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Chinese furniture has an illustrious history, one that
has fascinated and intrigued Western concepts of furniture design for centuries.
For our purpose it is only necesssary to simply note that furniture in China
has slowly made it's way up. That is to say that all the furniture until the
Song Dynasty was low to the ground as business and personal matters were conducted
on mats or low kneeling stools. The Song Dynasty period brought much innovation
to the craft of furniture making in China and slowly higher stools, chairs
with back and arm rests evolved and nobility of the period began using and
initiating it's mass production.
Kublai Khan made Peking the capital in 1279 and since then Peking has
been the ruling capital for over 500 years housing two consecutive, magnificent
dynasties: the Ming and the Qing. As emperors were responsible for the
development of the arts we can understand why the majority of fine antique
furnishings come from the city now known as Beijing, which literally mean
"Northern Capital".
The Ming and Qing dynasties are known as the Golden age even though many
of the styles we seee here were being used in the late Song era. Craftsmanship
was perfected with the introduction of commerce and with this the standard
of living improved and flourished for both city and country people. People
sudddenly wanted better furniture this in part instigated the mass production
of high quality pieces. The other reason furniture design blossomed during
this period was the openning of the doors for trade which enabled hardwood
to be imported into Peking from Indo China. The introduction of such tropical
hardwoods as Zitan and Huali made it possible to perfect ingenious joinery
techniques the Chinese became famous for.
XIA C.2200-1750 BC
SHANG C.1750-1066 BC
ZHOU C. 1066-22
QUI 221-206 BC
HAN 206 BC-220 AD
Three Kingdom Period 220-280
JIN 265-420
Northern and Southern Dynasties 420-581
SUI 581-618
TANG 618-907
Five Dynasties Period 907-960
SONG 960-1279
YUAN 1279-1368
MING 1368-1644
QING 1644-1911
REPUBLIC 1911-1949
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC 1949-today
SHUNZHI 1644-1662
KANGXI 1662-1723
YONGZHENG 1723-1736
QINGLONG 1736-1796
JIAQING 1796-1821
DAOGUANG 1821-1851
XIANFENG 1851-1862
TONGZHI 1862-1875
GUANGXU 1875-1908
XUANTONG (PUYI) 1908-1911
