Brick and Tile Firing
Writing letters for others
Charcoal Making Industry
Itinerant Doctors |
Over a long period, brick and tile firing was the sideline of some villages; for example, places such as Lumu of Wuxian City, Chenmu of Kunshan City, Ganyao of Jiashan etc were renowned for brick and tile firing. In particular, Lumu of Wuxian County was reputed as the imperial kiln, for it specialized in the firing of golden bricks for the imperial palaces (for instance, the huge square bricks paved on the floor of the halls in the Imperial Palace). Still there were some local peasants who would make some adobes during the slack season; the adobes would be dried in the shade of the vacant rooms, ancestral temples or temples, and then be fired in the kiln the next year. Almost each of the household of every village could make adobes, however, after the adobes were put in the kiln, techniques like fire controlling and water adding must be conducted by elder peasants. And some peasants would gradually become professionalized in brick and tile firing, and no longer engage in farming. They honored Lu Ban as the founder of the trade just like the carpenters, while some honored Taishang Laojun (the Supreme Venerable Sovereign), as he owned the Eight Diagram Furnace for elixir making, which, as a device once fired the Monkey King within (A story from Journey to the West), would be out of question, as they think, to fire some bricks and tiles. |
PRINTER FRIENDLY
