DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷八
七夕
The toy market of the seventh night.
Qixi as a market of miniatures: clay mohele figures sold at six sites, wax floaters, a sprouted-grain farmhouse and sugar generals, then the city in new dress, and a night of begging for skill with a spider in a box.
READ THE SEVENTH NIGHT ↓1. Where the figures are sold.
七月七夕，潘樓街東、宋門外瓦子、州西梁門外瓦子、北門外、南朱雀門外街及馬行街內，皆賣磨喝樂，乃小塑土偶耳，悉以雕木彩裝欄座，或用紅紗碧籠，或飾以金珠牙翠，有一對直數千者，禁中及貴家與士庶，為時物追陪。
On the seventh night of the seventh month, they all sell mohele at six places: east of Pan Tower Street, the tile market outside the Song Gate, the tile market outside the Liang Gate west of the prefectural city, outside the North Gate, the street outside the Zhuque Gate in the south, and within Mahang Street. They are simply small clay figurines, each on a railed base of carved and painted wood, some under red gauze and blue-green cages, some adorned with gold, pearls, ivory and kingfisher feathers; a pair can be worth several thousand. The palace, noble households and ordinary people alike keep up with this seasonal object.
The entry begins with a map: six selling sites, two of them the tile markets, the entertainment precincts of the city. The sentence then deflates its subject, since the mohele is “simply” a small clay figure, and then inflates it, since a pair set in gold, pearl, ivory and kingfisher feathers is worth several thousand. Price is the only thing the text gives about the figures themselves; their pose and dress are not described. The last clause names a single buying public (palace, noble houses, commoners), all “keeping up” with the same object at different prices.
2. The lesser goods, each with its name.
又以黃蠟鑄為鳧雁、鴛鴦、鸂鶒、龜魚之類，彩畫金縷，謂之「水上浮」。又以小板上傅土，旋種粟，令生苗，置小茅屋、花木，作田舍家小人物，皆村落之態，謂之「穀板」。又以瓜雕刻成花樣，謂之「花瓜」。又以油麵糖蜜造為笑靨兒，謂之「果食」，花樣奇巧百端，如捺香、方勝之類。若買一斤，數內有一對被介胄者，如門神之像，蓋自來風流，不知其從，謂之「果食將軍」。又以菉豆、小豆、小麥於磁器內以水浸之，生芽數寸，以紅藍綵縷束之，謂之「種生」。皆於街心綵幕帳設，出絡貨賣。
They also cast wild ducks and geese, mandarin ducks, xichi ducks, turtles and fish in yellow wax, painted in color with gold threading, and call them “floaters on the water.” They also spread earth on a small board and sow millet on it, which sprouts at once, and set out small thatched huts and flowering plants with tiny figures in the manner of a farmhouse, all in village attitudes, calling it a “grain board.” They also carve melons into flower patterns, called “flower melon.” They also make “laughing-dimple” shapes out of oil dough, sugar and honey, called “fruit food,” their patterns endlessly ingenious, such as pressed-incense designs and the “victory knot.” If you buy a catty, there will be among them a pair wearing armor, like the images of door gods; it has always been a fashion whose origin nobody knows, and they are called “fruit-food generals.” They also soak mung beans, small beans and wheat in water in porcelain vessels until the sprouts are several inches long, and bind them with red and indigo threads, calling them “planted growth.” All are set out in the middle of the street under colored-curtain awnings and sold in a continuous line.
Six goods, six names: the phrase “called” (謂之) introduces each of them, so that the passage works as a glossary of the festival’s vernacular. The materials are staples turned into miniatures: wax, millet, melon, dough and sugar, and sprouted beans. The grain board puts a village on a plank in the middle of the city, which seems to be the point of the joke. The sugar generals are the one item with an aside, and Meng is candid: the custom is old and its source unknown (不知其從). The only selling arrangement the passage gives is a place and a cover, the street’s middle under a colored awning.
3. The city dresses for the night.
七夕前三五日，車馬盈市，羅綺滿街。旋折未開荷花，都人善假做雙頭蓮，取玩一時，提攜而歸，路人往往嗟愛。又小兒須買新荷葉執之，蓋效顰磨喝樂。兒童輩特地新妝，競誇鮮麗。
For three to five days before the seventh night, carriages and horses fill the market and silks and gauzes fill the street. People break off unopened lotus flowers on the spot; the city’s people are skilled at counterfeiting a double-headed lotus, enjoy it for a moment, and carry it home, and passers-by often sigh over it with admiration. Small children also insist on buying fresh lotus leaves to hold, in imitation of the mohele. The children put on new dress especially and compete in showing off its freshness and brilliance.
The register moves from goods to people. The crowd is described by what it wears and moves in, carriages and silk, and the commodity of the moment is a lotus, bought bloom by bloom and sometimes made into a double. The children are the passage’s turning point: they buy lotus leaves “to imitate the mohele,” so that the children copy the figure with their own bodies, and the competition in dress takes the place of any ritual language. Nothing here yet mentions the Weaver Girl or the rite itself.
4. Begging for skill.
至初六日、七日晚，貴家多結綵樓於庭，謂之「乞巧樓」。鋪陳磨喝樂、花瓜、酒炙、筆硯、針線，或兒童裁詩，女郎呈巧，焚香列拜，謂之「乞巧」。婦女望月穿針，或以小蜘蛛安合子內，次日看之，若網圓正，謂之「得巧」。里巷與妓館往往列之門首，爭以侈靡相向。（磨喝樂本佛經摩睺羅，今通俗而書之。）
On the evenings of the sixth and seventh days, noble households often raise colored-silk towers in their courtyards, called “begging-for-skill towers.” They lay out mohele, flower melon, wine and roast meat, brush and inkstone, needle and thread; children compose verses and young women show their skill, burning incense and bowing in rows, which is called “begging for skill.” Women gaze at the moon and thread needles, or put a small spider in a box and look at it the next day: if its web is round and regular, this is called “gaining skill.” In the lanes and the courtesans’ houses they often set these out at the door, competing in extravagance with one another. (Mohele is originally the Buddhist sutra’s Mohuoluo; now it is written in the common way.)
Only here does the rite appear, and it is assembled from the goods of the first two units: the mohele and the flower melon return as altar furniture, together with wine, roast meat and writing and sewing gear. The test of skill is a spider’s web inspected the next day, which gives the night a result as well as a ritual. The class order runs from noble courtyards to lanes and brothels, who set out the same display at their doors and compete in luxury. Meng’s final note, that “mohele” is the vernacular writing of a Buddhist word, is the only etymology he gives in this volume.
Three places where the Siku text and the reference part.
The reference edition shows a gap where 鸂鶒 belongs (“mandarin ducks, , turtles”). The Siku scan has the word, and the page takes it from the Siku.
The Siku scan writes a rare variant of 瓜 (after 化 at first mention, after 花 later). The page reads both as 花瓜, “flower melon,” as the reference edition does, since the same item is meant.
The closing note in the Siku scan breaks at a slash. 㬋 is a variant of 睺, and the page reads the Buddhist word as 摩睺羅.
Small clay figures sold for the seventh night; Meng ends the entry by deriving the name from a Buddhist word.
Waterfowl, turtles and fish cast in wax and painted; the name suggests they float.
A small board with soil and sprouting millet, a thatched hut and tiny figures in the manner of a farmhouse.
A pair of armored figures included among the sugar-dough sweets; Meng says no one knows the source of the custom.
A colored-silk tower raised in the courtyards of noble households for the sixth and seventh evenings.
The result of the spider test: if the web in the box is round and regular the next day, the woman has gained skill.
Entry 65 is built on a return: the toy sold in the first unit reappears on the altar in the last, along with the flower melon, and the same lanes and brothels that sell the goods set them out at their doors. Meng gives the web of a spider the last word as to who has gained skill. The next entry, the Zhongyuan festival, keeps the same market sites and swaps toys for paper clothes.
婦女望月穿針，或以小蜘蛛安合子內，次日看之，若網圓正，謂之「得巧」。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 scan keeps 鸂鶒, which the reference edition drops.