Duyuansijingchesaihui
01 · Historical Records
The Single-Shaft Four-Scenery Cart Grand Fair was formed in Pingshun County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, and is a shehuo (festive folk performance) activity of distinctive character and considerable influence, widely popular in Pingshun and the surrounding districts and counties. The Grand Fair flourished in the Qing dynasty. In the Xianfeng era of the Qing dynasty, the senior tribute student by nomination Niu Liankui wrote a poem in high praise: "The divine cart of four scenes knows no count of years; through eight villages and five societies it is passed down." It was once interrupted in 1938 because of the Japanese invasion of China. On the fourth day of the fourth lunar month in 2005, the Grand Fair of the Temple of the Ninth-Heaven Holy Mother, interrupted for sixty-six years, was revived, and the spectacle of the four-scenery cart reappeared.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The fair date is by custom divined at the end of the third spring month; the feast wine is first tasted in the days of the second. After the twenty-four horse towers are set in order, layers of shehuo drums lead the way ahead. East, down, south, north, west it circles round, honoring the Great Unity Immortal of the crimson heavens. The so-called "four sceneries" of the four-scenery cart do not mean four kinds of scenery on the cart itself, but four ingenious designs in the cart's own structure. First, a huge decorated cart carries only a single shaft, yet is driven by two oxen; second, a wooden yoke made of three freshly cut wet elm rods about ninety centimeters long and six centimeters in diameter is fitted on with interlocking loops, so that it can move freely yet not slip off the shaft; third, a decorated cart more than ten meters high stands upright on its base plate on only four legs set around the central wooden frame, with no mortise-and-tenon joints, merely lashed firm with eight hemp ropes; fourth, the second and third sections of the cart are the central main frames, joined head to head and fastened together with four hemp ropes on all four sides. The whole four-scenery cart uses not a single mortise hole or nail; it is all lashed tight with hemp rope. At the Grand Fair, besides the four-scenery cart, there are also divine sedan chairs, god towers, banners, umbrellas, ropes, colorful children, gongs, drums, and bands, and more besides — too many to enumerate. The four-scenery cart travels about five kilometers from the Temple of the Ninth-Heaven Holy Mother on the East River to the main fairground (the Round Center), passing in the middle over an earthen slope about fifty meters long at a gradient of forty-five degrees; the length of the route and the steepness of the slope present certain difficulties for running the cart. Yet no one has ever heard of an overturned-cart accident at any Grand Fair over the years. Hence the proverb still circulating among the people: "Having attended the Grand Fair, one does not regret even death." The four-scenery cart is a splendid exotic flower of the culture of the Chinese nation; after a thousand years it still shines with brilliant radiance. The reason the four-scenery cart is called "four sceneries" lies not in the colors on the cart but in four ingenious features of its structure: a huge decorated cart carries only a single shaft, yet is driven by two oxen; three freshly cut wet elm rods form the wooden yoke, joined with interlocking loops so that it can move yet not slip off the shaft; the body more than ten meters high stands on its base plate on only four legs set around the central frame, with no mortise-and-tenon joints, merely lashed firm with eight hemp ropes; and the central main frames of the second and third sections are joined head to head, fastened with four hemp ropes on each of the four sides. The whole cart uses not a single mortise hole or nail, relying entirely on hemp-rope lashing — this strict rule has instead become its house-preserving skill.
One shaft, two oxen
A single shaft drawn by two oxen bears an enormous platform, and the whole performance rests on the animals and the driver's skill.
The linked-sleeve wooden beam
Three fresh wet elm poles, about a metre long, are joined by link-collars so that they pivot freely without coming off the shaft.
Tied with eight ropes, no pegs
The towering platform stands on four feet joined only by hemp rope, without a single mortise or nail in the whole construction.
The procession out of the temple
The cart leaves the temple at Donghe to travel some five kilometres, crossing a fifty-metre slope of forty-five degrees with the full retinue of sedan, banners, umbrellas and drums.
Racing the steep slope
The distance and gradient make the run dangerous, yet no cart has ever overturned, giving rise to the saying that attending is something one never regrets.
The long interruption and the revival
Flourishing under the Qing, the fair was suspended from 1938 and reopened only in 2005, after sixty-six years of silence.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The poem reflects the flourishing state of the four-scenery cart activities of the locality. Because the four sceneries are so remarkable, the spectators along the route are extremely numerous; whether one has attended the Grand Fair and whether one has seen the four-scenery cart have become a kind of credential and an honor for the local people.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As a part of the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, the four-scenery cart — with its exquisite construction art, refined exterior design, unique folk character and charm, profound cultural connotations, and superb cart-driving skill — all display the unique value of the vitality of traditional Chinese culture.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。