Emulating Master Lu, the common Chinese carpenter would have spent a certain amount of the year in ‘corvee’ service to the emperor.  By 1200 A.D. all artisans in China were required to donate so many weeks a year in hard labour on imperial works. Legend has it that Master Lu himself oversaw a work party of ten thousand men.  Imperial service was a hardship but also an adventure for many a young carpenter from around the growing empire, who would see the growing cities and meet experienced craftsmen. 

The indigenous Han were pushing their borders further away from the Great Central Plain.  Many young people made arduous journeys from remote mountain towns to work on central imperial buildings, for little or no pay other than room and board.  However, meeting other more seasoned carpenters, the young apprentices would be introduced to the mysteries of the cult of Lu Ban and its unifying influence.  Throughout the empire, the standards of carpentry were thus established.  The great masters of the craft, like Lu Ban, could rise from obscurity to become imperial favourites.

            The larger towns and cities also contained the carpenter guilds.  Like such guilds everywhere, the main purpose was to limit competition for favoured work to “recognized” men.  Fees were charged and in return the carpenters, through the guild, would share in government commissions and rich private contracts.  The guilds also provided for a limited welfare system and for the arrangement of burials.  Through the guilds and imperial service, both the building techniques and the religious skills required by the journeyman carpenter were standardized geographically and over time. A long, long, time.