DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷十
駕宿太廟奉神主出室
A night with the ancestors.
The emperor rides the Jade Carriage to the Ancestral Temple, spends the night under the same watch-calls as in the Great Hall, and at the third watch performs the rite while the spirit tablets are brought out of their chambers.
READ THE NIGHT AT THE TEMPLE ↓1. The emperor and the Jade Carriage.
駕乘玉輅，冠服如圖畫間星官之服，頭冠皆北珠裝結，頂通天冠（又謂之「卷雲冠」），服絳袍，執元圭。其玉輅，頂皆鏤金大蓮葉攢簇，四柱、欄檻鏤玉盤花龍鳳，駕以四馬，後出旗、常。輅上御座，惟近侍二人，一從官傍立，謂之「執綏」，以備顧問。挾輅衛士，皆裹黑漆團頂無腳幞頭，著黃生色寬衫、青窄襯衫、青袴，繫以錦繩。輅後四人，擎行馬。前有朝服二人，執笏面輅倒行。
The emperor rides the Jade Carriage. His cap and robes are like the dress of the star-officials seen in paintings: the headgear all set with northern pearls, topped by the Heaven-Penetrating Crown (also called the “rolled-cloud crown”); he wears a crimson robe and holds the dark jade tablet. The roof of the Jade Carriage is all clustered gilt-carved large lotus leaves, and its four pillars and railings are carved with jade coiled-flower patterns, dragons and phoenixes. It is drawn by four horses, with the banners and standards coming out behind. On the throne seat in the carriage there are only two close attendants and one accompanying official standing beside, called the “strap-holder,” there to answer any question. The guards flanking the carriage all wear black-lacquered round-topped legless futou, yellow raw-silk broad robes, blue narrow under-robes and blue trousers, tied with brocade cords. Four men behind the carriage carry a portable barrier. In front, two men in court dress hold tablets and walk backward facing the carriage.
The emperor appears in one clause, the carriage in the next, and the carriage takes up more of the passage than he does. His dress is explained by comparison to paintings of star-officials, a visual shorthand the reader is expected to hold. The carriage is described as a structure: lotus-leaf roof, four pillars, railings carved with dragons and phoenixes, four horses. The seat is nearly empty, with two attendants and one official whose job is to be asked questions. Everything else is a perimeter: guards in matching cap and robe, four men carrying a portable barrier, and two officials in court dress who walk backward holding tablets and facing the carriage. The emperor is surrounded by service roles rather than by weapons.
2. The night at the temple and the tablets.
是夜宿太廟，喝探、警嚴，如宿殿儀。至三更，車駕行事，執事皆宗室。宮架樂作，主上在殿上東南隅西面立，有一朱漆金字牌曰「皇帝位」。然後奉神主出室，亦奏中嚴、外辦。逐室行禮畢，甲馬、儀仗、車輅番袞，出南薰門。
That night he lodges in the Ancestral Temple; the scouts call and the alarms sound as in the ceremony for lodging in the hall. At the third watch the emperor performs the rite, and the officiants are all imperial clansmen. The full-hung orchestra plays. The sovereign stands in the hall at the southeast corner, facing west; there is a vermilion-lacquered plaque lettered in gold that reads “The Emperor’s Place.” Then the spirit tablets are brought out of their chambers, again with the announcement of inner alert and outer readiness. When the rite has been performed in each chamber in turn, the armored cavalry, regalia and carriages leave in relays through the Nanxun Gate.
The night repeats the Great Hall arrangement by reference: the same calls, the same alarm, “as in the ceremony for lodging in the hall.” Meng reuses a procedure rather than describing it again. Only three things are new: the officiants are all imperial clansmen; the music is the full-hung orchestra; and the emperor has a place marked by a plaque. His standing place is given by compass (the southeast corner, facing west) and then by a gold-lettered label. The order that follows is tablets out of their chambers, then the rite chamber by chamber, then the exit. The text names no offerings, no prayers and no count of chambers; it gives the geometry of the rite and the order of its parts. The entry ends, like 78, with an armed exit through a gate.
Three readings to flag.
元圭 stands for 玄圭, the dark jade tablet. Avoidance of 玄 in Song and Qing writing makes 元 a likely stand-in; the page keeps 元圭 as written and glosses it as the dark jade tablet.
The sentence can be read as two attendants and one official, three people in all, or as two attendants, one of them an official. The page takes the first reading. 綏 is the strap used to mount a carriage; the text says only that this person is there to answer questions.
Why a plaque marks the emperor’s position is not explained. The page records the compass directions and the label as given and offers no reason.
The last of the five state carriages in entry 77’s list, and the one the emperor rides here.
The emperor’s crown, which Meng glosses as also called the “rolled-cloud crown.”
The official standing beside the throne seat, there to answer any question.
A movable barrier carried by four men behind the carriage.
The large ceremonial orchestra with bells and chimes on stands, described at length in a later entry.
The tablet in the temple’s chambers on which an ancestor’s spirit is honored; here brought out of its chamber.
Entry 79 gives the emperor a carriage, a corner of a hall and a plaque. The text records dress, geometry and order of events; it records almost nothing of the rite’s words. By the last sentence the tablets have been brought out and honored chamber by chamber, and the armed procession is on the road again, toward the Qingcheng, where the next entry takes the night.
逐室行禮畢，甲馬、儀仗、車輅番袞，出南薰門。The corner is 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 scan’s 元圭 is kept as written; 玄 is avoided in the Siku text.