DONGJING MENG HUA LU / 卷十
十二月
A month with no festival.
The twelfth month fills a calendar the text admits is empty: a Buddha bathed in the street, porridge made twice, a kitchen god given wine dregs, snow lions on rich tables, and poor men in costume knocking at doors.
READ THE MONTH ↓1. Flowers, a bathed Buddha and the porridge.
十二月，街市盡賣撒佛花、韭黃、生菜、蘭芽、勃荷、胡桃、澤州餳。初八日，街巷中有僧尼三五人作隊念佛，以銀銅沙羅或好盆器，坐一金銅或木佛像，浸以香水，楊枝灑浴，排門教化。諸大寺作浴佛會，並送七寶五味粥與門徒，謂之「臘八粥」。都人是日各家亦以果子雜料煮粥而食也。
In the twelfth month the markets sell sa-fo flowers, forced yellow chives, greens, orchid shoots, mint, walnuts and Zezhou malt candy, all of it. On the eighth day, bands of three or five monks and nuns go through the streets and lanes chanting the Buddha’s name. In a silver or bronze gong-basin or some fine bowl they seat a gilt-bronze or wooden Buddha image, steep it in scented water, sprinkle and bathe it with a willow branch, and go from door to door soliciting. The great monasteries hold Buddha-bathing assemblies and send “seven-treasure five-flavor porridge” to their disciples, which is called “Laba porridge.” On that day the households of the capital also cook porridge from fruit and mixed ingredients and eat it.
The month opens with a produce list (flowers, chives, shoots, walnuts, malt candy) and then narrows to the eighth day. A small band of clergy walks the streets with a Buddha image seated in a basin, bathes it with a willow branch, and solicits at doors. The great monasteries hold their own assemblies and send porridge to disciples. Meng supplies the name “Laba porridge” only after the temples have sent theirs, and then notes that households cook their own. Monastic and domestic practice run in parallel and the city eats the same dish in two forms. The unit gives no explanation of why the eighth day is the day.
2. Oil for the lanterns, and the handover of the year.
臘日，寺院送面油與門徒，卻入疏教化上元燈油錢。閭巷家家互相遺送。是月，景龍門預賞元夕於寶籙宮，一方燈火繁盛。二十四日交年，都人至夜請僧道看經，備酒果送神，燒合家替代錢紙，帖竈馬於竈上，以酒糟塗抹竈門，謂之「醉司命」。夜於床底點燈，謂之「照虛耗」。
On La Day the monasteries send flour and oil to their disciples, and then in turn enter a written appeal soliciting money for lantern oil for the first-moon festival. Households in the lanes send gifts to one another. In this month the Jinglong Gate previews the lantern night at the Baolu Palace, where lamplight fills a whole quarter. On the twenty-fourth, the handover of the year, the people of the capital in the evening invite monks and Daoists to read scriptures, prepare wine and fruit to send off the gods, burn paper money “in place of” the whole household, paste a picture of the stove horse above the stove, and smear the stove door with wine dregs, which is called “getting the Controller of Fate drunk.” At night they set a lamp under the bed, which is called “lighting up empty loss.”
Two timings overlap. The monasteries send flour and oil to their disciples on La Day and ask in turn for lantern-oil money for the first-moon festival, weeks ahead, and a district of the city already holds a preview of the lantern night. Then the twenty-fourth night is described as a household sequence in six actions: clergy are invited, wine and fruit prepared, paper money burned for the whole family, a stove horse pasted up, wine dregs smeared on the stove door, a lamp set under the bed. The text names the stove door and the dregs; it does not explain why the god is made drunk, or what “empty loss” is. It reports the practice and the names.
3. Snow lions and the year-end goods.
此月雖無節序，而豪貴之家遇雪即開筵，塑雪獅，裝雪燈，以會親舊。近歲節，市井皆印賣門神、鍾馗、桃板、桃符，及財門鈍驢、回頭鹿馬、天行帖子。賣乾茄瓠、馬牙菜、膠牙餳之類，以備除夜之用。
Although this month has no seasonal festival, wealthy and noble households open banquets whenever snow falls: they mold snow lions and set up snow lanterns, to gather with relatives and old friends. As the year-end festival draws near, the marketplace prints and sells door gods, Zhong Kui, peach boards and peach talismans, and also Wealth-Gate dull donkeys, look-back deer and horses, and seasonal-epidemic notices. They also sell dried eggplant and gourd, horse-tooth greens, tooth-gluing malt sugar and the like, to be ready for use on New Year’s Eve.
The unit opens with an admission: this month has no festival in the calendar. It then shows two other ways of filling it. The first is private and rich: snow lions and snow lanterns for banquets with relatives and old friends. The second is commercial: the marketplace prints and sells door gods, Zhong Kui, peach boards and talismans, and notices, along with ordinary foods such as dried eggplant and gourd, “for use on the last night.” Printing is mentioned as the way those goods are made. The list is a shopping list for the final night, and its last phrase points straight to the next entry.
4. Poor men in costume.
自入此月，即有貧者，三數人為一火，裝婦人、神鬼，敲鑼擊鼓，巡門乞錢，俗呼為「打夜胡」，亦驅祟之道也。
From the start of this month there are poor men who, in groups of three or so to a band, dress up as women, spirits and demons, beat gongs and drums, and go from door to door begging for money. They are popularly called “Beating the Night Hu,” and it too is a way of driving out evil spirits.
The poor have their own performance: bands of three or so, costumed as women, spirits and demons, beating gongs and drums and asking at doors for money. Meng gives the popular name, “Beating the Night Hu,” and then adds his own gloss: “it too is a way of driving out evil spirits.” The phrase 驅祟 returns in the next entry for the palace’s great exorcism. Street begging and court ritual use the same verb for the same act, and the book places them in consecutive entries.
One lacuna filled, two variants adopted.
The Siku scan has an unreadable glyph after 驅. The modern edition consulted supplies 祟, which the next entry’s 驅祟 supports. The page adopts 祟 and flags the choice.
The Siku scan reads 之行帖子. The modern edition reads 天行, “seasonal epidemic,” which gives the notices a plausible purpose. The page adopts 天行 and flags it.
The scan prints 教 where the sense requires 數 (“three or so to a band”). The page reads 數. The modern edition also records a further lacuna after 雪燈 (“snow lanterns, snow …”) that the Siku text does not have; the page supplies nothing there.
On the eighth, clergy bathe a Buddha image in scented water; the great monasteries hold assemblies of this name.
The porridge of seven treasures and five flavors that temples send to disciples; households cook their own from fruit and mixed ingredients.
The twenty-fourth day, whose night is given to sending off the gods and burning paper money.
The name for smearing the stove door with wine dregs.
The name for the lamp set under the bed that night; the text gives the practice but not the reason.
The costumed begging bands who go door to door; Meng calls them a way of driving out evil.
Entry 85 reports a month the book calls festival-less and then fills it: a Buddha bathed in the street, porridge in two forms, a kitchen god given wine dregs, snow lions on rich tables, door gods from the print shop, and poor men beating gongs. Nearly every action is a preparation for the last night. The final entry gives the night itself.
此月雖無節序，而豪貴之家遇雪即開筵，塑雪獅，裝雪燈，以會親舊。The month 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. One lacuna (祟) is filled and two variants (天行, 數) adopted from a modern edition; see Text Detective.