Luban Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Lu Ban legend is a body of craftsmen's legends based on the Spring and Autumn skilled craftsman Gongshu Ban, or Lu Ban, elaborated and embellished by the people over a long period. His deeds are already recorded in the Mozi, and for a thousand years they have circulated widely and produced rich themes and forms. Tengzhou is said to be Lu Ban's native place, and the Lu Ban legends there are systematic and complete, supplementing one another with the legends of the Qufu and Jiaxiang area.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lu Ban is another name for the Spring and Autumn figure Gongshu Ban, whose deeds are already recorded in the Mozi. The Lu Ban legend has circulated among the people for a thousand years, producing rich themes and forms. All over the country there are many legends of inventions and buildings connected with Lu Ban; Lu Ban became the byword known to every household for the skilled craftsman and is revered by many trades as their founder, an outstanding embodiment of folk wisdom. The Lu Ban legends of the Qufu and Tengzhou area have formed a series covering Lu Ban's birth, his learning of his craft, his inventions and his becoming a god and the founder of a hundred trades, numbering several hundred in all, one of the representatives of the folk Lu Ban legend.
The Legend of Lu Ban Learning His Craft
The story of Lu Ban learning his craft current in the Tengzhou area.
The Legend of the Founder of a Hundred Trades
The legend of Lu Ban becoming the founder of a hundred trades and being worshipped by the various trades.
Lu Ban's Spirit Appears
A famous Lu Ban legend with a mythological colour.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Lu Ban legends of the Qufu area fall roughly into the following aspects: legends of woodworking tools, represented by the ink marker, the saw and the plane; legends of the invention of household utensils, represented by the stone mill; legends of building, represented by the building feats of the fish carrying the beam and the earthen mound pavilion and the nine beams, eighteen pillars and seventy-two ridges; and legends with a mythological colour, most famous among them Lu Ban's Spirit Appears and The Contest of Lu Ban and His Sister to Build the Zhaozhou Bridge.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Luban Legend.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As a figure legend known to every household of the Chinese nation, the Lu Ban legend has, besides the disciplinary significance of folk literature itself, relatively high ideological, artistic and scientific value and is a precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. The folk legend, relying on word of mouth, appears very fragile under the impact of modern media, and protecting the Lu Ban legend is a matter of extreme urgency.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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