DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷十
下赦
The pardon comes down a rope.
The amnesty as theater on the Xuande Tower: great banners, a rooster pole with a golden bird at its tip, a golden phoenix sliding the decree down a rope, and prisoners freed at the sound of a drum.
READ THE AMNESTY ↓1. Banners that stay and banners that travel.
車駕登宣德樓。樓前立大旗數口，內一口大者與宣德樓齊，謂之「蓋天旗」。旗立御路中心不動。次一口稍小，隨駕立，謂之「次黃龍」，青城、太廟隨逐立之，俗亦呼為「蓋天旗」。
The imperial carriage ascended the Xuande Tower. Before the tower several great banners are set up. The largest of them, level with the Xuande Tower itself, is called the “Cover-Heaven Banner.” This banner stands in the middle of the Imperial Way and does not move. The next, slightly smaller, stands attending the carriage and is called the “Second Yellow Dragon”; at the Azure City and the Ancestral Temple it is set up following him in turn, and ordinary people also call it a “Cover-Heaven Banner.”
Two banners, two kinds of presence. The big one is fixed: level with the tower, in the middle of the Imperial Way, and it never moves. The smaller one travels with the carriage and is set up again at each stop, including the Azure City and the Ancestral Temple, so it marks where the emperor is. The earlier procession of this same volume has already mentioned the Second Yellow Dragon standing before the fasting palace. The unit ends on a naming problem: ordinary people call it by the other banner’s name, 蓋天旗, and Meng records both names without choosing.
2. The pole, the golden rooster, four climbers.
亦設宮架。樂作，須臾，擊柝之聲。旋立雞竿，約高十數丈，竿尖有一大木盤，上有金雞，口銜紅幡子，書「皇帝萬歲」字。盤底有綵索四條垂下，有四紅巾者，爭先緣索而上，捷得金雞、紅幡，則山呼謝恩訖。
A palace-frame ensemble is also set up, and the music plays. After a moment comes the sound of a clapper. Immediately a rooster pole is raised, ten-odd zhang high. At the tip of the pole is a large wooden tray, and on it a golden rooster with a red pennant in its beak, inscribed with the characters “Long live the emperor.” From the underside of the tray four colored ropes hang down. Four men in red kerchiefs race one another up the ropes; the one who swiftly gets the golden rooster and red pennant then gives the mountain-shout in thanks for the favor.
The order is fixed: music, the sound of a clapper, the pole. A tray sits at the top with a golden rooster holding a pennant that reads “Long live the emperor,” and the contest is to bring it down. Four men in red kerchiefs climb four ropes, and the first to take the bird and pennant gives the mountain-shout. Loyalty is performed as a race, and the prize is the sign of loyalty. The unit gives the pole’s height (ten-odd zhang) but not what the winner receives beyond the right to give thanks, and the text does not say who the climbers are.
3. The phoenix, the decree and the prisoners.
樓上以紅綿索通門下一綵樓，上有金鳳銜赦而下，至綵樓上，而通事舍人得赦宣讀。開封府、大理寺排列罪人在樓前，罪人皆緋縫黃布衫，獄吏皆簪花鮮潔。聞鼓聲，疏枷放去，各山呼謝恩訖。
From the tower a red silk rope runs down to a decorated stand below the gate. On the rope is a golden phoenix holding the decree in its beak, which slides down; when it reaches the decorated stand, the Receiving Secretary takes the decree and reads it aloud. The Kaifeng Prefecture and the Court of Judicial Review have ranged the convicts in front of the tower; the convicts all wear yellow cloth shirts stitched in red, and the prison officers all wear flowers in their hair, fresh and clean. At the sound of a drum the cangues are loosened and the prisoners let go, and each gives the mountain-shout in thanks.
The decree travels by a mechanical bird: down a red silk rope, held in a golden phoenix’s beak, to a stand where a Receiving Secretary takes it and reads. Its contents are not given. There is no list of crimes, no term, no region. The prisoners are visible as costume, in yellow shirts with red stitching, and the jailers wear flowers, so the legal act is staged as a pageant in which even the guards are dressed for the occasion. A drum triggers the release, and the thanks are the same mountain-shout the rooster-pole winner gave a few lines earlier. Gratitude is uttered in unison, by the climber and the freed alike.
4. Plays, swords and a day that ends at dusk.
樓下鈞容直樂作，雜劇、舞旋，御龍直裝神鬼，斫真刀倬刀。樓上百官賜茶酒，諸班直呈拽馬隊，六軍歸營。至日晡時，禮畢。
Below the tower the Junrongzhi corps plays; there are variety plays and whirling dances; the Imperial Dragon Guard dress as gods and demons and cut with real swords and “zhuo” blades. On the tower the officials are bestowed tea and wine; the various guard units present teams of led horses; the six armies return to camp. By about late afternoon the ceremony is complete.
After the release the day turns to entertainment. Plays, dances, and guards dressed as gods and demons cutting with real swords fill the space below the tower, while officials above are given tea and wine, guard units present their horse teams, and the armies go back to camp. The closing time is given, late afternoon, so that entries 81–83, read as one continuous day, run from the third watch to late afternoon. The end is military and theatrical, not legal. The unit says nothing more about the freed prisoners.
Three places where the text resists a clean reading.
Both the Siku scan and a modern edition print 倬刀. Entry 52 prints 掉刀 among the picnic gifts, and 倬 may be a miscopying of 掉. The page keeps 倬 and does not translate it.
疏 has no clean English equivalent here. The page reads it as “loosen,” alongside “let go.” The prisoners are freed at the drum; how exactly the cangues come off is not described.
Which banner ordinary people called “Cover-Heaven” is not stated. The page takes the nearest antecedent, the Second Yellow Dragon, but flags it.
The great fixed banner at the center of the Imperial Way; also, in the common name, the smaller travelling banner.
The smaller banner that stands with the carriage and is raised in turn at the Azure City and the Ancestral Temple.
A pole ten-odd zhang high with a golden rooster at its tip, climbed for a red pennant.
The official who takes the decree from the phoenix and reads it aloud.
A clapper struck once the music has begun, as the signal before the pole is raised.
The unison shout of thanks and long life given by the winning climber and by the freed prisoners.
Entry 83 stages the amnesty as machinery and crowd: a banner that never moves, a banner that travels, a climbing contest for a golden rooster, a golden phoenix with the decree. The legal content is absent; the choreography is complete. When the drum sounds the prisoners are freed and shout their thanks, and the day ends at late afternoon. The next entry shortens to a single paragraph of aftermath.
至日晡時，禮畢。The staging 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 scan and the modern edition consulted agree on the unclear glyph 倬.