The Kong Ming Lock Ball is an assembly puzzle from QiYi that takes the traditional Luban lock into a round shape. Several pieces fit together to close a compact ball that, once assembled, barely reveals where it comes apart. The challenge is to take it apart and then close it again.

• BrandQiYi
• SeriesKong Ming Lock
• TypeSpherical burr puzzle
• MaterialPlastic

What is a Luban lock?

Luban locks, also known as Kong Ming locks, are the Chinese version of burr puzzles: puzzles made of notched pieces that hold one another together without glue or screws. Tradition links them with the carpenter Lu Ban and with the strategist Zhuge Liang, known as Kongming, although there is no evidence that either of them invented them. Unlike a Rubik’s cube, nothing turns here: the pieces slide and come apart.

A shape with a history

Spherical variants are among the most prized in this family. As early as the late 19th century, the Chinese magician Tang Yunzhou described an “osmanthus ball”, made of semicircular pieces that formed a sphere, and in China wooden balls assembled in this way were made for use as fastenings or for exercising the hands.

How it works

As with the rest of the series, there are no magnets or axles: the ball holds together purely through its joints and only opens in a specific order. The curved surfaces make it harder to read how each piece rests on the others than in the straight-stick models, and that shows above all when putting it back together.