THE INTERPRETATION OF A DREAM THE SOURCES, EVALUATION, AND INFLUENCE OF THE DONGJING MENG HUA LU BY STEPHEN H. WEST No other work is such a focal point for information on urban life in the Northern Song as the Dongjing meng Hua lu A Record of Dreaming of Hua [Xu] in the Eastern Capital.' Unprecedented in the history of Chinese occasional writing, it has consistently been plundered by modern social and cultural historians,2 by economists concerned with market systems and transportation complexes,3 by literary historians who eke information on urban entertainments from their slim mention,4 and by art historians seeking documenta- tion for the great Xiangguo Temple5 or written parallels to the crowded panorama that unrolls in the Qingming shang he tu @% _E# 111, Zhang Zeduan's 4K-,MV (ca. 1115) famous handscroll, "Up the River at Qingming Festival."6 6