DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷十
大禮預教車象
Elephants rehearse the sacrifice.
Two months before the Grand Sacrifice, five carts and seven elephants rehearse the route from the Xuande Gate to the Nanxun Gate, bow before the Xuande Tower, and become the street’s favorite show.
READ THE REHEARSAL ↓1. Five carts and the route.
遇大禮年，預於兩月前教車象。自宣德門至南薰門外，往來一遭。車五乘，以代五輅輕重。每車上置旗二口、鼓一面，駕以四馬。挾車衛士皆紫衫、帽子，車前數人擊鞭。
In a year of the Grand Sacrifice, carts and elephants are trained two months ahead. They go from the Xuande Gate out beyond the Nanxun Gate and back, one round trip. Five carts stand in for the five state carriages, light and heavy. On each cart are set two banners and one drum, and it is drawn by four horses. The guards flanking the carts all wear purple jackets and caps; several men in front of the carts crack whips.
The entry starts from the calendar, not the ceremony: a Grand Sacrifice year, and two months of rehearsal. The route is a line through the city from the palace’s Xuande Gate to beyond the Nanxun Gate, the same line the procession of entry 78 starts from and entry 79 leaves along. Five carts with one drum and two banners each stand in for the state carriages, and what the text counts is what has to move together: horses, banners, drums, guards, whips. Rehearsal here is partly an engineering test of how a column of that length moves on the street.
2. Seven elephants and the bow.
象七頭，前列朱旗數十面，銅鑼、鼙鼓十數面，先擊鑼二下，鼓急應三下。執旗人紫衫、帽子。每一象則一人（裹交腳幞頭、紫衫），人跨其頸，手執短柄銅钁，尖其刃，象有不馴，擊之。象至宣德樓前，團轉行步數遭，成列，使之面北而拜，亦能唱喏。
Seven elephants, with dozens of vermilion flags drawn up in front and a dozen or so bronze gongs and war drums. First the gong is struck twice, and the drums answer quickly with three strokes. The flag-bearers wear purple jackets and caps. For each elephant there is one man (in a cross-legged futou and purple jacket) who straddles its neck, a short-handled copper pick in his hand, its blade sharpened; if an elephant will not obey, he strikes it. When the elephants reach the front of the Xuande Tower they wheel and walk several rounds, form ranks, and are made to face north and bow; they can also call out “yes.”
The elephant section is the most mechanical in the entry. It is built from signals (two gong strokes, three drum strokes), from flags and from a rider with a sharpened pick, and Meng states plainly what the pick is for. The marvel arrives only at the tower: the animals circle, form ranks, face north, bow, and call out an assent. The text does not say whom they bow to. Standing in front of the tower, facing north, they face the palace, and that is the reading the page leaves open rather than asserts.
3. The street takes the elephants home.
諸戚里、宗室、貴族之家，勾呼就私第觀看，贈之銀綵，無虛日。御街遊人嬉集，觀者如織。賣撲土、木、粉捏小象兒并紙畫，看人攜歸，以為獻遺。
The households of the consort clans, the imperial clansmen and the nobility summon them to their private mansions to watch, and give them silver and silks, with no day idle. Strollers crowd together on the Imperial Way, spectators as thick as woven cloth. Vendors sell by wager little elephants modeled in clay, wood or dough, along with paper pictures; the onlookers carry them home as gifts.
By the last unit the rehearsal has become a city-wide show. The elephants have a visiting schedule: they are called to the mansions of kin and nobles and rewarded with silver and silk, “no day idle.” A state animal is briefly put into private entertainment. The street adds a second economy of toy elephants in clay, wood and dough and of paper pictures, bought as presents. By the time of the sacrifice the city has already seen its animals; the text implies that the rehearsal is itself the city’s event.
Three places the rehearsal is hard to read.
The clause can mean that the five carts stand in for the weight of the five carriages, or simply for the five, light and heavy. The page translates it as literally as it can. Entry 77 later lists the five: wood, ivory, leather, gold and jade.
The Siku text reads 一人裹交腳幞頭紫衫人跨其頸 without a break, which repeats 人. The page marks the rider’s dress as a parenthesis; the parenthesis is editorial, not one of Meng’s own glosses.
钁 is a heavy hoe or pick. The page calls the object a short-handled copper pick with a sharpened blade, and does not assume it was a goad of a special type.
The great rite of the solstice sacrifice, taken here as the sacrifice to Heaven that entries 77 to 79 lead up to.
The ceremonial carriages named in entry 77: wood, ivory, leather, gold and jade.
The gate tower of the Xuande Gate, the palace’s main southern entrance in this book.
A spoken assent or greeting; the entry says the elephants can do it.
The households of the empress’s and consorts’ families, named here with the clansmen and nobles who summon the elephants.
Sale by game of chance, a common street practice in this book; the toy elephants are sold this way.
Entry 76 stages the Grand Sacrifice two months early, with carts, drums and seven elephants. By its last sentence the rehearsal has become a street fair, with toy elephants for sale. The next entry moves indoors and three days forward, to the night on which the emperor sleeps in the Great Hall.
御街遊人嬉集，觀者如織。The animals are Meng’s. The punctuation is editorial.
The primary text is read from the Siku-family witness (Kanripo KR2k0111, 卷十); punctuation and the standardization of Siku variant glyphs are editorial. The parenthesis around the rider’s dress is an editorial reading, discussed above.