In a viral video circulating online, a 76-year-old Dong ethnic minority man from Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, Liuzhou, Guangxi Province, amazed netizens by constructing a 3-story double-tower wooden house spanning 1200 square meters without using blueprints or a single nail, solely relying on his imagination. Users marveled, “Is this the reincarnation of Lu Ban?”
The man, named Shi Shanzhang, became an internet sensation for his remarkable craftsmanship in building wooden houses.
Shi explained that he didn’t finish elementary school, lacked formal education, didn’t have a master craftsman to learn from, and couldn’t draw blueprints. Yet, over 50 years, he erected over 200 sturdy wooden houses for his hometown solely based on his mental images, with his “divine skill” emerging from a catastrophic fire.
In 1974, a devastating fire swept through the Gao Pei Dong village where Shi lived, burning down all the wooden houses of over 300 households. With only one skilled craftsman in the village, the reconstruction progress was slow.
At 20 years old, Shi, who had previously apprenticed with carpenters, began studying the techniques of building wooden houses, discreetly observing and learning on the job at construction sites during the day and mentally planning and designing at night.
Through trial and error over more than a decade while tending to farm work and assisting others in house construction, Shi mastered the craft. Around 1988, he completed his first wooden house – a 3-story double-tower structure covering around 200 square meters, showcasing his skills from felling and polishing timber to assembling the main structure and crafting furniture.
Being renowned as the “architect” of the village, he started receiving requests from villagers to construct wooden houses. Dong ethnic wooden houses are constructed without nails, relying entirely on mortise and tenon joints, with Shi proudly stating that two-thirds of the village’s wooden houses were his creations, enduring decades of weathering without any signs of decay or collapse.
Shi doesn’t draw blueprints for construction. After understanding the homeowner’s requirements, his brain visualizes a three-dimensional model, meticulously planning the precise joints to ensure stability without relying on blueprints, using solely memory and intuition.
Last year, Shi personally built a new 3-story wooden house covering 400 square meters for his family. When his son streamed the construction process live, hundreds of thousands of viewers praised his work, turning him into an internet celebrity despite his lack of technology proficiency. Some even invited him to Qingdao to build wooden structures in scenic areas.
Netizens hailed his skills: “A master among the common people,” “Impressive,” “The reincarnation of Lu Ban,” “Such a waste not to teach architecture at a university.”
As years passed, Shi’s craftsmanship became intangible cultural heritage in Sanjiang, but the number of wooden houses in the village dwindled as younger generations preferred modern cement and steel structures over learning the art of wooden house construction.