古车制说隅

Exposition of Rules and Regulations with Ancient Vehicles

“闭门造车，出而合辙”，源出先秦“车同轨”制度。古车由车厢、车轮、车辕组成，轮为车厢前横木，扶前轼需倾身，古人因以为礼。古车中，大车多指牛车，载物；小车指马车，有辇、轩、轺及安车、温车、传车等。车位尊卑，中原地区左位为上，战车略异。

The regulation 'make a vehicle behind closed doors, it surely fits with foe route-mark' had originated from a system of Pre-Qin Dynasty. In that time all vehicles must be made according to the same axle. An ancient vehicle mainly was composed of body, wheels, and shaft. One wooden pole in front of the body was called Shi. It is necessary to lean forward when people hold the pole (Shi). Ancient people thought leaning forward was a sign of courtesy. The vehicles can be devided into large ones and smaller ones. The large vehicles were specially used as ox vehicles for carrying goods. The smaller vehicles were horse vehicles. Among smaller vehicles there were Nian (for the kings and emperors), Xuan (for senior officers and aristocracies), Zhao (for envoy), An (for women and retired senior officers), Wen (for heat preservation),Chuan (for transmiting) and Zi (for transportation). The seats of thle vehicles were distinguished into left seats, centralseats and right seats. Left seats were honorable. The position of the seats of war vehicles were a little bit different from that of common vehicles.