Furniture of the late Ming dynasty

Magazine Antiques, August, 1996 by Nancy Berliner

Thanks to recent research, archaeological discoveries, the close reading of literary works, and increased collecting, it has become clear that fine Chinese furniture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was produced in as wide a variety of styles, both simple and elaborate, as Ming painting and ceramics. The Zhe school of painting, for example, catered to the imperial taste for realism, color, and fine line, and was practiced by professional artists. The Wu school of painting was based on expressive, calligraphic brush strokes. It was practiced by scholar-officials who did not earn their living painting the monochromatic landscapes typical of the school. While the two styles were very distinct, recent scholarship has shown that some scholars painted in the academic Zhe style and some professionals painted in the more expressionistic Wu style.

Late Ming ceramics included the splendid monochromatic Ge ware, a crackled celadon ware that evoked both earlier Song wares and the simple, elegantly shaped stoneware teapots from Yixing. This was also the era of dazzling blue-and-white ceramics as well as polychromatic examples with vivid designs of dragons and flowers.

The simultaneous existence of many styles in Chinese art, which has been more the rule than the exception, can be attributed to two powerful groups of patrons - those within the imperial circle and those scholars who became officials. Imperial fashion was intended to produce an atmosphere of awe, wealth, and power. By contrast, many scholars preferred the restrained appearances that bespoke a humbler attitude.

Economic changes in China during the sixteenth century also encouraged diversity of taste, as government monopolies were reduced and more imports were permitted. This gave rise to the emergence of a group of merchants from the mountainous region of Huizhou, many of whom maintained residences in the important cultural centers of Suzhou and Yangzhou, near the shipping mutes along the Grand Canal and the Yangzi River. In their desire to be accepted, these nouveau-riche merchants mingled with scholars and officials, imitating the scholarly way of life and surrounding themselves with objects meant to reflect erudition.

A commentary of 1593 attests to the growing popularity of fine hardwood furniture among the elite and the aspiring in the Suzhou region:

When I was young I never saw any fine-quality hardwood furniture such as desks and large chairs. The people only had square tables in gold-coloured transparent lacquer or in gingko wood....During the Longqing [1567-1572] and Wanli periods even lower officials began to use fine-quality hardwood furniture. Cabinet-makers from Huizhou opened shops in Yunjian, making wedding furniture and other objects. The wealthy people would not use ju wood, and had their beds, cabinets and tables made from huali, burl wood, ebony, jichi wood, and boxwood. It became fashionable to spend thousands of taels on a single piece.(1)

The tables shown in Plates II and III display the exquisite extremes to which late Ming artisans carried their very distinctive styles for patrons of divergent tastes. Both are finely crafted from huanghuali wood (known simply as huali in the Ming period), which is a dense, beautifully grained wood imported from southeast Asia and Hainan Island, China. The rectangular table in Plate II is a form known in Chinese as banzhuo (half table). It has round legs, dragon-shaped spandrels, a meticulously carved apron, and along its top edge, an applied carved molding that in its undulations imitates the edge of a lotus leaf (see Pl. IIa). The molding is so carefully finished that there are no signs of tool marks. It is attached to the apron with small bamboo pegs. Between the dragon spandrels an additional brace carved to look like the immortalizing lingzhi fungus extends from the back of each leg to the underside of the table top. And at each of its comers vestigial cabriole legs extend downward.

The complex shapes and decorative motifs of the side table contrast with the plain profile of the hua'an (painting table) shown in Plate III. Tables of this simple design were made of all types of wood, soft and hard, for a variety of purposes and patrons. However, several subtle aspects of this table announce the status of its owner, not the least of which is its large size. The massive legs, oval in section, required great amounts of expensive huanghuali. Moreover, the top is largely made of precious hurl wood in a frame of huanghuali. The gnarled and organic appearance of burl wood was greatly appreciated by scholars, who favored intimacy with nature.

A somewhat smaller huanghuali table similar to the one in Plate III was owned by a certain Chong An, who lived in Suzhou during the Wanli era.(2) He was so moved by his table that he signed it and wrote, "The materials are beautiful and solid, the craftsmanship is plain and lovely. If it is only for leaning on, it will allow me leisure for one hundred years." He had this sentiment carved into a leg of the table, using the ancient seal script called zhuan.