Antique Chinese Password Padlock (Mr. Locksmith)

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The Chinese carved bronze password padlock has five rotating discs made of bronze with four Chinese characters on each disc as follows:
“锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土 。谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。
Each line is part of a poem written 1400 years ago about Peasants working in the rice fields and each grain of rice is precious. The title of the poem is “A Hard-Working Farmer”  Li Shen (772-846 AD).
Farmers weeding at noon,
Sweat down the field soon.
Who knows food on a tray
Due to their tolling day?
(*Note: Close Translation but I don’t speak Mandarin)
[youtube]http://youtu.be/aZ02DvXHa6k[/youtube]You can turn the discs easily, but if you want to open this lock you have to rotate the characters “锄禾日当午” in a line.
Mr. Locksmith Antique Chinese Password Padlock

Antique Chinese Password Padlock

Both side of the lock are jointed with a carved head of lion. The padlock is made of Bronze, an alloy, made of red copper, tin and lead.
[youtube][/youtube]
http://youtu.be/aZ02DvXHa6k

The most common decorations on padlocks was animals from the Chinese Zodiac , such as tiger, dragon, deer, sheep, ox, etc. In Western Zhou dynasty, dragon symbol for the mens locks and phoenix for women locks were mostly used.

 

Filed Under: Become a Locksmith, Locksmith License, Locksmith Training Tagged With: , , ,
About Terry Whin-Yates

Terry Whin-Yates is the president and CEO of Mr. Locksmith. Terry grew up in Ontario, where his father and grandfather taught him how to pick locks. He moved to BC to get his master’s degree in Criminology. Today he lives in Vancouver and his children work in the business. Mr. Locksmith has several locksmith franchisees, all of whom are like extensions of the family business.