Chapter 1 Ma Carpenter

It is said that in the old days, there was a carpenter in the land of Sichuan and Chongqing. His surname was Ma. This carpenter Ma was not an ordinary carpenter. He could be said to be a strange man. Summit 23S.

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Ma Carpenter was born around 1880 in the late Qing Dynasty. He was already a master of craftsmanship when he was young. At a young age, he was called the "Great Carpenter" by the carpenters in the circle. At that time, Ma Carpenter was the leader of the Bashu carpenter faction.

He is not only young and highly skilled, but also of good character. He is famous far and wide and has a good reputation.

Carpenter Ma was known as the Great Carpenter at a young age. His employers unanimously said that his craftsmanship was superb, while some colleagues said that he knew Luban Shu. There were many stories and rumors about him, but whether he knew Luban Shu was just a matter of fact.

People say it from word of mouth, but no one has ever seen it with their own eyes.

Ma Carpenter's life experience is full of legends. He was once a guest of Zhang Zhidong, an important minister of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang, and he made carpenters for Zhang and Li's ancestral halls. During the Beiyang Government, Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui both worked for him.

Employer, later the great warlord Wu Pei

Fu, Yan Xishan, and Feng Guozhang also asked him to make thrones. It is said that Du Yuesheng and Huang Jinrong, who dominated the foreign trade in Shanghai, worshiped him. Brothers Liu Wenhui and Liu Wencai, the great warlords in central Sichuan, even regarded him as a distinguished guest.

He has been working as a long-term worker for the Liu family for a long time.

With these experiences and friendships with many famous people in modern history, Ma Carpenter was able to live without worries, have a wife, concubines, and descendants, and no longer had to travel around the world to work. However, he remained a bachelor all his life and insisted on relying on his craftsmanship to make a living.

Even though he is old, he still travels around with his carpentry skills, and he is independent and never clings to any powerful family. The relationship with them is just an employment relationship. You pay me to come and do the carpentry, and I finish the work, collect the money, and leave.

people.

There is a saying in the carpentry industry that "a carpenter is not a carpenter." Carpenters need partners or assistants to help. After all, many large projects cannot be taken on by a carpenter. In addition, many carpentry tasks cannot be done by one person, such as sawing.

wood, a person

It may take most of a day to saw, but two people can pull a big saw and finish it in half an hour. Another example is building pillars and beams for a house. How can one person carry a large piece of wood weighing hundreds of kilograms? The carpenter must have someone to help, or

Be it apprentices or other carpenters, we all work together.

But Carpenter Ma travels alone, building houses and sets of furniture for his employer. No matter how big the project is, such as building a large ancestral hall for a warlord, he can still complete it with high quality and quantity when working alone.

It's even faster than multiple carpenters working together, and the workmanship is more exquisite and exquisite. This is the skill, also called competitiveness!

The employer can pay him one person's wages to do the work that two or even three people can do. If he doesn't hire him, who else will hire him? For this reason, Ma Carpenter is never short of rich and wealthy employers all year round. Employers line up waiting for Ma Carpenter to come to his door.

It is a common thing. Naturally, there are many colleagues who are jealous, but it is mediocre not to be envied by others. Carpenter Ma knows that he will offend others, but there is nothing he can do.

Carpenter Ma works quickly and does not want to help, but he also has a strict rule that when he is working at his employer's house, his employer's family members are not allowed to watch. If someone sees him, even if someone is secretly hiding aside to peek, Carpenter Ma can always

It is easy to know, and the peeper can be found and confronted on the spot. Many people say that Ma Carpenter has a pair of eyes on his back.

Once Ma Carpenter's work is peeped by his employer's family, he will immediately pack up and leave. No matter whether the work is done well or not, he will not be paid for any work he has done. This rule will be reported to his employer when he takes the job.

Ming, the vast majority of employers also followed the instructions, even the above-mentioned powerful warlords and high-ranking officials had to follow the instructions.

In the blink of an eye, the period of the Anti-Japanese War arrived, and Ma Carpenter was in his sixties. At this time, in the land of China, his compatriots were suffering, the nation was in danger, wars were everywhere, and wars were raging.

Because of his old age, Carpenter Ma decided to take on an apprentice. When he learned that Carpenter Ma was going to take on an apprentice, people from far and near came to seek him as his apprentice. But to the disappointment of those who came to be his apprentice, Carpenter Ma only accepted one apprentice.

And he is required to be of good character, not mean-spirited, and not greedy for money and good reputation.

After many choices, Carpenter Ma finally accepted a disciple, his eldest disciple Luo Qingyan. He came from a wealthy family, liked carpentry, and was steady and down-to-earth. However, after Luo Qingyan left the apprenticeship, due to the Japanese invasion of China, his family moved to Hong Kong for refuge. Luo Qingyan

He left with it and never came back.

Then Ma Carpenter took in his second disciple Wan Xiaorong. Wan Xiaorong was clever and upright. His three brothers were all anti-Japanese heroes and all died on the battlefield. Later, the Kuomintang and Party government in the army

Wan Xiaorong was assigned a subsidized military position. After leaving the army, Wan Xiaorong went to Chongqing, the accompanying capital. Later, he retreated to Taiwan with the defeat of the Kuomintang and never came back.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Ma Carpenter took in three more disciples, Qin Shaochun. Qin Shaochun's parents died early and he was an orphan. He was taciturn and upright. Ma Carpenter was almost seventy at this time, so Qin Shaochun decided to stay with his master to support him until his death.

There is a reason why Ma Carpenter only accepts one apprentice at a time, and if his eldest apprentice was not far away from him after he became a disciple, he would not accept a second apprentice, and if the second apprentice had not arrived in Taiwan after becoming an apprentice, he would definitely not

Take on three more apprentices!

Because the carpentry skills learned by Ma Carpenter are in conflict with human destiny. In the end, God will destroy him. God will always suppress the outstanding things in the world. Why do most smart people die young?

If he dies, his talents will be taken away by God. This is the saying goes, "If a tree is beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy it."

Although Ma Carpenter has a good craftsmanship, he suffers from five shortcomings and three shortcomings. He is destined to be "missing one" in his life. He happens to have the word "du" to suffer from the five shortcomings. The so-called "du" means that

Being childless means "cutting off any descendants". Therefore, Ma Carpenter never marries, because after marrying, he will face the problem of having offspring, but he is destined to be childless. If he gets married and has children, his children will die one after another.

So he simply remained a bachelor for the rest of his life.

Moreover, this "alone" destiny not only affects his children, but also affects the apprentices he takes. If a carpenter commits the "alone" destiny, one of his children will die, and one of the two apprentices will die. In the old days, the seniority relationship between master and apprentice was strictly followed.

Master, master, is both a teacher and a father. A carpenter who commits the "alone" fate can only accept one apprentice to pass on the mantle. Unless the apprentice dies or avoids him far away, he can accept new disciples.

Because in the old days, there was a saying in the apprenticeship industry that "the apprentice is half a child", then the two apprentices would make up one child. The child of a carpenter who commits the "only life" cannot survive, so one of the two apprentices must be short-lived, that is,

They cannot make up "one child".

Ma Carpenter's eldest apprentice Luo Qingyan went to Hong Kong, thousands of miles away from him, and had transcended this numerological curse in time and space. That's why Ma Carpenter dared to accept his second apprentice Wan Xiaorong. But later Wan Xiaorong went abroad again

Crossing the sea and going to Taiwan was beyond numerology, so Ma Carpenter accepted his third apprentice Qin Shaochun with peace of mind.

Because Qin Shaochun was determined to stay with his master and provide for him in old age, he never left Ma Carpenter. Naturally, Ma Carpenter would not accept any more apprentices.

But as fate would have it, Carpenter Ma had to accept another apprentice even though his third disciple, Qin Shaochun, was by his side.

That year, Carpenter Ma took his three apprentices, Qin Shaochun, to build a house for a landlord's family. The most important and auspicious part of building a house was the beaming. In the old days, people attached great importance to the beams when building houses. People believed that the quality of the beams was good.

It is related to the feng shui of the Yangzhai and the blessings of future generations.

When raising the beams, two carpenters need to climb onto the frame and place the beams with red stickers in the middle of the frame. In the past, when Carpenter Ma built a house for his employer alone, he and his employer's family would do the beam-mounting process.

Taking action, now that he had an apprentice, Carpenter Ma and Qin Shaochun climbed onto the roof of the house, waiting for the auspicious time to arrive before they were ready to mount the beam.

The scene is very lively when folk people build houses and raise beams. They post gossips, invite Jiang Taigong to the throne, hang red lights, set off firecrackers, scatter grains, and sing happy songs. The beam builders climb to the roof and scatter coins and candies, especially the relatives, friends and neighbors who are watching.

If they are children, they will swarm up to grab them. Whoever picks up more will be blessed.

But something strange happened. When Mr. Feng Shui announced that the auspicious time had come and started to put up the beams, no matter how Ma Carpenter and Qin Shaochun placed them, the beams could not get stuck into the slots prepared in advance on the frame!

Qin Shaochun was so anxious that he was sweating profusely, while the landlord and relatives and friends who came to congratulate him looked down and were puzzled.

Installing the beams is just a ceremony. The size of the beams and the dimensions of the slots in the frame have been prepared in advance. It is just a formality for the carpenters to install the beams in front of the homeowner, relatives and friends, and then insert the beams.

It means that the "hardware" part of the house has been built, and only the thatch tiles and doors, windows and furniture will be laid in the later stage.

It is an auspicious occasion to put the beam on, and naturally everything needs to go smoothly. For this reason, Qin Shaochun has checked it many times in advance according to the order of his master. He thought it was foolproof. Who would have thought that something like this would happen at this juncture? The size of the beam and the size of the slot are completely consistent.

, but it just can’t get in!

Carpenter Ma saw his apprentice trembling anxiously on the frame, so he signaled him to calm down. Then he and he repeatedly aligned the slots, and then used a plane to plan the wood. After a lot of busy work, they still couldn't get the beam into position.

As an old carpenter who has traveled all over the world and has long been famous all over the world, Carpenter Ma realized that today he encountered the "axe grinding" (also called "axe grinding beam" in some places).

Chapter 2 Mystery

It is a kind of ghost in the legend, which often appears in pairs. It is said that the ghosts that appear near folk houses are domestic ghosts and wild ghosts. In the old days, when carpenters built a house for a family, the carpenters with good rules would be in the house.

Use an ax to split the wood three times in the south facing the sun and in the north facing the shade respectively to produce sawdust, which is the so-called "chopping chips", which is homophonic to "ward off evil spirits".

Just because the carpenter's ax is a tool to ward off evil spirits, if the "chopping" goes smoothly, the domestic ghosts and wild ghosts lingering near the foundation of the house will escape, and the new house built by the carpenter will bring blessings and good luck to the homeowner.

, only when people live there will everything go smoothly and the population will be prosperous.

There are also times when a carpenter's "chopping of chips" does not go smoothly. For example, if the ax cannot chop the wood and no wood chips are produced, the "chip" will not be successful. At this time, if the carpenter is a skilled carpenter, he will insist on continuing to chop the wood.

Use your own abilities and integrity to fight against evil, and finally drive away these ghosts and monsters;

But if the carpenter is not good enough and cannot hold on any longer, then he goes to find an ax grinding stone to grind the axe. If the carpenter grinds the axe, it is an unlucky sign. It is the so-called "axe grinding". It is said that the ghost will come to the carpenter at this time.

The body of the house is actually a ghost grinding an axe. It means that the ghost near the house foundation does not allow the owner to build a new house. If the owner insists on building a house, the beams on the new house will not be straight, or after the construction is completed, future generations will not be able to live in it.

Good luck or illness or disaster, etc.

"Chopping" is a rule that some carpenters in the old days paid attention to with strict apprenticeships and many rules. However, the unlucky sign of "sharpening axes" does not only appear when carpenters are chopping. Sometimes the chopping goes smoothly, but in the later construction process

"Ax grinding" will also occur in the house, such as the collapse of the tunnel when digging the earth for the house foundation, or the failure to install the beams, or the roof truss collapse and other accidents. "Ax grinding" has gradually become a synonym for the carpenter's failure to build a new house, and is not specifically referring to

Superstitions such as ghosts and evil spirits blocking the road.

In some places in Sichuan and Chongqing, "axe grinding" is also called "Mofu", and Mofu is Mozi. He is an outstanding figure among the scholars who lived in the same era as Lu Ban, the ancestor of carpenters. It is said that Lu Ban

The number one enemy. Since he is the great enemy of the Grandmaster, he will naturally block the construction of the Grandmaster or the disciples and grandsons of the Grandmaster.

When some carpenters encounter some unsatisfactory events that they cannot see clearly, think clearly, or understand (that is, very mysterious and unpredictable emergencies) during construction, they often think that it is Master Mo who is causing trouble and that he is the enemy of the ancestor.

The ghost is at work.

Let's say that Carpenter Ma took out his dry pipe and smoked for a while, and looked at the crowd of spectators for a long time. He has been a carpenter all his life, and has done carpentry for the poor, rich, and dignitaries. His reputation has spread all over the world. The strange thing that happened when the carpenter was working was "sharpening an axe"

"Most of them have been seen before. For example, he has encountered the situation of incorrect upper beams many times.

In the old carpentry trade, when building a house for an employer and encountering problems such as "sharpening axes" due to irregularities in the upper beams, the carpenters would have to pay a lot of attention and reasoning.

If a family builds a new house and their ancestral tomb collapses (washed away by floods or mudslides), then the beams on the new house must be incorrectly installed, and the employer needs to repair the ancestral tomb immediately to successfully install the beams. This is what the carpentry industry says.

There is a saying that the Yin house is peaceful and the Yang house is smooth.

It is also said that if there is a dead person buried under the foundation of a new house, or if the foundation of the house has Yin energy, the beams will not be installed correctly, and the employer needs to change the foundation of the house. This will test the skill of the Feng Shui master. If a half jar

If the water Feng Shui master chose such a house foundation for the family, so that the upper beams are not straight, then he can only blame the landlord for taking advantage of him.

In the old days, it was said that if the homeowner bullied the fortune teller, beggars, or abused the elderly, the construction of the new house would not go smoothly. But Carpenter Ma pays attention to safety and thoroughness in his work. Who is the employer and his character?
To be continued...