駕詣郊壇行禮

At the third watch the carriage went to the suburban altar to perform the rite. The altar has three concentric walls. The carriage left the Azure City and went south, then turned at a right angle to the west for about a li, and that was the altar. Entering by the east gate of the outer wall and reaching the inside of the second wall, facing south, a great curtained tent had been set up, called the “Great Tent.” There the emperor changed into sacrificial dress: the flat-heaven crown (with twenty-four pendants), the blue dragon robe, the inner garment, vermilion shoes, and pure-jade pendants. Two palace eunuchs supported him as he walked to the front of the altar. Below the altar there was a second, small curtained hall, called the “Small Tent,” with a throne inside. The terrace rises three tiers and seventy-two steps, and the altar surface measures some three zhang across. There are four stairways: due south is called the Noon stair, east the Mao stair, west the You stair, north the Zi stair. On the altar two yellow-cushioned places are laid out: the one on the north, facing south, is “August Heaven, Supreme Lord”; the one on the east, “southeast-facing,” is “Emperor Taizu.” There are only two low tables, on which the ritual materials are set. There are a dozen or more Daoists as singers of the ascending hymn, with two racks of bells and chimes; the rest of the singers, the zithers and the like amount to just three or five attendants.

In front of the altar a palace-frame orchestra is set up. In front are ranged the tuned bells and the jade chimes. The racks are like those of the ordinary fangxiang (the metal-plate frame) but made taller and larger. The bells are slightly flattened in shape and hung in an upper and lower tier, the two corners of the rack hung with tassels. The jade chimes are shaped like a carpenter’s square, hung from the point of the bend, and likewise racked in upper and lower tiers. Next are ranged several racks of great drums, three or five, with a wooden shaft threaded through each and standing upright on the rack base. There are also great bells called the “Jing bell” and the “Jie drum.” There are zithers, long ones; instruments like a zheng but larger; bamboo cut like a xiao pipe with a node left at both ends and blown across; instruments of fired clay shaped like a round pellet with openings pierced in it; some like a sheng but larger; and some like a xiao but with extra pipes. There are singers, whose voices are clear and bright, not to be compared with the music of Zheng and Wei.

In front of the palace frame stand two poles. The musicians all wear a jie headcloth (like a basket-shaped cap), scarlet wide-sleeved shirts and silk sashes. The performers of the two dances wear purple caps with a cross-board on top, black clothes, vermilion skirts, and shoes. When the music begins, the civil dance comes first: each dancer holds a purple bag containing a flute-pipe, tied with a cord. In the martial dance each holds a short spear in one hand and a small shield in the other. Compared with the civil dance, several more people are added, who strike bronze cymbals and ringing hoops, and also strike something shaped like a bronze stove-flue; and two men together carry a bronze jar and strike it on the ground. The dancers move as if striking and stabbing, as if riding clouds, as if parting hands — all of it is dance posture. At the start of the music the zhu is struck first (made of wood, like a square jar, painted with a landscape); each time music is played it is struck, inside and out, nine blows in all. When the music stops, the yu is struck (like a crouching tiger with a saw-toothed ridge along its back), and at the end of a piece it is scraped with split bamboo.

The ritual usher memorializes, requesting the emperor to ascend the altar; the officials who guide him in front all bend at the waist and lead him from the side. At the altar they stop; only the Grand Ceremonies Commissioner ascends with him. First, at the northernmost place, he bows and kneels to offer wine; the Palace Director, facing east, bows once and presents the cup; the emperor bows twice and rises. Then he goes to the place due east. As soon as he has ascended the altar, the palace-frame music stops and the music on the altar begins; when he descends, the palace-frame music resumes and the martial dancers come up. He returns to the Small Tent. The Second and Final Offerants ascend, also following the earlier procedure (at that time the Princes of Yan and Yue served as Second and Final Offerants). On the second ascent the music plays as at first; when the kneeling libation is finished, the Secretariat Drafter reads the text, two men on the left and right holding the document up while he reads kneeling. He descends and returns to the Small Tent; the Second and Final Offerants proceed as before. On the next ascent the jade cup is presented, and the emperor drinks the blessing wine. When the Second and Final Offerants have finished, he descends and stands before the Small Tent, and the ritual materials, silks and the jade text on the altar go down by the west stair.

Outside the south gate of the wall, a hundred-odd paces from the altar, there is a burning furnace about a zhang high. The various materials are raised onto the platform, one man calls them off by name, and they are put into the furnace and burned. Around the three tiers of the altar, between the stairways, there are twelve niches, where sacrifice is made to the gods of the twelve houses; outside the inner wall the hundred stars are sacrificed to. The attendants and the assisting sacrificial officials all stand in ranks facing north. When the palace-frame music has ended and the drums and winds have not yet begun, the hundreds of thousands inside and outside are hushed, and one hears only the light wind and the sound of jade pendants. One announcer shouts, “Announce: one bow!” and all bow. The rite is complete.