In the fourth year of the Tang Dynasty, a high-ranking official surnamed Zhang was demoted to Yuezhou (now Yueyang City) to be the prefect. After Zhang arrived in Yuezhou, he frowned and was in pain.

One day, he took a few people out on a patrol to relax, but after a long time, he couldn't find a place with good scenery.

When the sun went down, the Prefect and his entourage turned to the lake outside the west gate and saw a round stone platform in front of them. A small pavilion was built on it, and a "parade platform" plaque was hung on the pavilion. It turned out that this place was built when Lu Su, a general of the State of Wu, was training sailors in Dongting Lake during the Three Kingdoms period. Zhang Taishou boarded the parade platform and looked at the boundless Dongting Lake in the distance, and suddenly felt much more open-minded. An entourage said to Zhang Taishou, "Master, you can not only climb high and look far, but also enjoy the scenery of the lake and mountains. It would be great if you built a pavilion from a high place!"

Zhang Taishou listened and felt that there was some truth, so he made up his mind and just waited for the auspicious day to start construction. The next day, he immediately appeared on the list and recruited a famous teacher and craftsman to serve as the general manager of the project.

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

Li Luban hid in the house all day, drawing and drawing, counting and counting, for seven, seven, forty-nine days, and drew a lot of paper patterns, either as a land temple or as a passing pavilion. Tired and sweating, but still no results.

Zhang Taishou was so angry, he said to Li Luban: "There are so many craftsmen here now, just waiting for your picture. Damn it, you missed my big deal! I will give you another seven days, and if you can't hand it over by then, I will never forgive you!"

Li Luban was so scared that he broke out into cold sweat. After thinking about it, he couldn't think of any good way, so he sat alone by the lake and cried. The carpenters and stonemasons saw that he was really sad to cry, so they ran to persuade him, "Oh, you young man, why are you so serious? If you don't know, you don't know. Just admit your mistake in front of Lord Zhang."

Some people also said something cool: "Since you named it Lu Ban, you must have the ability of Lu Ban, what is it to design a small pavilion!"

Hearing these words, Li Luban said sincerely, "Masters, I have been doing crafts in the countryside for six years, and I have built more than a hundred thatched houses. I really didn't expect it to be so difficult to draw a pavilion map. Now, I have to ask all the villagers to help, and I will repay you heavily in the future."

At this time, a white-haired old man stood in front of the crowd. This old man, no one knew his name, only knew that for two months, he had been walking around the construction site every day, asking long and short questions, and he said to Li Luban: "I think True Luban also learned it hard from a young age. If you just hide in the house and draw pictures, it is rare to draw a good building. It is better to discuss with other masters." "It seems that you must also be a carpenter?" Li Luban respectfully said to the old man: "You are well-informed, please take the trouble to help me, okay?"

The old man said, "I haven't drawn a picture, but I have some gadgets here. If you like it, you might as well use them to play with, maybe you can put up some famous ones." The old man opened the bag he was carrying, and inside was a large pile of long, short, round, and numbered wooden rudders. He casually spread it on the ground and said, "If there is anything else, just find me upstairs at Liansheng Inn." After saying that, he left without looking back.

Li Luban picked up the pile of wooden rudders, squatted in the shed and thought hard, played around, and even forgot to eat.

A young carpenter saw that he was so fascinated, grabbed a few wooden rudders and threw them into the haystack, saying, "Hmph, that old man is crazy, maybe he is a braggart king, do you really believe him?" A few old carpenters next to him hurriedly said, "It is better for a young man to be modest. He is so old, and he has crossed more bridges than you have walked? Why do you say he is braggart?" The old carpenters sat down one by one with Li Luban and pressed the number on the wooden rudder, slowly fiddling with it. They swayed and swung, and suddenly everyone shouted happily, "Come and see, a beautiful pavilion is ready!" The craftsmen heard it and ran over to take a look. It was indeed a spectacular pavilion model. After a while, the entire construction site was surrounded by people, and everyone praised it. But it looked like there was a cornice missing five bucket arches.

Everyone checked carefully according to the number, and there were no more or no less five wooden rudders missing. The young carpenter who lost the wooden rudder just now also came and said indifferently: "The appearance of the whole pavilion has been made, what are these wooden rudders to worry about! Wait for me to make a few more to make up for it."

He did not know that after working for a day and night, he cut more than a hundred pieces of wood, but none of them were suitable. It was either half a point longer or half a point shorter. At this time, he remembered the few wooden rudders that he had lost, and felt very sorry in his heart. He had to say to everyone, "I'm really sorry for everyone, I'm just too ignorant. The missing bucket arches are the ones that I lost earlier." "Where did you lose them? Take us to find them," everyone asked in unison. "They are in the thatch in front of them." The young carpenter led everyone to look for them in the wild grass, and they easily found four, but the other one could not be found. The weeds were all torn off, and there was no shadow of the wooden rudder.

At this time, when Zhang Taishou heard that the model of the pavilion was ready, he hurried over to take a look, and it was indeed extraordinary. He was overjoyed and praised: "It's so magnificent and majestic, it can be said to be the first building in the world." "Master, this building model is still missing a flying eaves bucket arch." "Who did this building look like? Please come and make up the bucket arch." "Master, it's a white-haired old man. I don't know his name, but I know he lives in Liansheng Inn." Zhang Taishou led everyone to Liansheng Inn in a hurry, looking for the white-haired old man. The proprietress heard that Zhang Taishou came to find someone in person, but she didn't know what happened, so she hurriedly ran out and said, "Oh, this old man has been in the store for more than two months. He never leaves the house during the day, and he hacks and saws upstairs until midnight at night. I thought he helped people make furniture, but who knew he only made fun things for those children."

"Quickly open the door and let me see what's going on." Zhang Taishou's impatient look scared the lady boss, so she quickly opened the door and let Zhang Taishou check it out. Zhang Taishou went upstairs and saw no shadow of the old man, only to see an exquisite and beautiful drawing of the pavilion on the bed, and there were more than a dozen wooden rudders on the table. The old masters carefully turned over for a while and found that there was a wooden rudder with the missing number on the table. They quickly took it back and swung it to form a complete model of the pavilion. Zhang Taishou and everyone clapped their hands and laughed, "This is the real Luban, we must find him."

But no one knew where he had gone, so Zhang Taishou hurriedly sent people to look around inside and outside Yuezhou City. He couldn't find it the day before, and there was no shadow the next day, until the morning of the third day, when someone suddenly came to report that a white-haired old man had built an arch hole with stones on the beach and built a house on the arch hole. Hearing this, Zhang Taishou quickly led a few people to the lake beach. But the white-haired old man disappeared again, and a very beautiful and spectacular pavilion was set up on the stone arch hole. Zhang Taishou pointed to the model of the pavilion on the lake beach and exclaimed, "This person is very intelligent! It seems that using the arch hole as the foundation can be regarded as unique. This is really a help from heaven!" He looked up and saw a white-haired man, holding a ruler, measuring the land on the opposite slope. Zhang Taishou hurriedly asked everyone, "In front of him… Li Luban shouted happily:" It's him, it's the old master! "

The white-haired old man shook his head and said, "My surname is Lu, and Lu Ban is my master. "Where is Master Ling today? I ask for advice, I have something to ask for." The white-haired man pointed to the many carpenters and masons in front of him and said, "Look, he is asking the old masters for advice." Everyone looked in the direction of his fingers, and there was indeed a strange old man who was talking to the craftsmen with great interest. Zhang Taishou led everyone over to take a look. The carpenters who were busy with their work seemed to be like the Master Lu they saw just now, but they couldn't tell which one was the real Lu Ban. When they went back to find the master surnamed Lu, they saw a ruler left on the ground with the words "Lu Ban Chi" clearly engraved on it.

Zhang Taishou hurriedly boarded the parade platform of Lu Su and shouted loudly in the face of the water of the 800-mile Dongting Lake: "Master Lu Ban -, please come again -" On the lake surface, there was an echo of "come on - come on -". At this time, in the sky in the west, there were many red clouds, as if there was a white-haired old man riding a white crane, flying towards the end of the water sky. The carpenters and masons finally built a pavilion according to the style designed by the white-haired old man, and used the arch of the west gate as the foundation of the building.

People named the three-story eaves arch "Luban Dou." Because this pavilion is located in the sun of Tianyue Mountain, people call it "Yueyang Tower."