China Popular Itineraries |
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2.14 "Three Tales About Lu Ban, the Legend of the Great Inventor and Carpenter in Ancient China |
In the Second Chapter of Rocords of Strange News and Extraordinary Affairs the legend was recorded as follows:
"On the Qili Islet in the Xunyang River there was a ship carved with a trunk of lili magnolia. The carver was Lu Ban. And on the South Peak of Tianmu Mountains there had been a wood crane which could take a flight as far as seven hundred li. It was also carved and produced by Lu Ban. Later it was put on the West Peak of Northern Mountains. Once Emperor Han WuDi of the Han Dynasty sent people to take it, so it flew away onto the South Peak. When it rained the bird would flutter its wings as if it would take an-other flight."
In Volume 4 of the Sequel of You Yang Za Ju, a miscellaneous collection of fairy tales, and narrations it was recorded as: "Lu Ban, born in Dunhuang, was a great inventor. He had built a pago-da in Liangzhou, made a wooden bird that could fly like a living bird. When his wife was pregnant, Lu Ban' s parents got suspicious of her chastity because they thought their son was always away from home. His wife told them that Lu Ban was often back home by riding on the wooden bird. Later, Lu Ban's father managed to get the wooden bird. When he climbed onto the bird, the bird sent him to the capital of Wu State. But the local people considered him a goblin and killed him. Hearing of the news, Lu Ban made another wooden bird and flew to Wu and got his father's corpse back. For venting his resent-ment to the Wu people who killed his father, Im Ban made a wooden celestial figure and stood it outside of Suzhou City. The wooden celestial had a hand pointed to the direction of Southeast where Wu State was located. In the fol-lowing three years there happened in Wu a drought. After the divination, the people of Wu State were told: ' It was Lu Ban' s trick. ' Then the people d Wu State went to Lu Ban with thousands of gifts and apologized. Lu Ban then cut off a hand of the wooden celestial figure. On the same day, there was in Wu areas a heavy rain. "
"Once upon a time, there were two stone bridges across Jiao River in Zhaozhou. One was in the south of the city, another in the west. It was said that the bridge in the south was built by Lu Ban and the one in the west was built by Lu Ban's younger sister Lu Jiang. Once, Lu Jiang wanted to have a skill competition with her brother. They would have built up a stone bridge respectively by the dawn. Just by the midnight, Lu Jiang had completed. Lu Jiang felt very proud and went to the south to see what her brother was doing. On arriving there, she found Lu Ban herding a large group of sheep to the bank of the river. But when she looked carefully, she found out that Lu Ban was transporting white and fine stones to the riverbank. Lu Jiang realized that the bridge she had built was surely not as good as her brother' s, so she rushed back to the bridge and carved artistic patterns on it. She carved on the railing of the bridge many beautiful patterns such as Niu Lang and Zhi Nšč, Phoenix Flying to the sun, and so on. Then she ran back to the south to see whether her brother had completed his construction. At the moment, Lu Ban was about to fit the last two stones onto the bridge. Lu Jiang imitated the cock's crow and all the cocks in the nearby villages were crowing. Hearing the cock's crow, Lu Ban hurriedly put the two stones down and the bridge was completed. News spread quickly that two bridges were built on the Jiao River within one night. It was such a great event that it made a stir all over the province and counties, even the Eight Immortals in the Bay of Bohai Sea learnt the news. So, Zhang Guo Lao, one of the Eight Immortals rode on his donkey to Zhaozhou. In his Dalian (a pair long and rectangular bags with an opening in the middle) there was the sun in the left bag and the moon in the fight. And he was accompanied by the King of Firewood who pushed his one-wheel cart loaded with the four famous mountains. The two arrived in 2haozhou. As soon as the donkey and the cart got on the bridge, the bridge began to shake. Lu Ban rushed to the bottom of the bridge and supported it with his two hands. After their passing, the bridge became stronger. And till now there are still several footprints left by the donkey of Zhang Guo Lao and one sign of the track left by the cart of the King. And at the bottom of the bridge there are two palm prints of Lu Ban."
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