On 20 April 2013, nearly 5 years after the Wenchuan Ms 8.0 event of 12 May 2008, an earthquake of Ms 7.0 struck the Longmenshan fault zone in Lushan county of Sichuan province, China. Because the epicenters of the two events were only 90 km apart, and the aftershock areas were separated (Fig. 1), there has been great interest in both how the seismogenic structures of the two events interrelate, and whether events of Ms 7.0 or greater could recur in the southern segment of the Longmenshan fault zone. However, there are few data available on the late Quaternary activity of this section, and the degree of activity is disputed (Zhao et al., 1990; Yang et al., 1999; Densmore et al., 2007; Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, 2009; Zhang and Li, 2010; Chen et al., 2013a). Since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, we have investigated the area repeatedly, acquiring evidence of fault activity. In particular, in the disaster area of the Lushan earthquake, we have undertaken 1:50,000 mapping, trenching, and shallow‐seismic exploration. Based on our observations, this paper discusses the seismogenic structure of the Lushan event and its relation to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.