The Song official Wang Yucheng wrote an essay on the dailou yuan (待漏院), the hall where the chancellor waited before the morning audience. “The northern gate faces the dawn, and the east is not yet light. The chancellor sets out.” The golden gate is still shut, and the water clock still drips. He steps down from his carriage and rests in the hall.
The essay explains why the hall was built: “to show diligence in government.” Even ministers, it says, rise early and sleep late “to serve one man.” The text was later included in the Guwen guanzhi, the classic anthology of prose.