The Saint Creating Equipment And Daily Necessities

Gujin Tushu Jicheng (Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writingsfrom the Earliest to Current Times): Styles of Craft and Architecture Division:General Styles of Craft and Architecture Section was taken as the researchobject of the paper in which Chinese tradition in making equipment wasreviewed through reading and illustration to consider about and find the designideas in it and to search the significance of making equipment to the country’sprosperity and people’s livelihood.Gujin Tushu Jicheng which was mainly compiled by Chen Menglei, a scholar inearly Qing Dynasty, consisted of6series,32divisions, and6,117sections. EconomySeries: Styles of Craft and Architecture Division contained155sections, totaling252volumes. The "General Introduction" of the Styles of Craft and Architecture Division,i.e. Volume1and Volume4of the Division was taken as the content of interpretation.Gujin Tushu Jicheng: Styles of Craft and Architecture Division was in fact a workcollecting all records about making equipment before Qing Dynasty; it can also beregarded as an ancient history of design, in which Gujin Tushu Jicheng: Styles of Craftand Architecture Division: General Styles of Craft and Architecture Section may be seenas the introduction to the work regarding ancient design history.As a general comment on equipment making and production in all ages, GujinTushu Jicheng: Styles of Craft and Architecture Division: General Styles of Craft andArchitecture Section not only summarized ancient equipment making and designingideas, but also contained design events, makers, design systems and other concretecontents. In the "Collected Study" part of Styles of Craft and Architecture Division:General Styles of Craft and Architecture Section, the nine items compiled by the editorssummed up the design practice in corresponding ages, which can be seen as hallmarkevents taking place in the ancient history of design from the ancient times to ZhouDynasty, i.e. since humans started to work. Fu Hsi, Shennong, Huangdi, Yao, Shun, etc.recorded in the document are design groups at the beginning of the ancient history ofdesign; they can all be classified into "The Saint" or makers, the main body of ancientChinese craft and architecture system. As the general designer of ancient equipmentmaking, the Saint instructed artisans at the spiritual and practical level, determined styles of craft and architecture, revealed reasons for making equipment, and establisheda series of standards of equipment, the function of equipment, criticism system and soon.In terms of the ideological content, the above mentioned work was illustrated fromthe views of history, nature and ethics, etc. in the paper: the unique "shape-style" designideas and methods in ancient China reflected in "the Saint creating equipment" and"making equipment according to the shape"; the emphasis on "respecting the nature" invarious writings, the objective and ethical narration about the "physical property" ofnature, and the law of creating at the functional level such as "the quality of materials isdiverse" and "examining materials before using them" put forward in later design ideasand practice; the role of "equipment" in political, cultural and philosophical and othersocial context in ancient society reflected in the expression of "the Saint creatingequipment"; the inheritance of practical and applicable ideas about the fundamentalprinciples of making equipment; and the position and function of "equipment" in dailylife and the nation……so as to explore something valuable from the resource library ofancient ideas for the design today. According to the document compiled in Styles ofCraft and Architecture Division: General Styles of Craft and Architecture Section, wecan find to what extent the ancestors know about and grasp basic design problems fromvarious records.