Luban Workshop: in the Spirit of the Master Carpenter
Today, we’ll introduce China’s legendary “father of carpentry”. He lived about 2,500 years ago, but his legacy continues as the workshops named after him have helped foster thousands of skilled technical workers in developing countries around the world.
On February 26, 2024, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, visited the Luban Workshop housed at the East Kazakhstan Technical University during his tour of the East Kazakhstan Region. The visit attracted media attention in both Kazakhstan and China because it took place when the workshop was about to celebrate its first anniversary.
The Luban Workshop is China’s international vocational education project that aims to help developing countries cultivate skilled technical talents. First established in 2016, the project has offered degree education and vocational training to over 14,000 local talents in more than 20 countries including Thailand, the UK, Portugal, India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Egypt.
The Luban Workshop in Kazakhstan was initiated in March 2023, when China’s Tianjin Vocational Institute and the East Kazakhstan Technical University signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation.
Kazakhstan is a landlocked country with a widely dispersed population, thus its demand for reliable land transportation is high. However, development of the country’s automotive industrial chain and the cultivation of corresponding professionals have always lagged behind. In recent years, the Kazakh government has also scaled up its new-energy vehicle (NEV) development plans, creating an urgent need for skilled NEV maintenance technicians.
The curriculum of the Luban Workshop has been designed to meet those needs to include a total of 20 courses in three modules covering vehicles with internal combustion engines, new energy vehicles, and intelligent connected vehicles.
The workshop is named after Lu Ban, who has long been considered China’s “father of carpentry”. According to legend, Lu Ban was born in year 507 BCE into a family that had been practicing carpentry for several generations. It was the late Spring and Autumn Period, a time that was plagued by political chaos and instability caused by civil wars among individual states. Lu Ban’s original surname was Gongshu, but since his family lived in the State of Lu in East China’s present-day Shandong Province, he became commonly known as Lu Ban.
From a very young age, Lu Ban joined his family members in construction projects and gradually mastered the family trade. He was also keen on inventing new tools to enhance work efficiency.
One of his signature inventions is the saw. According to folklore, carpenters at that time used axes to carve the wood into whatever shape they wanted. This way of working was rather time consuming and more apt to result in coarse craftsmanship. One day when Lu Ban was chopping down a tree in the mountains, he accidentally cut his finger on a leaf. The blood quickly tickled down his hand, and he wondered why a single leaf could be sharp enough to cut through his skin so easily. So, he took a closer look at the leaf and noticed its serrated edge. It dawned on him that a jagged edged metal tool could make cutting wood much more efficient. After many experiments, Lu Ban invented the first saw in history.
Lu Ban was also known for innovative inventions that revolutionized warfare and transportation. For instance, he invented the “cloud ladder” for attacking walled towns in siege wars and the “grappling hook and ram” for capturing enemy ships and breaking through their defense in naval wars. He was also credited with the invention of the “wooden horse” for helping transport heavy military supplies over long distances, as well as the “wooden bird”, which could stay in the air for three days.
Besides his inventions in carpentry, Lu Ban also took part in the building of many bridges and palaces. His innovative designs and exceptional skill earned him the reputation of a master craftsman. Some of his techniques and projects are recorded in The Treatise of Lu Ban, a book of carpentry and folk culture from the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1368 to 1644. Many of his inventions, including the saw, the Lu Ban ruler and the straight-line marker, are essential tools used by carpenters to this day.
Despite these records, some historians and archaeologists have pointed out the probability that Lu Ban serves more as a representative of all the inventors and engineers of his time because the vast number of inventions credited to him are unlikely to be the work of any single individual. Archaeological evidence indicates that the prototype for saws appeared as early as the Neolithic Age, when human ancestors in China began to use jagged-edged stone sickles and clam sickles. And the character for saw already appeared in the Zhou Dynasty, which existed hundreds of years before Lu Ban was born.
Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, Lu Ban has been remembered by successive generations as the “father of carpentry”. His legacy is reflected in the numerous temples and shrines dedicated to him throughout the country. The largest memorial hall is located in his hometown of Tengzhou in east China’s Shandong Province. Craftsmen in the construction industry still celebrate Lu Ban’s birthday on June 13 of the lunar calendar, when they conduct rituals in the temples and shrines to pray for their work in the coming year.
Lu Ban’s cultural legacy has found its way into folk stories, dramas and even idioms. One of the best-known Chinese idioms is banmen nongfu, which translates literally into “displaying one’s skills with an axe in front of Lu Ban’s door”. It is often used to refer to anyone who shows off his mediocre skill in the presence of a master. The story goes that one day a young man showed up in front of Lu Ban’s house, waved an ax in the air and declared himself an expert ax-handler. People pointed at Lu Ban’s door and asked the young man whether he could make a door just as exquisite. The young man bragged, “Let me tell you, I’m the student of Lu Ban, so I can make a door 50 times better than that one.” The people laughed and told him he was by no means Lu Ban’s student because he didn’t even recognize the master’s house.
Another phrase reads youyan bushi taishan, literally “to have eyes but fail to recognize Tai Shan”. This idiom also has to do with Lu Ban, who was known to be very strict with his students and would eliminate those who didn’t work hard or meet his demands. One of his students, a young man called Tai Shan, was kicked out because of his slow improvement. Years later, Lu Ban came across several pieces of well-made furniture in the market and asked who the carpenter was. He was shocked to learn that the person who made the furniture was the very same Tai Shan who he had kicked out of class years before. Lu Ban felt ashamed and sighed, “I was too arrogant to identify Tai Shan!” Today, the phrase is often used to describe a person who is too ignorant to identify a person of importance or strong ability.
Lu Ban’s name has also become a symbol of innovation and excellence in construction and engineering, and his contributions have been recognized through various honors and awards, including the China Construction Engineering Lu Ban Prize, the national top-level award given to quality projects.
Lu Ban’s influence has also extended beyond China, with many of his inventions and techniques being adopted by other countries around the world, and at least one has even been presented as a national gift on the international scene. In 2014 during his visit to Berlin, former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang gave a hand-made Lu Ban lock as a national gift to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A Lu Ban lock is an educational toy with each piece of the lock interconnected without nails, screws or fasteners of any kind, and players have to unlock the gadget and then put the pieces back together. By sending this gift, Premier Li said he hoped the two countries could solve difficulties with intelligence and expand their future together.
More than two millennia after Lu Ban’s time, the Luban Workshops follow his spirit of craftsmanship and have become a bridge of friendship between China and participating countries in cultural and educational exchange. By providing participating countries with needs-driven vocational training programs, the workshops enable the people in participating countries to chart a new path to economic and social development.
Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Lü Weitao, translator Yang Guang, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.
