Lu Ban

Lu Ban—whose given name was Ban—was a native of the State of Lu in the late Spring and Autumn period and came from a family of hereditary artisans. Legend credits him with inventing tools such as the saw, plane, carpenter’s square, and ink marker, as well as constructing ingenious devices including the cloud ladder and a wooden kite. His extraordinary skill earned him posthumous veneration as the Ancestral Master of the Hundred Crafts and the Divine Patron of Ingenious Artisanship. For over two millennia, carpenters have performed ritual offerings to Lu Ban before commencing work or raising roof beams, praying for safety during construction and continual mastery of their craft. The folk text known as the Lu Ban Jing (The Lu Ban Manual) serves both as a treatise on architectural methods and as a compendium of apotropaic rites for warding off misfortune and securing domestic harmony. Lu Ban embodies the spirit of relentless refinement and consummate craftsmanship—a shared spiritual totem for China’s construction industry to this day.