眼、宋壽香、尹士安小樂器，李外寧水傀儡，其餘莫知其數。池上飲食，水飯、涼水綠豆、螺螄肉饒梅花酒、查片、杏片、梅子、香藥脆梅、旋切魚膾、青魚、鹽鴨卵、雜和辣菜之類。池上水教罷，貴家以雙纜黑漆平船、紫帷帳，設列家樂遊池。宣、政間，亦有假賃大小船子，許士庶遊賞，其價有差。
Among the performers attending the emperor who set up stages at the pond, in the Xuanhe and Zhenghe years, were Zhang Yiduo, Hunshen Yan, Song Shouxiang, Yin Shi’an with small instruments, and Li Waining with water puppets; the others were beyond counting. Food and drink at the pond: water-rice, cold mung-bean drink, snail meat with plum-blossom wine thrown in, haw slices, apricot slices, plums, spiced crisp plums, fish sliced to order, blue fish, salted duck eggs, mixed hot relishes and the like. When the water drill at the pond is over, grandees tour the pond on flat boats with double cables, black lacquer and purple curtains, setting out their household musicians. In the Xuanhe and Zhenghe years there were also boats large and small for hire, and gentry and commoners were allowed to hire them for pleasure trips, at prices that varied.
The list of performers ends with a refusal: five names and then “the others were beyond counting.” Only one performer in the whole group, Li Waining, is tied to a form the pond has already shown (water puppets, entry 54), and another, Yin Shi’an, to small instruments. The food list is mostly cold, sour or salted, with fish cut to order, and no meat dish except snail. The last two sentences close the pond in a social register: grandees take black-lacquered boats with purple curtains and their own musicians, and everyone else may rent a boat, large or small, at a varying price. Both the performers and the rental boats are dated to the Xuanhe and Zhenghe years, so Meng fixes a memory to a period without saying what changed.
Three terms the text does not explain.
The term is not explained in the text. It appears to name a throwing pattern or game, with Ren Datou and Kuaihuo San as famous instances or players. The page transliterates it and does not translate it further.
The unit 笏 (“tablet”) is not defined. The page keeps “tablet” and reads the phrase only as a stake ratio of one to thirty.
The text lists names with their specialties unmarked. The page reads 小樂器 as Yin Shi’an’s specialty and 水傀儡 as Li Waining’s, and leaves the first three names without a stated line.
The game of chance by which a stake buys a throw for the goods on display.
Movable household articles, listed among the goods to throw for.
The unit in which the stake is counted; the text does not define it.
The palace workshop that sends up the small dragon boats.
The distribution of the pond’s offerings by imperial order.
The renting of boats to gentry and commoners, at prices that vary.
Entry 59 stands back from the festival to describe its economy: stalls that throw for goods or land or people, a food list, named performers, and boats for rent. The last entry of the volume now follows the crowd home.
池上水教罷，貴家以雙纜黑漆平船、紫帷帳，設列家樂遊池。The list is Meng’s. The punctuation is editorial.
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 Siku 菉豆 and 疋帛 are standardized to 綠豆 and 匹帛.