DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷八
端午
Mugwort at the door.
Duanwu as a supply chain: cords, flower ornaments, fans, boxed herbs and sweets bought first, then greens, zongzi and a mugwort figure arranged at the doorway for the street to see.
READ THE FESTIVAL ↓1. What is sold, and what goes on the door.
端午節物：百索、艾花、銀樣鼓兒、花花巧畫扇；香糖果子、粽子、白團；紫蘇、菖蒲、木瓜，並皆茸切，以香藥相和，用梅紅匣子盛裹。自五月一日及端午前一日，賣桃、柳、葵花、蒲葉、佛道艾。次日，家家鋪陳於門首，與粽子、五色水團、茶酒供養，又釘艾人於門上。士庶迎相宴賞。
Festival goods for Duanwu: hundred-strand cords, mugwort flowers, silver-patterned drums, fancifully painted fans; sweet confections, zongzi, white dumplings; perilla, calamus and quince, all minced fine and mixed with fragrant herbs, packed in plum-red boxes. From the first of the fifth month up to the day before Duanwu they sell peach and willow sprigs, mallow flowers, calamus leaves and “Buddha-Dao” mugwort. On the next day every household lays out its goods at the doorway, with zongzi, five-color water dumplings, tea and wine as offerings, and also nails a mugwort figure above the door. Officials and commoners welcome one another with feasting and enjoyment.
The entry runs in two halves. The first is a shopping list, from things worn or carried (cords, fans, drums) through sweets to herbs that are chopped, scented and sold in boxes. The second is a calendar: greens on sale for days, then one morning on which the household turns its doorway into a display of offerings, with the mugwort figure above it. The doorway is the stage, facing the street, and the feasting follows from it. Meng gives no account of what the objects are for. No boats, no poems and no remedies appear; the festival exists here as goods that arrive, are arranged and are consumed.
Three places where the text invites a choice.
The Siku scan reads 迎相; the reference edition reads 遞相, “in turn.” The page keeps the Siku 迎 and renders “welcome one another”; the sense is close either way.
The phrase can mean a continuous run of selling days or two separate days. The page reads a run up to the eve and puts the doorway display on the following day, as 次日 suggests.
The reference edition sets these three apart from the confections, so that “all minced fine” (並皆茸切) governs them and the plum-red boxes hold them. The Siku scan has no breaks; the page follows that grouping.
A festival good listed first; the text names it without describing it. The name suggests many strands.
Ornaments of mugwort; the text lists them by name only.
Leaf-wrapped glutinous rice, named twice: once among the goods for sale and once among the offerings at the door.
Dumplings in five colors, set out with zongzi, tea and wine.
The packing for the minced herbs; plum-red is a color term, and the boxes are part of what is sold.
A figure of mugwort nailed above the door; the text says nothing further about its form or purpose.
Entry 62 is short and entirely material. Goods are bought in the street, carried home and arranged at the threshold, where a household’s offerings are visible to everyone who passes. The next entry leaves the household for a temple on the edge of the city and a god’s birthday that runs through the night.
家家鋪陳於門首，與粽子、五色水團、茶酒供養，又釘艾人於門上。The sequence is Meng’s. The punctuation is editorial.
The primary text is read from the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111, 卷八); punctuation and the standardization of Siku variant glyphs are editorial. The Siku reading 迎相 is kept against the reference edition’s 遞相.