車駕宿大慶殿

Three days before the winter solstice the emperor lodges in the Great Hall of State. The courtyard of the hall is so wide it could hold tens of thousands of people; the whole ceremonial carriage and its regalia are laid out in the court, and still cannot cover it. Two towers face each other, called the “Bell and Drum Towers,” and on them students of the Bureau of Astronomy check the water clock. At every hour and every mark a cock’s crow is sounded and a drum is struck once; then a man in green dress holds an ivory tablet and reports the time. At each mark he says, “Such-and-such hour, so many drum strokes”; at the turn of the hour he says, “Such-and-such hour, exactly.”

The chief councillors and all the officials wear full court dress, and their headgear differs by rank and class. Chief councillors and princes add the sable-and-cicada cage-cap, with nine beams; attendant officials have seven beams; the rest range from six beams down to two, by degree; the censors and remonstrators add the xiezhi horn. By “beams” is meant the rows of gilt copper leaves set along the ridge across the front of the cap. All wear crimson robes with black borders, the square-heart curved collar, an inner garment, jade pendants and cloud-headed shoes, and hold the tablet according to rank. The other functionaries all wear the plain coif and scarlet robes, again in graded differences; only the staff of the Audience Gate and the Censorate add the square-heart curved collar. The attendants who enter the hall are issued square yellow tags; the others have yellow long tags or crimson square-and-long tags, each marking the places they may go.

The ceremonial equipment and carriages (that is, the banners of credence, dragon flags, wind-vane birds, south-pointing carriage, and the wood, ivory, leather, gold and jade carriages and the like; they can be seen in the Illustrations of the Three Rites, so I will not list them one by one) are drawn up inside and outside the hall gate and along the Imperial Way, near and far. The palace guards in full armor, tens of thousands of iron cavalry, ring the Inner Palace. That night, besides the guards inside the hall, there are soldiers in small caps edged with brocade and broad robes sewn with brocade cords, each holding a black-lacquered staff with silver-wrapped ends. They are called “calling scouts.” A dozen or so make up a squad, standing with their heads together, several dozen squads in all. One man in each squad shouts, “Is it or is it not?” The rest answer, “It is!” He asks again, “Who is it?” The rest answer, “The Palace Command commander, Gao Qiu.” They shout back and forth without a pause, sometimes like a cock’s crow. A warning ground is also set up outside the Xuande Gate; its soldiers are called the “martial warning troops.” There are two hundred painted drums, matched by horns, and the horns all have colored silk tied on like the streamers of small flags. The soldiers all wear small caps, yellow embroidered headbands, yellow embroidered broad robes and narrow blue under-robes. At late afternoon and at the third watch each sounds the alarm. At each sounding the horns are blown first; when the horns stop, a military officer holds up a long, soft rattan wand with a red whisk tied to it, and the drummers watch the whisk and answer with the drums, rising and falling as it rises and falls.