How old did Lu Ban live to be?

Lu Ban was an excellent craftsman and outstanding inventor in ancient China. According to legend, he had many inventions in machinery, carpentry tools, civil engineering and construction, leaving behind many touching stories. For more than two thousand years, he has been regarded as a "master" by the civil engineering craftsmen, respected by future generations.

Lu Ban, surnamed Gong输, general name; also known as Gong输子, Gong输盘, Ban输, Lu Bon and so on. Because he was a native of the state of Lu, and "般" and "班" have the same sound, which was commonly used in ancient times, he was called Lu Ban in later times. Luban was born in the third year of Duke Lu's reign (507 BC), and his death date is unknown.

Lu Ban lived at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the beginning of the Warring States Period, which was a period of great social change from a slave society to a feudal society in China. The development of productive forces created a material basis for the disintegration of slavery and the establishment of feudal society, and the popularization and use of iron tools provided unprecedented high-efficiency tools for agriculture and handicrafts, greatly improving labor productivity. During this period, the resistance struggle and uprising of slaves and commoners, gave a heavy blow to the slave-owning aristocrats, and the rule of the slave-owning aristocrats was declining, and the domination of the governmental handicraft industry was finally broken, and private handicraft industry and independent individual handicraft industry appeared; quite a number of handicraft slaves who had been slaves for generations were thus liberated, and they had the freedom to roam around and work everywhere, as well as the opportunity to show their talents. It is possible that Lu Ban was one of the freed slave craftsmen in this period. Lu Ban was born in a family of artisans in the state of Lu. The influence and cultivation of his family led him from an early age to enjoy the activities practiced by ancient artisans such as mechanical engineering, handcrafts, and civil engineering and construction. When he was a child, he followed his family to participate in many civil engineering and construction labor, in the labor, he humbly asked experienced masters and family members for advice, to learn their advanced technology and experience, and attentively observe their superb operating skills in all kinds of labor. Long-term production practice and his own continuous efforts, so that Lu Ban gradually mastered the ancient craftsmen need a variety of skills, accumulated a wealth of practical experience, and became a famous skilled craftsmen.

After 450 BC, Lu Ban came to Chu from Lu to help Chu make weapons. He had created a powerful siege equipment ladder, and was ready to attack the state of Song, he debated with the then famous scholar Mozi, the two launched a siege and defending the city of the maneuver, Luban wanted to try all sorts of ways to attack the city, were Mozi - a solution. Mozi advocated the manufacture of practical production tools for the benefit of the common people and opposed the manufacture of weapons for war. Lu Ban accepted this idea of Mozi, so they put their energy into woodworking tools, machinery and other practical technology, buried in a variety of inventions, leaving a lot of beautiful and moving legends and stories.

For example, the story of Lu Ban's invention of the saw has been passed down in folklore for thousands of years. Legend has it that one year, Lu Ban accepted a task of building a huge palace. The palace needed a lot of wood, and Lu Ban had his disciples go up the mountain to cut down the trees. Since there were no saws at that time, his disciples had to use axes to cut down the trees, but this was very inefficient, and the craftsmen got up early every morning and worked hard to do it. Exhausted, but also can not cut down the number of trees, far from meeting the needs of the project, so that the progress of the project is delayed again and again, and see the project deadline is getting closer and closer, which can be anxious Lu Ban. For this reason, he decided to go up the mountain to check the situation of felling trees. When he went up the mountain, because he was not careful, he inadvertently grabbed a handful of a kind of weeds growing on the mountain, but all of a sudden cut his hand. Lu Ban wondered why the grass was so sharp. So he picked a leaf to observe carefully, and found that there were many small teeth on both sides of the leaf, and when he touched it gently with his hand, these small teeth were very sharp. He realized that his hand was cut by these small teeth. Later, Lu Ban saw a large locust on a grass to eat leaves, two large teeth very sharp, open and close, and soon ate a large area. This also aroused Lu Ban's curiosity, he grabbed a locust, carefully observed the structure of the teeth of the locust, and found that the locust's two large teeth are also arranged with many small teeth, the locust is relying on these small teeth to bite off the grass leaves. These two things left an extremely deep impression on Lu Ban, and also inspired him into deep thinking. He thought, if the tools for cutting wood were made in the shape of sawtooth, wouldn't they be equally sharp? It would be much easier to cut down trees. So he made a large bamboo with many small serrated bamboo, and then to the small trees to do the test, the results are really good, a few times to pull the bark broken, and then pull a few times, the small tree poles cut a deep groove, Lu Ban is very happy. However, because the bamboo piece is relatively soft, poor strength, can not be used for a long time, pull a while, some of the small saw teeth broken, some become blunt, need to replace the bamboo piece. This affects the speed of felling trees, using too much bamboo is also a big waste. It seems that bamboo chips should not be used as a material for making saw teeth, and we should look for a material with higher strength and hardness to replace it, and then Lu Ban thought of iron chips. So they immediately went down the mountain, clear the blacksmiths to help make iron with small saw teeth, and then went to the mountain to continue to practice. Lu Ban and his apprentice each pulled one end, pulled up on a tree, only to see the two of them back and forth, and in a short time they sawed the tree, fast and labor-saving, the saw was invented. Before Lu Ban, there must be a lot of people encountered the hand by the wild mo cut similar situations, why only Lu Ban was inspired by the invention of the saw, which is certainly worth thinking about. Most people just thought it was a small matter of life, not worth making a fuss about, and they often forgot about it after they had healed the wound. Lu Ban, however, had a strong curiosity and the right idea, and paid much attention to observing, thinking and studying some small events in life, from which he found methods and ideas to solve problems, and even obtained some creative inventions. This tells us a truth, pay attention to many small insignificant things in life, and think hard, will grow a lot of wisdom. After the invention of the saw, Lu Ban also invented many carpentry tools, and there are many records of this in ancient books.

Lu Ban in the long-term practice of carpentry, need to often deal with the wood, found many technical problems can be improved. Such as how to make the board both flat and smooth, before Lu Ban, this problem has not been well solved, affecting the further improvement of carpentry technology, Lu Ban according to the needs of the work, after repeated trials, invented the planer. With this tool, it can be uneven wood planing, not smooth wood to create smooth, to improve the plumbing skills is very helpful. Other tools such as drills (drilling instruments), shovels, chisels, ink pots (used for drawing lines) and curved lines, etc., are said to have been invented by Lu Ban. Among them, the curved ruler, later called the Lu Ban ruler, is used by carpenters to seek a right angle, straight to the present day people are still used by carpenters. Lu Ban invented these carpentry tools had a great impact at that time, it makes many carpenters from the heavy manual labor freed, and exponentially increased labor productivity; but also makes the carpentry craftsmen's technical level has been greatly improved, changed the previous many craftsmen rely on the backwardness of the operation of the hand and experience, so that many aspects of carpentry can be simpler tools to improve the level and quality of craftsmanship. The level of craftsmanship and quality could be improved with relatively simple tools in many aspects of carpentry technology. Lu Ban's invention of carpentry tools was supported and helped by his family, especially by his mother and wife. For example, when Lu Ban was doing carpentry work and using an inkwell to release a line, his mother would pull on one end of the line, and he would pull on the other end to release the line by flicking the ink. So every time he put the ink bucket line need his mother to help, it is very inconvenient, Lu Ban also feel the need to come up with a solution to this problem. Later, after he continued to explore in the production practice, repeated tests, Lu Ban designed a small hook, tied to the end of the wood, so that when the release line can be used to hook the end of the wood, in lieu of the original manual operation, only one person on the line. From then on, there was no need for my mother's help in playing the inking line. Later, the woodworker called this small hook "Banmu" in honor of his mother's help. Another example is that the chuck that holds the wood when planing is called "Ban's Wife". It is said that this is because Lu Ban before planing wood, are by his wife to hold the wood, and then he invented the mouth of the card, so that his wife did not have to help.

History records, Lu Ban also invented the stone mill. Since mankind entered the agricultural society, remove the grain shell skin and broken beans and wheat has become a tedious labor. For this reason, the majority of working people carried out a long-term exploration, made unremitting efforts. Legend has it that in 6000 years ago, people began to use the stone will be crushed or crushed grain, more than 4000 years ago, people invented a called "mortar and pestle mortar" rice milling tool. This tool consists of two parts, one is called "mortar and pestle", which is a law gun made of wood or other materials; the other part is called "mortar", which is a round pit cut in the stone. Rice is placed in the mortar and pounded with the pestle. This device than directly with the stone to crush grain has been a great progress, but there are still many defects, such as more time-consuming, each time only a small amount of grain spring; more laborious, it all depends on the manual spring to engage in a long time inevitably back pain. Therefore, people are eager to have a simple mechanical device to replace the manual pounding. Lu Ban was born in a family of working people, and he understood the needs and sufferings of the people very well, so he was determined to solve this problem. For this reason, he often went to the practice of people's daily life to observe and think in order to find a solution to the problem. Later, inspired by the wisdom of the working people and through his hard work, Lu Ban finally invented a simpler and more practical tool for grinding flour. He used two relatively hard, thick round stone valley chiseled on the dense shallow grooves, together, with manpower or animal power to make it rotate, it will be able to grind grain and wheat into powder, which is our country more than two thousand years in the vast rural areas widely used stone mill. The emergence of stone mill is China's ancient grain processing tools of great progress, it will be "mortar and pestle" up and down movement into a rotary movement, will be "mortar and pestle" intermittent work into continuous work, and can be used as a driving force, such as animal power, which greatly reduces labor intensity and improves productivity. This greatly reduced labor intensity and improved productivity. From now on, the grain grinding into powder is no longer a very heavy labor, and become a relatively easy daily simple operation, for the improvement of the people's lives, play a very useful role in promoting.

Lu Ban is also an outstanding mechanical inventor, invented a variety of simple mechanical devices. For example, Lu Ban had made significant improvements to the ancient lock. Lock in China's slave society of the Zhou Dynasty has appeared, its shape like a fish, the construction is relatively simple security is relatively poor; after Lu Ban improved, its shape, structure have greater changes, the lock mechanism is located inside, the appearance does not show traces, only with the help of a good key to open, with a strong security and practicality, can replace the human guards. Historical records, Lu Ban had made a wooden bird with bamboo, able to fly high in the air with the help of the wind, Wang Tian does not fall to the ground, causing a great shock at that time. There is also a legend that Lu Ban had made a motorized wooden carriage horse, this wooden carriage horse by the "wooden man" driving, equipped with a variety of organs, able to walk on the road automatically, until the Han Dynasty is still in circulation. In later times, many skilled craftsmen, such as Ma Jun, a mechanical inventor in the Three Kingdoms, Au Chun in the Jin Dynasty, Ling Zhao in the Northern Qi Dynasty, Ma Shifeng in the Tang Dynasty, and Huang Cuzhuang in the Qing Dynasty, etc., were influenced by this legend and studied and explored the wooden carriages and horses. History also recorded that Lu Ban had made a device called "machine seal", which could be used for burial by mechanical means with high skills, which was admired by people, but due to the prevalence of thick burials at that time, this method could not be implemented. In terms of weapons, hooks and ladders were commonly used in the late Spring and Autumn period. History records that Lu Ban had reformed the hook into the "hook strong" used in boat warfare, the Chu army had used this weapon to fight with the Yue army in the water, played a great role, the Yue boat can hook it when it retreats, the Yue boat can be blocked when it advances, it can attack and defend, it is quite powerful. Lu Ban had also transformed the ladder into a ladder that could stand in the air, which was used to cross the city wall to capture the city, and it was very effective. Lu Ban also made many inventions and contributions to sculpture and architecture.

According to ancient books, Lu Ban carved the "map of the nine states" on the stone, which may be the earliest stone map in China. The story of Lu Ban's carving of the phoenix is recorded in the book, from which we can learn the spirit of Lu Ban's hard work and courage. Legend has it that once Lu Ban carved a phoenix, when he had not yet finished carving it, someone looked at it and sneered, "The phoenix you carved is not at all like a phoenix, the head is not like a head, the body is not like a body. Lu Ban was very angry, but did not get discouraged and stop working, he was determined to answer the sarcasm of others with his own practical actions. Therefore, he studied harder, study hard, after his wood relentless efforts, and finally the phoenix carved into. The phoenix he carved was so lifelike and realistic that it won the praise of all the people, and those who used to ridicule him had to admire Lu Ban's skill and hardworking spirit. History also records that he made the base for mounting door rings, which was also very popular among people. Lu Ban's wife was also an excellent craftsman, and according to history books, the umbrella was invented by her. She saw that Lu Ban and many craftsmen had been out building houses for people for years and years, often in the wind, rain and sun, with nothing to cover them, which was very hard. So she was determined to help them solve this problem, after she opened her mind, repeated trials, and finally made an umbrella, so that Lu Ban went out to do the work with, so that no matter where you go, and no matter whether it is windy or rainy, will not be attacked by the wind and rain.

Until today, the umbrella is still an indispensable tool in people's daily life. There are many stories and legends about Lu Ban's invention, which have been circulating in folklore for thousands of years. Although not all of these legends and stories are true, they express people's admiration and nostalgia for Lu Ban, and glorify the ingenuity of ancient Chinese craftsmen. Lu Ban is now regarded as the embodiment of the highly skilled ancient craftsmen, and has become a symbol of the diligence and wisdom of China's working people.