Editing Shifting Spring Cage

{{Era|Culture|Transportation}}
The '''Cage of Shifting Springs''' (移春檻, lit. 'shifting spring cage') was a lavish flower wagon owned by [[Yang Guozhong]], who was chancellor to [[Emperor Xuanzong of Tang|Emperor Xuanzong]] of [[Tang dynasty|Tang]]. It was the centrepiece to his entry to the 754 [[Flower Banquet]], a competition for the most beautiful and magnificent flower exhibit.

==Design==
According to ''Kaiyuan–Tianbao Anecdotes'' ({{Wiki|zh:開元天寶遺事|開元天寶遺事}}), the Shifting Springs Cage was a wagon with wooden wheels, a floor made of planks, and a cage installed upon it. In springtime, an assortment of exquisite, blooming, and exotic flora would be planted within the cage. Through a mechanism linking the wheels with the cage, the cage would automatically rotate as the wagon was being towed. It was regarded as a wondrous exhibit to behold wherever it went.<ref name="Special 1">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty Special 1|Special 1]]</ref><ref name="Kaiyuan Tianbao">{{Wiki|zh:王仁裕|Wang Renyu}}. ''[https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=915988 Kaiyuan-Tianbao Anecdotes]'', Scroll 2, line 46, "Cage of Shifting Springs". ''Chinese Text Project''. Accessed 10 April 2021.</ref>

==History==
The Cage of Shifting Springs was the main set in Yang Guozhong's presentation to the annual [[Flower Banquet]]. This was a contest which he participated in every year via a proxy team. With little exception, his delegates would be petty criminals who resorted to extortion and even flagrant robbery to acquire the plants used to embellish their wagons.<ref name="Dynasty 1">''Assassin's Creed: Dynasty'' – [[The Flower Banquet (Part 1)]]</ref> This was no different in 754, when the [[Yang Guozhong's flower delegates|gang]] hired by Guozhong murdered seventeen villagers from [[Duling village|Duling]],<ref name="Dynasty 4">''Assassin's Creed: Dynasty'' – [[The Flower Banquet (Part 4)]]</ref>  a farming community specialized in high-quality [[peony|peonies]].<ref name="Special 1" /> Owing to his underhanded tactics and his tremendous wealth, Yang Guozhong and his Yichunkan wagon were declared the winners of the 754 Flower Festival as usual.<ref name="Dynasty 2">''Assassin's Creed: Dynasty'' – [[The Flower Banquet (Part 2)]]</ref>

==Behind the scenes==
The Shifting Springs Cage is mentioned twice in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty Volume 1|Volume 1: ''The Flower Banquet'']] as the name of Yang Guozhong's parade procession for the Flower Banquet, but no other context is given to explain what it is. Information about it is only provided in the [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty Special 1|special issue]] for the volume in the form of an excerpt from the 10th century ''Kaiyuan-Tianbao Anecdotes'' and nothing else.

Even though it lends its name to the winning exhibit, it does not seem that it ever appears "on-screen" unless the luxuriant, roofed platform Guozhong's team use as their stage is meant to be the "wagon", in which case it would actually be a parade float.

===Name===
The original name of the wagon in Chinese is 移春檻 (Mandarin: ''yíchūnjiàn''<ref name="aies">[https://word.aies.cn/ci/51121.htm 移春檻]. 漢語中文工具網. Accessed 12 June 2021.</ref> or ''yíchūnkǎn''<ref name="ZDIC">[https://www.zdic.net/hant/%E7%A7%BB%E6%98%A5%E6%AA%BB 移春檻]. 汉典 ZDIC. Accessed 12 June 2021.</ref>). 
*移 means 'to shift, to move, to change'.<ref name="MDBG">[https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqtm=2&wdqcham=2&wdqt=%E7%A7%BB%E6%98%A5%E6%AA%BB 移春檻]. MDBG. Accessed 12 June 2021.</ref><ref name="Cantonese 移">[http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2746/ 移]. CantoDict. Accessed 12 June 2021.</ref>
*春 is the season of spring.<ref name name="MDBG" />
*檻 is a wooden cage for animals or people. By extension, it also came to refer to prison wagons with such a cage installed, as well as wooden fences and banisters in general.<ref name="MDBG" /><ref name="Baidu">[https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%A7%9B 槛]. Baidu Baike. Accessed 12 June 2021.</ref>

In the French edition of ''Assassin's Creed: Dynasty'', an alternative name is given instead, '''Fleurs des Mille Printemps'''. In the English publication, it is simply called '''Shifting Springs'''.

==Appearances==
*''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Art]]