Seven Nails 七口钉

In Ancient China, building are build without using any nails. Main beams and pillars are join together by joints. Usually this is done by highly skilled craftsman.

  

Why do the Chinese go to such length to do this? Many modern Architects are amaze by this, however the main objective is not to amaze others. There is an important reason why they do this.

 

Art of Sorcery 厌胜术

Recorded in LuBanJing(鲁班经) there is a technique call Art of Sorcery (厌胜术), many of you might not be familiar with this term but I believe many has already been practicing it without realizing it is from there. There is a total of 27 magic mention in LuBanJing, 10 of them when use will yield good results but there is a total of 17 bad one that causes bad fortune. One of the technique which causes bad fortune is call Seven Nails (七口丁). This is a very vicious method to be use on others. When this method is use, the total population of the house will not exceed 7 person. This means that if there is a new born or someone married into the family, one of them will die. In any one time the number of person in the house will be keep at 7.

So in olden days, the Chinese builder do not use any nails while building houses to avoid unfortunate events from happening to the family staying in the house. In Modern building, cement are used to cast into beam or pillars. This also prevented the effect of seven nails from happening. And you might have heard from old people not to nail within the house.

This is for reference only, please do not go around putting nails at other people home as well.