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[[File:ACD - Shifting Spring Cage.png|thumb|250px|Shifting Spring Cage]]
'''Yichunkan''' (Chinese: 移春檻) was a team in the [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] [[Flower Festival]] of 754 who competed on behalf of Chancellor [[Yang Guozhong]].  
The '''Cage of Shifting Spring''' (移春檻) 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 Spring Cage was a vehicle 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]]'' – [[The Flower Banquet (Special)]]</ref><ref name="Kaiyuan Tianbao">{{Cite web|url=https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=915988|title=開元天寶遺事, 卷二|transtitle=Kaiyuan-Tianbao Anecdotes, Scroll 2, line 46, "Cage of Shifting Springs"|archiveurl=|archivedate=|author={{Wiki|zh:王仁裕|Wang Renyu}}|date=|publisher=''{{Wiki|Chinese Text Project}}''|accessdate=10 April 2021|language=Chinese}}</ref>


==History==
==History==
The team was in reality run by a low-class [[Yichunkan boss|gang leader]] and his henchmen who had been hired by Yang to win the contest via unscrupulous means.<ref name="Dynasty 2">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty 2|Chapter 2]]</ref>
The Cage of Shifting Spring 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 17 villagers from [[Duling village]],<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, via the Shifting Spring Cage, was declared the winner of the 754 Flower Banquet as usual.<ref name="Dynasty 2">''Assassin's Creed: Dynasty'' – [[The Flower Banquet (Part 2)]]</ref>
 
This was not a first for the chancellor, who had won the previous year by hiring a different gang.<ref name="Dynasty 3">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty 3|Chapter 3]]</ref> According to the poet [[Li Bai]], his annual streak of victories owed not only to his immense wealth but also to the reluctance of even those who had the means to contest him to do so.<ref name="Dynasty 1">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty 1|Chapter 1]]</ref> At the time, the most famous and exquisite [[peony|peonies]] were cultivated by [[Duling village]], a community of farms which specialized in the flower trade.<ref name="Dynasty Special 1">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty Special 1|Special 1]]</ref> Unwilling to spend money on the expensive peonies, Yichunkan resorted to seizing them by force,<ref name="Dynasty 1" /> murdering seventeen of the villagers in the process.<ref name="Dynasty 4">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty 4|Chapter 4]]</ref> Their boss dreamed of a triumphant entry into high society—to be as a {{wiki|Asian carp#In Chinese culture|"carp leaping over the dragon gate"}}—at any cost.<ref name="Dynasty 2" />
 
===The day of the Flower Festival===
Unbeknownst to them on the morning of the festival, that cost would prove to include their lives. The massacre at Duling village incited the wrath of the [[Hidden Ones|Hidden One]] [[Li E]], who ambushed the last wagon of peonies seized from Duling that was on the way through the streets of [[Chang'an]] to meet up with the rest of the team. Two of the three men transporting it were felled immediately while the last was interrogated for the whereabouts of his leader. Despite answering honestly that his boss had already entered the palace grounds, Li E refused to spare his life, pointing out that he and his colleagues had not spared those of Duling.<ref name="Dynasty 1" />
 
The absence of this wagon at the meeting spot did not go unnoticed by the boss, but he brushed aside his men's concerns that trouble had befallen it, reasoning that those transporting it were only running late. His team had assembled a fantastical procession, complete with [[elephant]]s bearing baskets of overflowing flowers on their backs, exotic [[rhinocero]]s lavishly adorned with jewelled headdresses, and acrobatic performers who could gracefully dance through the air on parasols. With already the most astounding spectacle in the festival, one missing wagon of peonies was of little consequence to his team's chances of victory. True enough, when their elephants burst through the gates to glorious fanfare as the festival commenced and their masked dancers glided to the ground to perform illusions that transformed peonies to [[butterfly|butterflies]], the throngs of excited commoners were awestruck.<ref name="Dynasty 2" />


As though perfectly choreographed, the butterflies spiralled in flight towards the balcony of [[Hua'e Tower]] just as the host [[Yang Guifei]] appeared before the city. She redirected a butterfly towards the leader of Yichunkan as a signal to her announcer, who thereupon declared Right Chancellor Yang Guozhong victor.<ref name="Dynasty 2" /> The elated team was invited into Hua'e Tower to be honored and rewarded with the grand prize,<ref name="Dynasty 2" /> but this ultimately failed to come to fruition.<ref name="Dynasty 4">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty 4|Chapter 4]]</ref><ref name="Dynasty 3" /> Rather, the boss and five of his men were kept waiting in a courtyard by [[Yang Guozhong's servant|one of Yang's servants]] while [[Emperor Xuanzong of Tang|Emperor Xuanzong]] partied above with his court, having received his favorite ''[[jiedushi]]'' [[An Lushan]] instead. Chancellor Yang, himself fuming over the powers and accolades An Lushan had just been frivolously granted by the Emperor, did not bother to meet with Yichunkan to discuss their own rewards.<ref name="Dynasty 3" />
==Behind the scenes==
The Shifting Spring Cage is mentioned twice in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty Volume 1|The Flower Banquet]]'', the first volume of the Chinese-language manhua ''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'', 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 volume's [[The Flower Banquet (Special)|special issue]] 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 in any panel 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.


===Celebrations cut short===
===Name===
Into the evening they waited until, at [[Chenxiang Pavilion]], they encountered the lone Assassin Li E waiting for them. The stranger's threats and then allusion to the seventeen lives lost at Duling tipped them off. At their boss's command, all five thugs drew their [[short blade|daggers]] and charged at Li E. When they were all swiftly slain, the boss fled in a panic but was intercepted and executed with a [[Hidden Blade]] before he could get even a few paces away.<ref name="Dynasty 4" />
The original name of the wagon in Chinese is 移春檻 (Mandarin: ''yíchūnjiàn''<ref name="aies">{{Cite web|url=https://word.aies.cn/ci/51121.htm|title=移春檻|transtitle=|archiveurl=|archivedate=|author=|date=|publisher=''漢語中文工具網''|accessdate=12 June 2021|language=Chinese}}</ref> or ''yíchūnkǎn''<ref name="ZDIC">{{Cite web|url=https://www.zdic.net/hant/移春檻|title=移春檻|transtitle=|archiveurl=|archivedate=|author=|date=|publisher=''汉典 ZDIC''|accessdate=12 June 2021|language=Chinese}}</ref>).
*移 means 'to shift, to move, to change'.<ref name="MDBG">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqtm=2&wdqcham=2&wdqt=移春檻|title=移春檻|transtitle=|archiveurl=|archivedate=|author=|date=|publisher=''MDBG''|accessdate=12 June 2021}}</ref><ref name="Cantonese 移">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2746/|title=移|transtitle=|archiveurl=|archivedate=|author=|date=|publisher=''CantoDict''|accessdate=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">{{Cite web|url=https://baike.baidu.com/item/槛|title=槛|transtitle=|archiveurl=|archivedate=|author=|date=|publisher=''{{Wiki|Baidu Baike}}''|accessdate=12 June 2021|language=Chinese}}</ref>


Before the night was out, their corpses were discovered by Chancellor Yang's servant who had returned to check on them. The servant fearfully reported this to Chancellor Yang, who remained outwardly unperturbed, referring to the gang as nothing more than base ruffians of the city whose violent temperaments would naturally incur some individual's vengeance. Nonetheless, he ordered his servant to call upon the [[Yulin]] royal guards to secretly hunt for the killer, with express instructions not to raise the alarm or alert even the Emperor, lest they ruin the festivities.<ref name="Dynasty 5">''[[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty]]'' – [[Assassin's Creed: Dynasty 5|Dynasty 5]]</ref>
In the French edition of ''Assassin's Creed: Dynasty'', an alternative name is given instead, '''Fleurs des Mille Printemps''' ('Flowers of the Thousand Springs'). In the English publication, it is simply called '''Shifting Springs'''. In the Brazilian Portuguese edition it is named '''Pavilhão Primaveril Móvel''' ('Moving Spring Pavillion').


==Appearances==
==Appearances==
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==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
[[zh:移春槛]]
[[Category:Art]]
[[Category:Gangs]]
[[Category:Templar-affiliated groups]]

Latest revision as of 15:51, 15 December 2024

Shifting Spring Cage

The Cage of Shifting Spring (移春檻) was a lavish flower wagon owned by Yang Guozhong, who was chancellor to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. It was the centrepiece to his entry to the 754 Flower Banquet, a competition for the most beautiful and magnificent flower exhibit.

Design[edit | edit source]

According to Kaiyuan–Tianbao Anecdotes (開元天寶遺事), the Shifting Spring Cage was a vehicle 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.[1][2]

History[edit | edit source]

The Cage of Shifting Spring 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.[3] This was no different in 754, when the gang hired by Guozhong murdered 17 villagers from Duling village,[4] a farming community specialized in high-quality peonies.[1] Owing to his underhanded tactics and his tremendous wealth, Yang Guozhong, via the Shifting Spring Cage, was declared the winner of the 754 Flower Banquet as usual.[5]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

The Shifting Spring Cage is mentioned twice in The Flower Banquet, the first volume of the Chinese-language manhua Assassin's Creed: Dynasty, 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 volume's special issue 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 in any panel 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[edit | edit source]

The original name of the wagon in Chinese is 移春檻 (Mandarin: yíchūnjiàn[6] or yíchūnkǎn[7]).

  • 移 means 'to shift, to move, to change'.[8][9]
  • 春 is the season of spring.[8]
  • 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.[8][10]

In the French edition of Assassin's Creed: Dynasty, an alternative name is given instead, Fleurs des Mille Printemps ('Flowers of the Thousand Springs'). In the English publication, it is simply called Shifting Springs. In the Brazilian Portuguese edition it is named Pavilhão Primaveril Móvel ('Moving Spring Pavillion').

Appearances[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Assassin's Creed: Dynasty – The Flower Banquet (Special)
  2. ↑ Wang Renyu. 開元天寶遺事, 卷二 [Kaiyuan-Tianbao Anecdotes, Scroll 2, line 46, "Cage of Shifting Springs"] (in Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved on 10 April 2021.
  3. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Dynasty – The Flower Banquet (Part 1)
  4. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Dynasty – The Flower Banquet (Part 4)
  5. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Dynasty – The Flower Banquet (Part 2)
  6. ↑ 移春檻 (in Chinese). 漢語中文工具網. Retrieved on 12 June 2021.
  7. ↑ 移春檻 (in Chinese). 汉典 ZDIC. Retrieved on 12 June 2021.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 移春檻. MDBG. Retrieved on 12 June 2021.
  9. ↑ 移. CantoDict. Retrieved on 12 June 2021.
  10. ↑ 槛 (in Chinese). Baidu Baike. Retrieved on 12 June 2021.
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