被看成一幅畫的一群人
這一支最靠近那塊畫板：東西擺在平面上，被一次看進去。差別只在畫是被畫上去的，還是現實自己湊成的。
noun · C1
A group of people shown together in a painting, a photograph, a mosaic, or another work of art, placed so that the whole group reads as one picture.
畫作中的人物群像
核心畫面
One way to hold tableau: a flat surface with things set out on it, and someone standing back to take in the whole arrangement at once. Fill that surface with figures and you have the painting — a crowd you read as one picture. Let living people do the holding still and you get the stage version, a picture that will breathe again in a moment. Take away the arranging altogether and a real room can fall into the same shape by accident, which is what a writer means today. And if you keep the flat ruled surface but put numbers on it instead of faces, you still have a tableau; the word has simply kept the board and let go of the paint.
tableau 可以想成一個平面，上面擺著東西，而有個人退開一步，一次把整體看進去。把這個平面填滿人物，就成了畫——…更多收起
tableau 可以想成一個平面，上面擺著東西，而有個人退開一步，一次把整體看進去。把這個平面填滿人物，就成了畫——一群人被你當成一幅畫來讀。讓活人自己定住不動，就成了舞台上的版本，一幅過幾秒又會呼吸的畫。如果連安排都拿掉，現實中的房間也可能碰巧落成同一個形狀，這就是今天作者筆下的用法。而要是保留那個劃了格線的平面，只是把臉換成數字，它仍然是 tableau——這個字留下了那塊板，只是放掉了顏料。From the word’s history
English took tableau unchanged from French tableau, which goes back to Old French tablel, a flat surface used mainly for painting on. The board comes first; everything else in the entry is either what goes on the board or something that behaves like it.
英文原封不動地借用了法文的 tableau，而它可以上溯到古французe 的 tablel，指一塊主要拿來作畫的平面板子。先有那塊板，這個字底下其他所有意思，不是板上擺的東西，就是行為像那塊板的東西。
Wiktionary entry for tableau (noun), source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:403419389 — "Unadapted borrowing from French tableau, from Old French tablel (a surface which is used primarily for painting)."
Three branches
舞台上的畫
同樣是那個畫面，只是換成活人來擺，而且擺在有布景的舞台上。這一支的兩個意思差在時間長短：一個是撐住的一瞬間，一個是一整段戲。
noun · C1
A group of actors standing still on stage in set positions, so that the audience sees them as a picture instead of as people moving and talking.
舞台上的靜止畫面
劃成格子的那塊平面
這一支握住的是板子而不是畫。平面還在，攤開來一眼看完的習慣也還在，只是上面擺的變成數字或紙牌。
noun · C2
In mathematics and some other technical fields, a two-dimensional table of numbers or other data set out in rows and columns, of a particular kind used in a particular method.
（數學等領域的）表；矩陣式表格