car·pen·ter

The word “carpenter” is the English rendering of the Old French word carpentier (later, charpentier) which is derived from the Latin carpentarius [artifex], "(maker) of a carriage." The Middle English and Scots word (in the sense of “builder”) was wright (from the Old English wryhta, cognate with work), which could be used in compound forms such as wheelwright or boatwright.

Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did the rougher work such as framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry.

Wood is one of mankind's oldest building materials. The ability to shape wood improved with technological advances from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Some of the oldest archaeological evidence of carpentry are water well casings. These include an oak and hazel structure dating from 5256 BC, found in Ostrov, Czech Republic, and one built using split oak timbers with mortise [榫孔] and tenon [榫头] and notched corners excavated in eastern Germany, dating from about 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic period.

榫 sǔn 器物两部分利用凹凸相接的凸出的部分

Some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world are temples in China such as the Nanchan Temple built in 782, the Greensted Church, parts of which are from the 11th century, and the stave churches in Norway from the 12th and 13th centuries. 南禅寺坐落于山西省五台县阳白乡李家庄。寺院始建年代不详，大殿重建于唐德宗建中三年(782年)。

By the beginning of the Ming dynasty, emperor Taizu categorized people into different occupations. At this time, all the carpenters throughout the state were registered by the imperial court, and the occupation remained strictly hereditary. In later times of the Ming dynasty, roughly in the 1560s, however, people broke such restrictions, and the path into the occupation in the case of the carpentry became less fixed. Although the restriction regarding the path into the occupation dissolved in later times of the Ming dynasty, approximately starting from 1450s. The Lu Ban Jing (鲁班经) was named after the Chinese patriarch [夫子] of carpenter, Lu Ban. Lu Ban lived in the Zhou dynasty, 2,500 years from modern day and nearly 2,000 years from the beginning of the Ming dynasty. Although the Lu Ban Jing was entitled as the classic of Lu Ban, it was compiled during the Ming dynasty. One interesting fact about the Lu Ban Jing is that it included a detailed biography of Lu Ban and his wife Lady Yun(云氏). According to the biography, Lady Yun was "blessed with heavenly skills" and she could produce products with higher quality than those produced by Lu Ban.

Being a carpenter requires a set of techniques, especially for the household carpenters. From the first to the last day of the construction, sometimes even long before the beginning of construction, carpenters must treat their work with a lot of care. With their meticulousness [极其精细的工作] and perseverance [persistence], their products were so sophisticated that it appeals to the untrained peoples as impossible. Moreover, in Ming times, people believed that certain behaviors bring good or bad fortunes, and the carpenters were responsible for helping their customer to make decisions. Questions like when to build the house, and which direction should the house face toward were among some of the most frequently asked. As a result, the techniques were both practical and metaphysical, include accurate calculation, using proper tools, avoiding ominous actions, singing for good fortunes, and choosing ideal locations for houses. Interestingly is that the carpenters in China will sing prayer songs for their customer to pray for good fortune. The good fortunes involve a series of good things, including wealth, reputation, social ranking, and the sustainability of families. Historian Ronald Knapp recorded one of them in his book China's Living Houses: The Phoenix does not light where there are no treasures. Today it perches at the end of the ridgepole. With one swing of my axe, the house will be solid forever. Ten thousand years solid, then thousand years prosperous, riches and position, a Number One family (凤凰不落无宝地，今日落在脊口里。我将钢斧一摇，一斧打的万年牢。万年牢万年发，富贵荣华头一家).

Metaphysics is the part of philosophy that is concerned with trying to understand and describe the nature of truth, life, and reality.

檩 lǐn 用于架跨在房梁上起托住椽chuán子或屋面板作用的小梁。亦称“桁héng”。檩的名称随其梁头所在的柱的位置的不同而不同，如在檐柱之上的称檐檩，在金柱之上的金檩，在中柱之上的称脊檩。

The carpenters in Ming China, and particularly the first century of Ming China, experienced the division of labor process. Ruitenbeek emphasizes that the carpenters were divided into two categories, the "resident artisans" and the "shift artisans." The resident artisans, according to Ruitenbeek, lived in the capital of Ming China (first Nanjing, then Beijing) because of the forced immigration launched by Ming Taizu. They were required to do ten days for each month in the imperial palace. According to the difference of their household register, these resident artisans were further categorized as military carpenters and civil carpenters. The military carpenters belonged to the division of defense [兵部], and were required to produce useful items for the military, such as bows and cannon supports. The civil carpenters belonged to the Board of Work. The shift artisans, on the other hand, did not need to reside in capital regions, but they were required to complete service on behalf of the Board of Work. Meanwhile, carpenters in Ming China also avoided intrinsic competitions by establishing guilds. Guilds were long-lasting in premodern China, and by the late Ming times, it developed into institutions with complete regulations seeking to minimize intrinsic competitions.

Speaking of the codes among the carpenters in the Ming dynasty, it included a set of rituals or taboos generated by people within the occupation. In the case of carpentry, the Lu Ban Jing regulates carpenter's behavior as it provides a thorough, "from-cradle-to-tomb-style" of guidelines for the carpenters. The Lu Ban Jing also set the rituals for the carpenters when they were given magical spells. Those magical spells, according to Lu Ban Jing, requires a complicated process of preparing the materials and praying for its effectiveness. For instance, carpenters can deliver a curse that forced people to die in river or in water wells. Such curse needs a wooden boat, and the carpenters have to turn the boats upside and bury the wooden boat at the northern corner of the house. The mythical traditions for carpenters to deliver blessings and curses are various, and such mysterious rituals negatively influenced people's impression of carpenters in Ming times.

六级/考研单词: carpenter, render, derive, compound, install, construct, timber, furnish, mankind, bronze, oak, temple, dynasty, emperor, imperial, strict, dissolve, classic, compile, biography, accord, meticulous, persevere, seldom, pray, repute, rank, sustain, treasury, perch, swing, ax, reside, immigrate, differentiate, farther, militant, bow, cannon, behalf, meanwhile, intrinsic, regulate, ritual, taboo, thorough, guideline, magic, complicate, curse