#Beijing Wenwangge Woodwork Museum

[giantcypress]

The Beijing Wenwangge Woodwork Museum of Chinese woodorking/carpentry in Beijing opened in 2017, after the last time I visited China, so I haven’t been able to see it. This video and the accompanying video provide a nice overview of the museum.

George Walker and Jim Tolpin have done a lot of work making the case that traditional woodworking in the western world was laid out using dividers. One of the things we've discussed over the years is whether this extends to woodworking in Asia. In this video, there are clear examples of what’s described as a compass, which implies that dividers were used as well back in the day. I can’t imagine that Chinese woodworkers, or any woodworker for that matter, would have a compass and not also use it as a divider.

Around the 2:00 mark, there’s discussion of Lu Ban inventing the compass. Around the 3:00 mark, there’s a discussion about saws, but in the lower left corner you can see what looks like a compass/divider hanging on the wall.

I'm still Zaprudering the video to see what tidbits I can pick up from the background, but this is fascinating to me, as it's the first real evidence I've seen for the use of dividers in Asian woodworking.