The Amazing Thousand-Workmanship Babu Bed

The Babu bed—it's actually a bed. In the Folklore Museum of Furong Ancient Village, Yongjia, there is a Babu bed that can be called a rare masterpiece. This bed dates back to the Republican era, measuring 7.16m long, 2.21m wide, and 2.42m high, totaling about 15 square meters. It's more like a room than a bed, isn't it? According to encyclopedias, a Babu bed, also known as an "Eight-Step Bed," is an old-fashioned large bed with a green gauze curtain and steps. It's called an "Eight-Step Bed" because it supposedly takes eight steps to walk from one side to the other. Mostly used in the south, where the warm climate attracts mosquitoes and flies, the bed frame is designed for hanging mosquito nets. Its overall layout creates a space that's like a small house within a room. This type of bed appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, a time of extravagance among the scholar-official class and corruption among officials, who built grand residences with rooms within rooms. After the Republic of China was established, this type of bed was used in wealthy families in the Jiangnan region. This was my first encounter with both the term and the object itself—quite educational. The display sign indicates that this bed has seven sections and eight panels, taking over a thousand man-hours to create. The carvings depict landscapes, figures, flowers, birds, and auspicious beasts, some decorated with gold powder. The craftsmanship is intricate and awe-inspiring.