The mysterious "Fragrant Hills Gang"
Have you ever thought of a question like this:
Who designed the magnificent and sacred Tiananmen Square? What ability does the designer have to create a generation of legendary buildings out of thin air and still stand for a hundred years?
Today we will unveil the true face of Lushan, the designer of Tiananmen Square.
China's Forbidden City is known as "the wonder of the history of world architecture", it does not need a nail, the design can be described as ingenious, but who would have thought that from Tiananmen Square, and even the entire huge Forbidden City designer, is only an 18-year-old teenager.
During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a "Xiangshan Gang" in the capital.
This Xiangshan gang is not a social gang, but a group of outstanding craftsmen, famous because they come from Wuxian Xiangshan, and the leader of this mysterious gang is the designer of the Forbidden City.
This man was named Kuǎi Xiang and was a rare genius.
Ku Xiang's father's name was Pu Fu, a very famous carpenter in the industry, and Ku Fu designed mansions for many rich merchants in the capital, and his fame increased greatly for a while.
Because of this, Kufu was elected to the Ministry of Works by the imperial court and has been serving the imperial court.
Since he was born, He Xiang has inherited his father's excellent talent, and is still a rare "ghost talent", it is said that He Xiang can draw dragons with both his left and right hands, and the dragons drawn are not bad, and they can merge into one.
His brain is extremely clever, and if he measures the length by hand, he can deduce the precise dimensions of the entire building, and the work can be tightly sewn.
Later, because of his old age, Ku Xiang's father wanted to go home to retire, so after returning to his hometown, Ku Xiang took over his father's work and became the "carpentry head".
In the 15th year of Yongle, that is, in 1417 AD, Zhu Di wanted to move the capital to Beijing, so he gathered craftsmen from all over the country and went to Beijing to start a large-scale construction of a palace.
At this time, only 18 years old, As an attendant personally selected by the emperor, Ku Xiang was the first to go to Beijing to participate in the design of the imperial palace.
Although He Xiang was still young, he had already gained great fame and his outstanding abilities were obvious to all, so Zhu Di appointed him as the chief designer to be responsible for the construction of the imperial palace.
Because Ku Xiang was originally the leader of the "Xiangshan Gang", he summoned all the skilled craftsmen in the Xiangshan Gang to Beijing to participate in the construction.
There are many elites in the Xiangshan Gang, many of whom are good at building beams, making cornices, measuring values, and even carvings, they have a complete range of work, and a delicate division of labor, which is an indispensable assistant for Ku Xiang.
The first task of Ku Xiang was to be responsible for the construction of the main gate of the palace "Chengtian Gate", Ku Xiang first drew a design drawing, and he calculated in detail every value on the design drawing, and when the construction was completed, the value of the building and the drawing was exactly the same.
After the completion of the Chengtian Gate, the civil and military officials saw all praise, and its design concept was extremely advanced at present, and people were shocked by the buildings in front of them.
After Zhu Di saw the appearance of Chengtianmen, he was even more pleased with the dragon's heart, and called Ku Xiang "Ku Lu Ban".
In fact, Chengtianmen is the "Tiananmen" we see today, of course, after hundreds of years, the appearance of Tiananmen has changed, Chengtianmen is the original appearance of Tiananmen, but the scale is smaller than it is now.
Thousands of dragons played in the water, and the emperor was stunned
In the process of building the imperial palace in Kuxiang, there is also a story and legend handed down by the folk:
At that time, Burma paid tribute to the imperial court with a rare giant tree, and Zhu Di ordered the workers to make this huge wood into the threshold of the main hall, but when a carpenter sawed the wood, he did not pay attention to the wrong size.
The carpenter was suddenly frightened and scattered, this huge piece of wood was the only one, precious and abnormal, he ran into trouble, the emperor knew that he must lose his head, so he hurriedly prayed to Ku Xiang.
When He returned home, he was also sad, and he struggled to think about how to reuse the sawn-short giant wood, so he racked his brains.
Just when Ku Xiang was thinking hard but couldn't figure it out, the steamed fish on the dinner table caught his attention.
I saw that the two fish on the table were still opening their mouths widely, as if they had a bead in their mouths, so he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and suddenly had an idea.
He put one of the fish into separate plates, put the two fish mouth to mouth, and inserted the ends of a chopstick into the fish's mouth.
This peculiar shape makes the chopsticks not only look much longer, but also the symmetrical shape makes it more pleasing to the eye.
After having an idea, Ku Xiang excitedly did not even eat, and immediately put down his chopsticks and ran to the construction site, he first asked the workers to carve two symmetrical dragon heads out of wood, and the dragon's mouth carved out the eyes.
In the middle was the sawn-short piece of wood, and he ordered someone to cut the wood short, and this piece of wood was inserted between the two faucets, and it was made into a beautiful threshold.
The threshold of this shape is called "King Kong Leg", which is also the famous work that Zhu Di called him "Kuluban".
After the completion of the Chengtian Gate, Ku Xiang still had another heavy responsibility, that is, the construction of the three halls.
After knowing the design requirements, Ku Xiang designed the drawings in a few days, and it took only one month to build the model.
This model is ingenious and beautiful, Zhu Di was overjoyed after seeing it, and was just about to give instructions to agree, but he did not expect to be stopped by the eunuch behind him.
The eunuch said: "After all, the three halls are the face of the imperial court, and the palaces of the former dynasty are carved with hundreds of dragons to show the royal majesty, and I am blessed with heaven, and I must carve a thousand dragons to show its might." ”
Zhu Di was very moved by this remark, he thought left and right, and also felt that what the eunuch said was reasonable, so he immediately issued an order that Ku Xiang must carve out a thousand dragons.
This carving of a thousand dragons is a big project, and with the arrival of the delivery period, the workers are also in a hurry, if the emperor is not satisfied, I am afraid that they will have to lose their heads.
After instructing the workers to carve a thousand lifelike dragon heads, Ku Xiang had a circle of white jade railings on the abutment, and the thousands of dragon heads were used as drains.
When it was time to deliver the project, the eunuch looked at the dry dragon head drain and deliberately made it difficult, so he said contemptuously: "Is this the thousand dragons you designed?" ”
When Qu Xiang heard this, he was not angry, but just said to Zhu Di, "Don't be impatient with the emperor, Qianlong has arrived." ”
As soon as the words fell, I saw that the clouds in the sky were dense, and as the clouds became thicker and thicker, the sky began to rain bean-sized raindrops, and after a while, the pouring rain came as promised.
With the heavy rain falling, only to see that on the rocks that had been burned by the sun before, there was a strong water vapor rising, and in a flash of smoke, after a while, the thousand faucet drains began to spray water jets, with the steaming water vapor, in an instant it was like a thousand dragons playing with water, which was stunning.
After the rain stopped, the dragon's mouth was no longer drained, the water mist dissipated, and there was not a trace of standing water in front of the main hall!
This scene immediately made Zhu Di shoot the case, even the eunuch could not say two words, and everyone present was convinced.
A fire destroyed the Forbidden City
In 1420, the Forbidden City was finally built, and in the majestic figure of the Forbidden City, not only can you see the extremely high architectural achievements of Ku Xiang, but also have a surprising artistic talent and aesthetics.
He incorporated a lot of Jiangnan architectural techniques into the building, and also used Suzhou paintings, glass gold bricks, etc., to make the palace look golden and brilliant, in line with the majesty of the Son of Heaven.
But just after the completion of the Forbidden City, there was an unknown fire here, which burned the efforts of workers in recent years.
When it happened, just 8 months after the completion of the Forbidden City, one day the palace suffered an inexplicable lightning strike, which led to a fire.
As we all know, most of the ancient buildings were mainly made of wood, including the pillars and beams, so the fire was fierce, and the three halls were burned overnight.
The fire burned the Forbidden City to ashes and once caused unrest in the imperial court, and many gang ministers made a big fuss about it, and by the time the imperial court made up its mind to repair it again, it was already 8 years later.
During the Orthodox years, Emperor Ming Yingzong ordered a restoration, but it was not so much a repair as a reconstruction, and this time the engineer in charge was still Ku Xiang.
Today, in the Museum of Chinese History, there is a "Map of the Ming Palace City", which depicts the appearance of the Forbidden City, and under the chengtian gate, there stands an official dressed in red, who is said to be Pu Xiang.
Because of his participation in the construction of the imperial palace, Ku Xiang was indispensable, so he was promoted all the way to the Left Attendant of the Ministry of Works, although his official position was already quite large at this time, but Ku Xiang was very humble, living a simple life, and never extravagant.
A few years later, he personally presided over the construction of Yuling, at this time Ku Xiang was even more favored by the imperial court, although the official position was only the second product of the DPRK, but it was the feng lu of the first pin.
In his later years, Pu Xiang has always been praised by people, although he has resigned from the government and retired, but whenever a junior goes to ask for advice, he will guide and explain wholeheartedly.
Although Ku Xiang did not openly accept disciples, there were many skilled craftsmen under his guidance, and most of his descendants also inherited his skills, and Ku Xiang was worthy of being called the "Taidou" among construction craftsmen.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Pu Xiang is "full of peach and plum all over the world", with the gradual growth of the "Xiangshan Gang", his descendants have replaced him and become the leader of the Xiangshan Gang again.
The Xiangshan Gang gradually spread throughout China, and continued until the late Qing Dynasty, when many skilled craftsmen in the Jiangnan area were mostly from the Xiangshan Gang.
Pu Xiang lived until the Chenghua years before his death, after his death, his descendants buried him in his hometown of Taihu Lake according to his last wishes, and his tombstone was the "Fengtian Commandment Monument" given by the imperial court.
So far, the tomb of Kuxiang has been renovated and listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in Jiangsu Province, which is enough to see that for hundreds of years, Kuxiang has had great positive significance for future generations.
The Forbidden City is the treasure of our nation, it not only has a profound impact on us, but even on the whole world, although the name of Ku Xiang is not widely known, but his craftsman spirit will always be passed on!