Makers › Inventor
Lu Ban
Craftsman of Lu, called Gongshu Pan in the Mozi, who built siege ladders for Chu until Mozi talked him down, and whom later carpenters honoured as the patron of their trade
In a workshop, a craftsman at a wooden vat lifts a bamboo-framed sheet from the pulp beside stacks of white paper and a tub of pulp, while others hang sheets to dry and work at a long table of carved printing blocks, and a water wheel turns outside the window.
Also known as Gong Shuban · Gong Shuzi
Lu Ban was a craftsman of the state of Lu around the end of the Spring and Autumn period; the Mozi calls him Gongshu Pan, the Book of Rites (Liji) Gongshu Ban, and later tradition takes these to be the same man. The Liji relates that when the mother of Ji Kangzi died, he proposed lowering her coffin with a machine until Gongjian Jia talked him out of it. The Mozi tells how he built scaling ladders for Chu to attack Song; Mozi hurried to Chu, laid out his belt as a city wall and played out the siege with him, and after Mozi had blocked nine different engines the king of Chu called off the attack. Another Mozi chapter says he carved a wooden magpie that flew for three days. The carpenter's square, ink line and plane are traditionally credited to him, and southern carpenters, who used a Ming manual issued in his name, honoured him as the founder of their trade.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; late Spring and Autumn to early Warring States