Flashback Fri-yay: Lu Ban and the Lucky Ruler

Hey guys, welcome to Learn Feng Shui, where you'll learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view taken out the myth and superstition. If you like weekly tips as well as fun folklore tales, you'll enjoy learning Feng Shui with me. Hey guys, welcome to Folklore Friday. Today's episode is all about luo pan and his sacred measurements. Hey guys, don't forget to follow all the links below to keep up to date with all the info and events from Learn Feng Shui podcast.

Hey guys, welcome to Flashback Friday. Let's talk about luo pan and sacred measurements. This is one of my favorite stories, my favorite mythical figures out of the Chinese folklore. So luo pan may have not been a real person, but as many things in Chinese folklore, many inventions are attributed to this one supreme and very intelligent person. So let's get to the story of luo pan, his inventions and what his sacred measurements are.

luo pan was a Chinese structural engineer and adventure and a carpenter during the zoo dynasty. Today he is revered as the Chinese patron saint of builders and contractors. Some of his most famous inventions still used to this day are the grappling hook and the ram. That was actually implemented for naval warfare, a wooden bird which is said to be the first prototype of a kite. Something called a cloud ladder which is a mobile counterweight siege ladder and the saw.

So this was really cool. He was actually a vignette, the first robot or what was called the first robot. So what it was was actually a jointed arm that held the saw and so you held the other end of the saw and as you pushed and pulled the arm, you know, the mechanical arm actually did the same. So that's a hard little bit hard to describe on the podcast, but it's a very cool invention that was said to be the first robot. One of my favorite things that he's attributed to making was said that he invented by watching his wife and his mother so acquilt.

But as he was watching him so quilt, he was watching him use this marker that they would stretch out and pull a line and snap it down and it would make a straight line. So what does this sound like guys? It sounds like one of those construction and you know, I don't even know what they're called, but it's those construction things with the chalk line that you pull out and you snap it and it makes a line on the sheet rock and stuff. Pretty cool. He invented that right.

One of the associations, Lubin has with Feng Shui actually is a ruler. So there's something called a Lubin ruler and I mean has different increments where it has lucky measurements and unlucky measurements. And I've heard it's most notably used for was called again house bunch way or coffin measurements, you know, burial burial, burial measurements. But recently I learned that it is for measuring doorways and I believe bed placement. To this day again, he's still revered and in China, they have this festival still which kind of pay homage to the woodworking craft.

So on a certain day and time, they'll actually perform rituals to Lubin and they will, you know, build some things or you know, erect timbers and beads and stuff like that. And that actually very much goes with along with the construction start dates that we use still to this day. So those are actually based on the Tong Shui Chinese all that, which is what I do all my date selection based on. And to this day again, rituals are performed in honor of Lubin using date and time selection based on the Tong Shui. And there is certain stars that are more useful for constructing and erecting beams.

And actually groundbreaking and starting construction. So again, Lubin was very respected in his community because he was not only a construction worker who built homes and stuff like that, but he was a manufacturer, manufacturers back in their day were very revered because they actually kept the town going. And so for example, they were important to agriculture because the craftsmen made tools that would, you know, help farmers in the field shovels and drills and all sorts of stuff that you could use in the field to plant and plow. So they're attributed to agriculture. The manufacturers are also attributed to clothing items because they made the looms that actually weave the clothing items.

And of course, homes you can't have a town without having homes. One of the biggest most notable things that he did was actually help to get supplies into the mountains. And this was actually done by using sheep. And so because of his ideas and inventions and stuff, they were able to get supplies from down in the valley to up a little bit higher in the mountains. So they would actually just strap these supplies to the sheep back and they would herd them up the mountain.

And that is courtesy of Lubin. To support the podcast, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share with your family and friends who you think may be interested, especially if you found this content useful. To learn more about Feng Shui and Chinese metaphysics, follow the link to the website below.