DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷十
駕詣青城齋宮
A city of blue cloth.
The emperor rides the Jade Carriage to the Qingcheng fasting palace, once a screen of painted blue cloth and by the Zhenghe and Xuanhe years a built enclosure, ringed at night by cavalry, bands and calling sentries.
READ THE BLUE CITY ↓1. The fasting palace and its ring of troops.
駕御玉輅，詣青城齋宮。所謂「青城」，舊來止以青布幕為之，畫砌、甃之文，旋結城闕、殿宇。宣、政間，悉用土木蓋造矣。鐵騎圍齋宮外。諸軍有紫巾緋衣素隊約千餘，羅布郊野，每隊軍樂一火。行宮巡檢部領甲馬，來往巡邏。至夜，嚴警、喝探如前。
The emperor drives the Jade Carriage to the Qingcheng, the Fasting Palace. What is called the “Qingcheng” (Blue City) was in the past made only of blue cloth screens painted with the patterns of steps and brick paving, and gate towers and halls were put up on the spot. In the Zhenghe and Xuanhe years it was built entirely of earth and timber. Iron cavalry ring the outside of the Fasting Palace. The various armies have plain companies in purple turbans and crimson robes, about a thousand and more, scattered across the open country, each company with one squad of military musicians. The inspector of the traveling palace commands the armored horse, who patrol back and forth. At night the alarms and the calling scouts are as before.
The Blue City is explained by its history. Meng gives its original materials (blue cloth, paint), its method (improvised, put up on the spot) and the date the method changed: the Zhenghe and Xuanhe years, the last reigns of Emperor Huizong, when it was built of earth and timber. A place named for a color was once literally made of cloth. The security is described in rings: iron cavalry around the Fasting Palace, plain companies spread across the fields with a band to each, and the inspector of the traveling palace leading patrols. The sounds of the night reuse the vocabulary of entry 77: alarms and calling scouts “as before.” The entry says nothing of the emperor inside the Qingcheng, his meal or his rest; the next entry takes him to the altar.
Three places to read slowly.
Zhenghe (1111–1118) and Xuanhe (1119–1125) were the last two reign periods of Emperor Huizong. The phrase dates the rebuilding to those years, and gives no more exact date.
The scan gives no punctuation between 素隊 and 約千餘, so it is unclear whether the thousand counts companies or men. The page leaves the noun open: “about a thousand and more.”
The scan gives 畫砌甃之文 as one run. The page reads 砌 (steps) and 甃 (brick paving) as two painted patterns, as the modern edition does.
The temporary enclosure where the emperor fasts before the altar rite, named for its original blue cloth walls.
The hall within the Qingcheng where the emperor lodges in preparation for the sacrifice.
Short for the Xuanhe and Zhenghe reign periods, 1111 to 1125, the years of Emperor Huizong’s late reign.
The troops in purple turbans and crimson robes scattered across the fields; the entry does not explain 素.
A squad of soldiers, here a squad of military musicians attached to each company.
The officer who commands the armored horse patrolling the Qingcheng by day and night.
Entry 80 is brief, but it carries a whole building history in one sentence: a city of painted cloth that became earth and timber in the reigns Meng remembers. The ring of cavalry, the plain companies and the nightly calls repeat the structure of the Great Hall: wherever the emperor sleeps, the night is made of sound. The next entry takes him from the Qingcheng to the altar.
至夜，嚴警、喝探如前。The Blue City 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 Siku text has no lacuna in this entry; 廵邏 is normalized to 巡邏.