Furniture is both a daily necessity and a handicraft. Lacquerware wooden beds appeared early in the Warring States Period. They were very low with handrails on all sides. Furniture was popularized in the Song Dynasty, but the most refined and beautiful of ancient Chinese furniture was made in the Ming Dynasty. The craftsmen took from Song Dynasty furniture traditions and formed the Ming Dynasty style of furniture with its own characteristics.
An important feature of Ming Dynasty furniture is that the items are beautifully shaped. The furniture is light and simple and conveys a sense of stability. The size and proportion of the different parts adhere to aesthetic principles but take practical use into consideration. The decorations are mainly engraved lines and small areas of circular carving and through carving. There may, however, also be wood, ivory and diamond inlays in the design of landscapes, flowers and birds or small bronze and silver ornamentation. The refined ornamentation in small areas form a strong contrast with the furniture's verall clean and simple appearance. The line of the edges of the piece is shaped in different lengths and widths depending on the grain of the timber to create a true and harmonious effect, so that the piece looks natural and balanced.
Most of the Ming Dynasty furniture was made of rare fine timbers, such as red sandalwood, pear wood and blackwood. Sometimes, nanmu, elm and walnut were used. Woods from southern China are hard with fine grains, and their colors are usually very deep. All these qualities made them ideal materials for furniture making. The Ming Dynasty style furniture has a natural beauty, looking durable, smooth, plain and clean.
Ming Dynasty furniture was made with consummate skill. It combined round and square, wide and narrow, thick and thin patterns and lines for contrast and thus formed the unique structure of Ming Dynasty furniture. All parts of the furniture were pieced together with no visible joins. The outline is natural and fluid. The surface was polished with wax to make it look bright, smooth and clean and to reveal its natural beauty.
Ming Dynasty furniture comes in many forms. The main ones are chairs, stools, desks, beds, cupboards and screens.
Pieces of this style of furniture have been handed on as beautiful handicrafts because of their beautiful shapes and exquisite technical craftsmanship. Furniture connoisseurs and collectors have summarized 16 characteristics and eight taboos of Ming Dynasty furniture making, which accurately describe their features. The 16 characteristics include simple, natural, bold, dignified, elegant, transpose and clean and the taboos include complicated, fat and disordered.
Chinese furniture has an old tradition and long history. Ming Dynasty furniture represents the typical style of Chinese furniture because of its beautiful shapes, good materials and refined skills, and it enjoys great fame in the world.
