周禮·冬官考工記（總敘）

A state has six occupations, and the hundred crafts are one of them.

Some sit and discuss the Way; some rise and carry it out; some study the curve, the face and the set of things in order to work the five materials and provide the people with their implements; some move the rare and precious things of the four quarters so that all are supplied; some put their strength into increasing the wealth of the land; some work silk and hemp to make cloth.

Those who sit and discuss the Way are called kings and dukes. Those who rise and carry it out are called officers and great officers. Those who study the curve, the face and the set of things in order to work the five materials and provide the people with their implements are called the hundred crafts. Those who move the rare and precious things of the four quarters so that all are supplied are called merchants and travelling traders. Those who put their strength into increasing the wealth of the land are called farmers. Those who work silk and hemp to make cloth are called the women’s work.

Yue has no hoe-makers, Yan no armourers, Qin no makers of spear-shafts, and the Hu no makers of bows and carriages. It is not that Yue has no hoes: every man there can make a hoe. It is not that Yan has no armour: every man there can make armour. It is not that Qin has no shafts: every man there can make a shaft. It is not that the Hu have no bows and carriages: every man there can make bows and carriages.

The wise create things. The skilful hand them on and keep them, and the world calls them craftsmen. The work of the hundred crafts was all the making of the sages. Melting metal to make blades, setting clay to make vessels, making carts to go by land and boats to go by water: all these were made by the sages.

Heaven has its seasons, the earth its virtues, materials their excellence, and the craftsman his skill. Only when these four come together can good work be made. If the material is fine and the skill is great and still the work is not good, then it was not made in season, or did not have the virtue of its ground. The orange crosses the Huai going north and becomes a bitter orange; the mynah does not cross the Ji; the raccoon dog dies if it crosses the Wen: such is the virtue of the ground. The knives of Zheng, the axes of Song, the writing-knives of Lu and the swords of Wu and Yue cannot be made well when their makers move away from their own lands: such is the virtue of the ground. The horn of Yan, the bow-wood of Jing, the arrow-shafts of Fenhu, the copper and tin of Wu and Yue: these are fine materials. Heaven has a season for growing and a season for killing; grass and trees have a season to grow and a season to die; stone has a season to split; water has a season to freeze and a season to flow: these are the seasons of Heaven.

Of the crafts that work wood there are seven, of those that work metal six, of those that work skins five, of those that apply colour five, of those that scrape and polish five, and of those that mould clay two.

The workers in wood: wheelwrights, carriage-body makers, bow-makers, shaft-makers, builders, cart-makers and joiners. The workers in metal: the zhu, the ye, the fu, the li, the duan and the tao. The workers in skins: armourers, tanners, drum-makers, workers in soft leather and furriers. The workers in colour: painters, embroiderers, the zhong, the kuang and the huang. The scrapers and polishers: workers in jade, comb-makers, carvers, arrow-makers and chime-makers. The workers in clay: potters and the fang.

The house of Yu prized pottery, the Xia prized building, the people of Yin prized joinery, and the people of Zhou prized carriages. And so, of all the single objects in which the crafts come together, the carriage gathers the most.

The carriage has its six levels. The carriage floor stands four feet high: that is called the first level. The dagger-axe on its shaft of six feet six inches, set slanting in the carriage, rises four feet above the floor: that is called the second level. A man, eight feet tall, rises four feet above the dagger-axe: that is called the third level. The staff, a fathom and four feet long, rises four feet above the man: that is called the fourth level. The carriage halberd, a chang long, rises four feet above the staff: that is called the fifth level. The spear, a chang and four feet long, rises four feet above the halberd: that is called the sixth level. These are called the carriage’s six levels.

The way to examine a carriage must begin with what bears on the ground; so the examination of a carriage begins with the wheel. In examining a carriage one wants it to be close-knit and to touch the ground lightly. If it is not close-knit, it cannot be sound and long-lasting; if it does not touch the ground lightly, it cannot be quick. If the wheel is too high, a man cannot climb in; if it is too low, the horse will be forever pulling uphill.

So the wheel of the war carriage is six feet six inches, the wheel of the hunting carriage six feet three inches, and the wheel of the riding carriage six feet six inches. With a wheel of six feet six inches, the hub-end stands three feet three inches high; add the floor and the axle-block, and it is four feet; and a man eight feet tall has a measure for climbing up and down.