What is the story of the legend of Yueyang Tower?

In the fourth year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty, a senior official named Zhang was demoted to Yuezhou (now Yueyang City) to be the prefect. After Zhang Taishou arrived in Yuezhou, he frowned and was in pain. One day, he took a few people out for a tour to relax, but after a long walk, he didn't find a place with good scenery.

When the sun went down, the satrap and his entourage turned to the lakeside outside the west gate, and saw a circular stone platform in front of him, on which a small pavilion was built, and a plaque of "parade platform" was hung. It turned out that this place was built by Lu Su, a general of the State of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, when he was practicing sailors in Dongting Lake. Zhang Taishou boarded the parade platform and looked at the endless Dongting Lake, suddenly feeling much more open-minded. An attendant said to Zhang Taishou, "Sir, you can see the mountains and lakes here. It would be great if you built a castle on high!"

when Zhang taishou heard this, he felt that there was some truth, so he made up his mind to wait for the auspicious day and start building the building. Immediately listed the next day, recruiting famous teachers and craftsmen as project managers.

One day, a young carpenter named Li Luban came from Tanzhou (now Changsha), claiming to be good at civil design. No matter what pavilions, attics, palaces and temples, they can be designed perfectly. Zhang Taishou put him in charge of the project and gave him a month to draw a three-story, four-corner, five-staircase, six-door, cornice, bucket arch and helmet-top pavilion.

Li Luban hid in the house all day, drawing and drawing, calculating and calculating. For 7749 days, he drew a lot of patterns, either as a land temple or a crossing pavilion. I'm so tired that I'm sweating, but there's still no result.

Zhang Taishou was so angry that he said to Li Luban, "Now there are so many craftsmen coming, just waiting for your drawings. Damn it, you missed my big event! Give you another seven days, and if you can't pay it by then, you will never be spared! "

Li Luban was so scared that he broke into a cold sweat. He thought about it and couldn't think of any good way. He sat by the lake and began to cry. When carpenters and masons saw that he was really sad, they all ran to persuade him to say, "Oh, you young man, why are you so serious? If you don't know, you won't know. Just admit your mistake in front of Mr. Zhang."

Some people say somewhat sarcastically: "Since you are named Lu Ban, you must have Lu Ban's skills. Designing a small castle is nothing!"

After listening to these words, Li Luban said sincerely:

"Dear teachers, I have also worked in the countryside for six years, and there are more than a dozen thatched roofs. I really didn't expect it to be so difficult to draw a castle map. Now, I have to ask the villagers to help me and repay you heavily in the future. "

at this moment, an old man with white hair stood in front of the crowd. Everyone doesn't know his name, except that he has been wandering around the construction site every day for two months, asking questions, and he said to Li Luban, "I think it's hard to draw a good castle if you just hide in the house and draw pictures. It is better to discuss with other teachers. "

"It seems that you must be a carpenter, too?" Li Luban respectfully said to the old man, "Your old man is well informed. Would you please bother to help me?"

The old man said, "I haven't drawn a picture, but I have some gadgets here. If you like, you might as well fiddle with them. Maybe it will put on some tricks." The old man unwrapped the bag he was carrying, which contained a lot of long, short, round and square wooden rafts with numbers. He casually spread it on the ground and said, "If it's almost anything, just look for me upstairs in Liansheng Inn." With that, he left without looking back.

Li Luban picked up the pile of wooden rafts and squatted in the shed, thinking hard and tossing them around, even forgetting to eat.

A young carpenter saw that he was so fascinated that he grabbed some wooden buckets and threw them into the haystack. He said, "Hum, that old man is crazy. Maybe he is a braggart king. Do you really believe him?"

A few old carpenters nearby said at once, "Young people are better off being modest. He has crossed more bridges than you have walked at that age. What makes you say that he is boasting? "

One by one, the old carpenters sat down with Li Luban, pressing the numbers on the wooden ladle and slowly fiddling with them. They posed again and again. Suddenly, everyone shouted happily in unison:

"Come and see, a beautiful pavilion is ready!" The craftsmen heard this and ran over to have a look. It was indeed a spectacular pavilion model. In a short time, the whole construction site was surrounded and everyone praised it. But it seems that there is also a cornice with five arches missing. Check carefully according to the number, and there are no more or less five wooden baskets missing. Just now, the young carpenter who lost his wooden ladle also came and said without care, "The whole pavilion has been made, so what do you need to worry about?" Just make a few supplements when I come. " I didn't know that he worked for a day and a night, and cut more than a hundred pieces of wood, but none of them were suitable. It's either half a point longer or half a point shorter. At this time, he remembered the wooden rafts that he had lost. He felt very sorry and had to say to everyone, "I am really sorry for everyone, but I am too ignorant. The missing bucket arches are the ones that I lost earlier."

"where is it? Take us back quickly. " Everyone asked in chorus.

"It's in the thatched pile ahead." The young carpenter led everyone to look around in that wild grass, and finally found four, but one was nowhere to be found. The weeds were all torn out, and there was no sign of the wooden shovel.

At this time, Zhang Taishou heard that the model of the pavilion had been built, and hurried to have a look. It was really magnificent. He was so happy that he repeatedly praised him and said, "It's so spectacular and majestic that it can be described as the first floor in the world."

"I'm sorry, sir, the model of this building is short of a cornice and a bucket arch."

"Who made this building look like? Please come quickly and make up the bucket arch. "

"Your Excellency, he is an old man with white hair. I don't know his name, but he lives in Liansheng Inn."

Zhang Taishou led everyone to Liansheng Inn in a hurry to find the old man with white hair. The proprietress heard that Zhang Taishou personally came to look for someone. I don't know what happened, but she ran out in a hurry and said, "Oh, this old man has been in the store for more than two months. He never stays in the house during the day, and he splits and saws upstairs until midnight at night. I thought he helped people make furniture, but who knows that he only made some fun for those children. "

"Open the stair door quickly and let me have a look." Zhang Taishou's impatience frightened the proprietress, and she quickly opened the stair-door. Let Zhang Taishou check it out.

When Zhang Taishou went upstairs, he didn't see the shadow of the old man, but there was a beautifully painted pavilion pattern on the bed and a dozen wooden rafts on the table. The old masters carefully turned it over for a while, and found that there was a wooden basket with the missing number on the table, so they quickly took it back and put it away, forming an intact model of the pavilion. Zhang Taishou clapped his hands and laughed with everyone:

"This is the real Luban. We must find him."

But no one knows where he has gone. Zhang Taishou quickly sent people to visit around Yuezhou City. I couldn't find it the day before, but there was still no shadow the next day. Until the morning of the third day, someone suddenly came to report that an old man with white hair had built an arch hole with stones on the beach and built a house on it. Hearing this, Zhang Taishou led several people to the lake beach. However, the old man with white hair disappeared again, only to see a very beautiful and spectacular pavilion built above the stone arch. Zhang Taishou pointed to the model of the pavilion on the lake beach and praised: "This talent is extraordinary! It seems that it is unique to use arch holes as building foundations. This is really blessed! " He looked up and saw a white-haired man, holding a ruler, surveying the land on the opposite high slope. Zhang Taishou quickly asked the people, "But ...

Li Luban shouted happily," It's him, it's the old master! "

Zhang Taishou rushed forward and saluted, saying, "I've heard a lot about Master's superb skills. It's a great honor to meet him today. May I ask if Master's surname is Lu?"

The white-haired old man shook his head again and again and said, "My name is Lu, and Lu Ban is my master."

"where is your teacher now? I ask for advice, and I have something to ask for. "

The white-haired man pointed to many carpenters and masons in front of him and said,

"Look, he is asking the old masters there."

Everyone looked in the direction of his finger. Sure enough, there was a strange old man who was talking with the craftsmen with great interest. Zhang Taishou led everyone to the past and saw that the carpenters and masons who were busy with their work seemed to be like the master Lu they had just seen, but they couldn't tell which was the real Lu Ban. When they went back to find the teacher named Lu, they saw a ruler left on the ground with the words "Lu Banchi" clearly engraved on it.

Zhang Taishou hurried to Lu Su's parade platform in those days, and shouted loudly in the face of the 8-mile Dongting Lake:

"Master Lu Ban, please come again"

On the lake, an echo of "Come-come-come-come-"suddenly sounded far and near.

At this time, there were thousands of rosy clouds in the western sky, as if an old man with white hair was riding a white crane and soaring away to the end of the watery sky.

The carpenters and masons finally made a pavilion according to the pattern designed by the white-haired old man, and used the arch hole of the west gate as the foundation of the building. People named the three-story cornice arch "Lubandou". Because this pavilion is located in the sun of Tianyue Mountain, everyone calls it "Yueyang Tower".