Kong Ming Lock 丨 Kong Ming Lock, also known as Bagua Lock, is said to be an intellectual toy invented by Zhuge Kong Ming according to the principles of Bagua metaphysics during the Three Kingdoms period, and was widely spread among the people. The Zhuge family built Zhuge Bagua Village at the site of the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, and the carpenters in the village drew inspiration from the wooden structure and used the tenon structure to make the original Kong Ming lock. The concave and convex parts of this three-dimensional patchwork mesh together subtly. Without nails and ropes, it is completely supported by the connections of its own structure. It seems simple, but in fact, the inside is infinitely mysterious, it is not essential, and it is difficult to complete the stitching.
The descendants of Za zhuge are not ordinary
There is a Zhuge Bagua village in Jinhua Lanxi, which is the largest settlement of Zhuge Liang's descendants found so far. The architectural pattern of the village is arranged in the style of "Eight Arrays", and a large number of ancient houses of the Ming and Qing dynasties have been preserved, which is the only ancient cultural village in China and unique in the world.
Between a pink-walled dewa in Zhuge Bagua Village, a miniature model of the "China Pavilion" of the Shanghai World Expo hanging in big red is particularly conspicuous.
There is the most distinctive Kong Ming Lock Creative Workshop in Zhuge Village. The owner's name is Zhuge Wencang, who is the grandson of Zhuge Liang's 51st generation and the representative inheritor of kong ming lock making skills at the provincial level.
Small pieces of wood big wisdom
When we walked into the store, Zhuge Wencang was immersed in polishing wooden strips, which is the raw material used to build Kong Ming Lock.
The Kong Ming locks sold in his shop are handmade, and the wood is made of old camphor wood. "The Kong Ming lock made of old camphor wood is not only not easy to walk out of shape, but also refreshing, insect-proof and moth-proof, and the smell will not be so pungent...".
Zhuge Wencang's Kong Ming lock, not only with exquisite materials, even the production is quite laborious, the wood precision requirements for the production of each Kong Ming lock are extremely high, and the manual error is always controlled within 0.1 mm.
"For example, 1.3 (cm) is 1.3 (cm), which cannot be less than 1.29 (cm) at most, and cannot be greater than the requirement of 1.31 (cm)". If it is tight, it is easy to fall down, and Zhuge Wencang asks for just right, so that a piece of wood is not tight or loose.
Some people call Kong Mingsuo "China's Rubik's Cube", but there is no comparison between the two. The Rubik's Cube was born in 1974, and the Kong Ming Lock originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. Zhuge Wencang introduced, "Where the inside protrudes out and recesses, the appearance cannot be judged, and its difficulty is much more difficult than the Rubik's Cube." The Rubik's Cube can analyze the position and motion trajectory of the color block through the surface, while the test of dismantling and installing the Kong Ming Lock is abstract three-dimensional thinking.
The traditional six-pillar KongMing lock, based on the Bagua pattern dry, exchange, separation, zhen, Sunda, Kan, Geng, kun, each gua has 8 variations, a total of 64 different tenon and tenon structures, the later the level, the more difficult it is to unravel.
Zhuge Wencang, who is more than 60 years old, also runs his own Taobao shop. "If someone is not assembling well, they can find me through these channels, and I send them illustrations and video instructions."
Bringing out a new reputation
Before 2000, Zhuge Bagua Village to do Kong Ming lock there are more than thirty, with the impact of mechanization processing, assembly line production of Kong Ming lock production is high, low price, pure handmade Kong Ming lock market size is getting smaller and smaller, even to the embarrassing situation that manual production of labor is not enough. Zhuge Wencang, on the other hand, took a different path and made a big fuss about Kong Mingsuo's creativity.
One of the most eye-catching is the Shanghai World Expo 'China Pavilion' Kong MingSuo, which is made up of 118 wooden strips and is amazingly connected and conceived with its ingenious tenon and tenon connections.
After the "Chinese Pavilion" Kong Mingsuo became popular, Zhuge Wencang became famous from then on. At the best of business, tourists are even willing to spend three or four hours waiting for the lock on site. Subsequently, Zhuge Wencang, who loves to ponder, has successively designed and developed a series of works such as the Pearl Pagoda Kongming Lock, the Mandarin Duck Lock, the Lock in the Lock, the Treasure Lock, and the Four Seasons Fortune Lock, which have been launched and are well received by customers.
At the moment when products pursue market benefits, more and more Kong Ming locks have become a mechanized commodity, while Zhuge Wencang is still sitting in his workshop, quietly and delicately polishing the wooden blocks in his hands. The obsession of the craftsmen makes Zhuge Wencang unwilling to give up the most basic characteristics of traditional handicrafts, and always adheres to pure handmade original production.
"I am a descendant of the real Zhuge Liang, and for the sake of the culture of our ancestors, I want to pass on this craft..." In Zhuge Wencang's heart, innovating and inheriting Kong Mingsuo is the cause he has struggled for all his life.
Traditional craftsmen who create for ingenuity
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