Device

Silunche 四輪車

About this item

The Silunche (four-wheeled carriage) is, in the Romance, the four-wheeled carriage in which Zhuge Liang rides out before his battle lines. From Chapter 52 onward, the Romance repeatedly depicts Zhuge Liang sitting upright in this carriage, wearing a silk kerchief and a crane-feather cloak and holding a feather fan (Yushan), and in Chapter 101 it says that this carriage was one Zhuge Liang had made in advance in Shu. After Zhuge Liang's death, a wooden statue of him is seated in this carriage to drive off Sima Yi, and it is sent out again at the battle of Mianzhu in Chapter 117. Romance, Ch. 52 §16Romance, Ch. 101 §13Romance, Ch. 104 §12 · 32Romance, Ch. 117 §33 · 35

The Romance records the four-wheeled carriage in Chapters 52, 64, 93, 97, 99, 100, 101, 104 and 117. Neither Chen Shou's main text nor Pei Songzhi's commentary records that Zhuge Liang rode in a four-wheeled carriage. Romance, Ch. 52 §16Romance, Ch. 64 §19Romance, Ch. 93 §36Romance, Ch. 97 §41Romance, Ch. 99 §5Romance, Ch. 100 §33Romance, Ch. 101 §13Romance, Ch. 104 §32Romance, Ch. 117 §33

In the Romance

In Chapter 52 of the Romance, yellow banners part and a four-wheeled carriage is pushed out; in it sits Zhuge Liang, wearing a silk kerchief and a crane-feather cloak and holding a feather fan (Yushan), who calls on Xing Daorong to surrender. When Xing Daorong charges, swinging his great axe, Zhuge Liang turns the carriage and goes back into his lines, and when Xing Daorong, chasing the yellow banners, rounds the foot of a hill, it is not the four-wheeled carriage but Zhang Fei who appears before him. At Jinyan Bridge in Chapter 64, Zhuge Liang rides out in the four-wheeled carriage to face Zhang Ren, then abandons the carriage, mounts a horse and withdraws across the bridge, luring Zhang Ren into pursuit. Romance, Ch. 52 §15–18Romance, Ch. 64 §19–20

On the northern expeditions, too, Zhuge Liang sits upright in the four-wheeled carriage as he comes out before his lines. The carriage appears in Chapter 93 beneath the gate banners, with Guan Xing and Zhang Bao standing to left and right; in Chapter 97 when he asks to speak with Fei Yao, the commander of the Wei army; in Chapter 99 from behind a hill before Guo Huai; and in Chapter 100 when he matches battle formations with Sima Yi. Romance, Ch. 93 §36Romance, Ch. 97 §41Romance, Ch. 99 §5Romance, Ch. 100 §33

In Chapter 101, setting out to reap the wheat of Longshang, Zhuge Liang has three identically decorated four-wheeled carriages, which he had made in advance in Shu, brought out and entrusts one each to Jiang Wei, Ma Dai and Wei Yan, and has each carriage pushed by twenty-four men in black clothes, barefoot, with loose hair and swords in hand. Before Zhuge Liang's own carriage walks Guan Xing, dressed as Tianpeng and holding a black seven-star banner. The troops sent by Sima Yi chase the carriage for dozens of li but cannot catch it, and when Zhuge Liang appears again and again, seated in identical four-wheeled carriages, to the left, the right and the front, Sima Yi cries in alarm that these are divine soldiers, and his troops scatter and flee. Romance, Ch. 101 §13–21

In Chapter 104, the dying Zhuge Liang tells Yang Yi that if Sima Yi pursues, he should seat the wooden statue of him carved earlier in the carriage and send it out before the army. Seeing Zhuge Liang on the four-wheeled carriage with his silk kerchief and feather fan, Sima Yi is terrified and flees more than fifty li, and only two days later hears that the Zhuge Liang on the carriage was a wooden figure. At Mianzhu in Chapter 117, Shi Zuan and Deng Zhong, seeing Zhuge Liang sitting upright in a four-wheeled carriage and a banner reading "Zhuge, Marquis Wu, Chancellor of Han", flee in alarm; but what sat on the carriage was a wooden likeness of Zhuge Liang, and the man leading the army was his son Zhuge Zhan. Romance, Ch. 104 §12 · 32–34Romance, Ch. 117 §33–35

Written by 3KDEX (not yet reviewed) — The tags at the end of each paragraph link to the exact passage in the Records volume or Romance chapter it is based on.

Ownership history

OwnerPeriodSource
Zhuge Liang ~234 Romance 「推出一輛四輪車,車中端坐一人…吾乃南陽諸葛孔明也」 · 「其年八月,亮疾病,卒于軍」
Zhuge Zhan 263 Romance 「數十員將簇擁一輛四輪車」 · 「孔明之子諸葛瞻爲大將…車上坐者乃木刻孔明遺像也」(yy-117:s35) · 「時魏景元四年」

Ownership is checked against the source texts (3KDEX) — each entry rests on the passage where the item changes hands. Owners not in the People index are not shown.

Romance chapters (9)