The legend of the Forbidden City turret
There is a corner building with nine beams, eighteen columns and seventy-two ridges in each corner of the Forbidden City, which is beautifully built. How are these four corners covered? There is such a legend in Beijing-
After the Ming Dynasty Prince Zhu Li became Emperor Yongle in Nanjing, he wanted to move to Beijing because Beijing was his old place when he was a monarch, so he sent a trusted minister to Beijing to build an official. Zhu Li told the minister that four particularly beautiful watchtowers should be built on the four corners of the Forbidden City, that is, on the outer wall of the palace. Each watchtower should have nine beams, eighteen columns and seventy-two backbones. And said, "You should be the minister of water heating. If the lid can't be repaired, behead it! " "After receiving the imperial edict from the emperor, the plumbing minister was very worried and didn't know how to build this watchtower with nine beams, eighteen columns and seventy-two ridges.
When the Minister of Industry arrived in Beijing, he called 8 1 big contractors, foremen and carpenters, told them the emperor's will, and told them that these four grotesque turrets must be built on schedule, and said, "If they can't do it, the emperor will naturally kill my head, but before I kill my head, I will cut off your heads and be careful with your heads." The foreman and carpenter are not sure about such a project, so they have to find a way together.
The period of three months is very short, and it will be one month in the blink of an eye. The foreman and carpenter haven't come up with a clue or method yet. They made many models, none of which were suitable. This is just in time for the dog days in June and July. It was stifling hot, and they were bored. It is really inappropriate for foremen and carpenters to sit or lie down. There was such a carpenter, and I couldn't stay any longer, so I went for a walk in the street.
Walking, I heard a sound of fruit from a distance, and then I heard a cry: "Buy fruit, listen, can't sleep, go and relieve boredom!" " Looking closer, I saw an old man carrying a lot of stalks, big and small, peddling along the street. One of them is a cage with a straw stick, which is as exquisite as a pavilion in the painting. There are some crickets in it. The carpenter thought: Anyway, I was bored to death. Shit, I couldn't live any longer, so I bought a beautiful cage. It looked interesting and I bought it.
The carpenter returned to the construction site with the cage. Everyone quarreled as soon as they saw it: "People are very upset. How can you buy a cage for a tramp? What's the point of noisy? " The carpenter smiled and said, "Everyone can't sleep. Look ... "He wants to say how beautiful this cage is! But before he spoke, he thought the cage was a little special. He quickly waved his hand and said, "Stop arguing and I'll count." He carefully counted the beams, columns and ridges of the Guo cage over and over again. Everyone was attracted by this number and looked at it quietly and straight, but there was no sound at all.
After counting the cages, the carpenter jumped up and patted his thigh and said, "Isn't this the seventy-two ridges of nine beams, eighteen columns?" Everyone was very happy to hear that. One was holding a cage, and the other said, "It's really a castle with nine beams, eighteen columns and seventy-two ridges."
Inspired by this cage, everyone came up with the appearance of the turret of the Forbidden City, scalded paper pulp to make patterns, and finally repaired it into a corner hug that still exists today.
Note that I also learned about other friends from Baidu.