Wu Luheng, formerly known as Zhu Guo, was born in Wan 'an Town, Xiuning County in the early Qing Dynasty. He is a skillful craftsman who makes compasses. Their descendants inherited his career and constantly improved it, and the Uji compass is still developing vigorously. During the period of 100 years, 19 15, its products won the gold medal of Panama World Expo.
According to legend, when people come to Huizhou, they will inevitably bring back two souvenirs, one is a compass and the other is Huizhou ink, otherwise they will feel lost in this trip. Today, the Capital History Museum treasures a compass with tough materials and exquisite craftsmanship, and the word "Wu Luheng" is written on the back, which is a masterpiece of the Wu masters.
With the development of science and technology and social progress, Wan 'an's manual compasses have been gradually eliminated. However, since the reform and opening up, in order to meet the needs of tourism development, Wan 'an Town has opened the "Laowu Luheng Compass Shop", and a small number of compasses have been put on the market, which are regarded as handicrafts and tourist souvenirs by enthusiasts.
Brief introduction of Wan 'an compass
Compass is a traditional geoscience instrument, which is a kind of handicraft with artistic value because of its excellent production and high technological requirements. Today, with the modernization of geoscience instruments, the ancient compass can also be used as a cultural relic view. It was named because it originated in Wan 'an Town, Xiuning County. Compass is a simple instrument that uses the principle that the magnetic needle can remain in the magnetic meridian plane under the action of geomagnetic field to indicate the direction.
Using a compass to indicate the direction is both light and reliable. It is widely used in navigation and plane survey, and also used by Mr. Feng Shui (Mr. Feng Shui) to occupy and select graves and house foundations. In ancient times, it can be described as outstanding achievements. Wan 'an Guide has strict requirements on raw materials and technology. Its site is made of special wood through tenoning, rounding and polishing. The big one is feet in diameter, and the small one can be put in the palm of your hand.
A round hole is drilled in the center of the disc, and a compass that can rotate flexibly is installed inside. The hole surface is covered with a transparent sheet, which can not only keep the hole clean, but also see the magnetic needle rotate. The outer disk of the middle circle depicts the vertical and horizontal dimensions, and the eight diagrams, heavenly stems and earthly branches and twenty-eight stars are arranged in sequence, written in words on the disk surface, and the twenty-four directions are marked with * * except the overlapping parts.
Eight diagrams are matched with each other to get sixty-four hexagrams, and twelve branches overlap to form sixty groups. Gossip is empty, branches are empty, and heaven and earth merge into a circle. The disk is painted, transparent as a mirror and smooth as jade.