Main materials used in Ming dynasty court furniture

  What are the main materials used for palace furniture in the Ming Dynasty? Are they the legendary Huanghuali and Zitan, or what? Who is the "imperial wood" and who is the tribute wood? What about the "Yingpingmu" that is recorded to be widely used in historical documents?

  It all started with the Wanli Emperor's grand construction of a dragon bed. The Ming dynasty's Wanli Emperor, Zhu Yijun, who ascended to the throne at the age of 10, was a ruler who knew how to enjoy himself. His father, the Longqing Emperor, and his regent, Zhang Juzheng, left him with a substantial inheritance. After coming of age, he spared no expense in crafting objects for his amusement.

  According to the Ming dynasty's archival documents "Gongbu Changku Xushi" (compiled by He Shijin), in the 12th year of Wanli (1584), an imperial decree was issued: "To manufacture one dragon phoenix bed, one 'yizhang' bed, four pillar canopy beds, and four backrest beds, each with ten pieces. All materials needed, except for 1,300 pieces of Huanghuali wood, were purchased at a cost of 31,926 taels of silver, while the labor costs for the craftsmen totaled 675 taels and five mace."

  What is this huge "Ying Ping Mu" wood? The mystery has been unsolved for a long time. It turns out that the key lies in the reading of ancient texts, and "Ying Ping Mu" should be read as "Ying, Ping Mu", which is short for "Ying Jia, Ping Tou Shan Mu". Shanmu, since the Qing Dynasty, has been called "Sha Mu" in Beijing dialect, a softwood species that was looked down upon. Who would have thought it was the main material used in Ming dynasty palace furniture?

  Cunninghamia is an evergreen tree that can grow to over 30 meters tall, and is produced in the Yangtze River basin and southern regions. During the Ming dynasty, for ease of storage and transportation, it was generally divided into two sections: the part from the root to the middle section was called "Pingtou Cunninghamia", which had roughly equal thickness at both ends and could be used as beams and pillars; the part from the middle section to the top was called "Yingjia Cunninghamia", which was thinner at the top and could be used for scaffolding (anciently known as "Yingjia"). Therefore, for the same grade of Cunninghamia logs, the latter's circumference is slightly smaller than the former, and the price is also lower. For example, a first-grade Pingtou Cunninghamia log was 3 zhang 7 chi long, with a circumference of 3 chi, valued at 3 taels 9 mace 5 fen; a first-grade Yingjia Cunninghamia log was 3 zhang long, with a circumference of 2 chi 1 cun 5 fen, valued at 1 tael 2 mace, and so on.

  Cunninghamia lanceolata was divided into varieties such as oil Cunninghamia and soil Cunninghamia in the Ming Dynasty. The wood is light yellow or white, with fine texture, straight grain, fragrant, resistant to decay and insect damage, easy to process, and is a good softwood material. It has the characteristics of low density, strong gray attachment, low shrinkage rate, and not easy to crack. It is especially suitable for making the base of lacquerware furniture with a gray bottom (hereinafter referred to as "lacquer furniture"). Both Cunninghamia lanceolata and Phoebe nanmu are the main varieties of "imperial wood" in the Ming Dynasty, but in terms of the proportion of materials used in palace furniture, Cunninghamia lanceolata is the first. These 1,300 pieces of flat-top wood were specially allocated, and the usual material for palace furniture was mainly Cunninghamia lanceolata boards, which were transported from the south through the Grand Canal and were purchased and transported to Beijing by the Ministry of Works in Nanjing.

  In the morning, Tongzhou Yunhe Wharf was built with a imperial wood factory as a warehouse. According to the "Da Ming Hui Dian" revised by Shen Shixing during the Wanli period: "The Imperial Workshop of the Ministry of Rites produces wooden cabinets and other items made of nanmu wood boards every year, twice a year, with 600 pieces each time, following the example of the Imperial Workshop." This record is corroborated in the "Gongbu Changku Xuzhi" compiled during the late Wanli period: "The Imperial Workshop of the Ministry of Rites produces... 600 nanmu wood boards every year, which are still transported to this day." Every year, the Ministry of Rites of the Ming dynasty would send officials to the Gongbu Factory in Nanjing to extract nanmu wood boards, which were then transported twice a year. The transportation cost alone was as high as 450 taels of silver, making it very expensive. "Every transport of 600 pieces" means that even if we conservatively estimate that 600 pieces are transported every year, the two workshops of the Imperial Workshop and the Ministry of Rites would have transported over 1,200 nanmu wood boards, which became the main material for making furniture for imperial use.

  In the morning, Tongzhou Yunhe Wharf was built with a imperial wood factory as a warehouse. According to the "Da Ming Hui Dian" revised by Shen Shixing during the Wanli period: "The Imperial Workshop of the Ministry of Rites makes bookcases and other items with Nanmu boards every year, twice a year, transporting 600 pieces at a time, following the example of the Imperial Workshop." This record is corroborated in the "Gongbu Changku Xuzhi" compiled during the late Wanli period: "The Imperial Workshop of the Ministry of Rites... transports 600 Nanmu boards every year, which has continued to this day." Every year, the Ministry of Rites of the Ming dynasty would send officials to the Gongbu Factory in Nanjing to extract Nanmu boards, transporting them twice a year. The boards were shipped from Nanjing to Zhangjiawan in Tongzhou and then transported by cart to the workshop, with transportation costs alone requiring 450 taels of silver, making it very expensive. "Every transport of 600 pieces" means that even if we conservatively estimate that 600 pieces are transported every year, the two workshops of the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Workshop together transport over 1,200 Nanmu boards, which became the main material for making furniture for imperial use.

  Apart from the quantity of Nanmu wood, the amount of silver used for making lacquerware by the Imperial Household Department and the Ministry of Rites every year is also staggering. According to the "Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty", it is recorded: "The Imperial Household Department makes dragon and phoenix bed frames and top racks every year, using about 2,825 taels of silver for lacquer"; "Carved and inlaid lacquer dragon beds, top racks, etc., from the first year of the Longqing reign, were approved to use the tenth year of Jiajing as a standard, using about 4,011 taels and 9 cents of silver per year"; "The Ministry of Rites makes dragon beds and other items every three years, using about 13,331 taels of silver".

  For a long time, some academic books have been telling readers that the Ming dynasty palace furniture was mostly made of hardwood, which is actually incorrect. The Ming dynasty palace generally did not purchase hardwood from merchants, and the main source was designated to Guangdong Province to pay tribute every year, with very few tribute woods. According to the "Gongbu Factory Warehouse Must-know" during the Wanli period, the annual tribute quota was: "Guangdong Governor's Office should deliver... ten segments of huamu wood, ten segments of purple yew wood (purple yew is another name for purple sandalwood)... to the Imperial Workshop for collection." According to the "Zhongzhong Record" written by the late Ming eunuch Liu Ruoyu, the skilled Buddhist craftsmen in the Imperial Workshop were responsible for making hardwood objects. From the analysis of the amount of hardwood tributes to the palace, it can be seen that the production was mainly focused on small "playthings", with a small number of furniture pieces, and the artistic style emphasized fine carvings. The types of wood taken by the Neiguan Supervisor's Office, which was responsible for repairing palace furniture, can also prove the author's argument. According to the "Da Ming Huidian", "Neiguan Supervisor's Office repairs annual and monthly utensils, every year once, 120 roots of Chinese fir, 80 roots of elm, 20 roots of miscellaneous wood, 80 pieces of Chinese fir boards, and 40 roots of cypress".

  In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated a strict hierarchy system for clothing, architecture, and utensils, with the imperial family and court monopolizing the highest level of lacquerware decoration in full red. As an ancestral tradition, the palace of the Ming Dynasty has always used lacquerware furniture as its mainstay, and did not encourage local people to make furniture from hardwood. According to the "Ming Shenzong Shi Lu", in 1615, after the Ming court put down the Li ethnic minority uprising on Hainan Island, Emperor Wanli decreed that Zhang Minggang, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, should erect a plaque to clearly indicate that local officials were strictly forbidden from recklessly exploiting the natural resources of the Li region, including deer hides, green peacock feathers, agarwood, and nanmu wood. The Russian envoy Nikolai's book "Notes on China" written during his visit to China in the early Qing Dynasty did not include these local specialties in its report on Hainan Island (which was still under the control of the Southern Ming forces at that time), which can also prove the effectiveness of the ban.

  There were many institutions involved in the production of court lacquerware furniture, including the Imperial Household Department (located on the west side of the Forbidden City's Nan Chang Street, next to Yu Fang Temple), the Ministry of Rites' Imperial Workshop (also known as the Imperial Workshop, located on the east side of the Forbidden City's South Pool, southeast of Huang Shi Pavilion), the Inner Court's Varnish Workshop (located on the west side of Da Jie Street in Di'anmen Nei, next to the Oil Painters' Alley, now known as Gong Jian Hutong), and the Ministry of Works (located at 11 Beiyueya Hutong, east side of Da Jie Street in Di'anmen Nei, now Cihui Temple). In addition, there were also institutions that produced both court banquet furniture and other items, such as Guanglu Temple (located at 11 Zhideliang Alley, north side of Donghua Gate Street, now the Twenty-Seventh Middle School), and Guoyuan Factory (located next to Xianyin Mirror Hutong's Xiabailou Workshop, north side of Xianmen Street, under the jurisdiction of Gongbu Yingxiu Department). The scale was truly massive, with a complete range of crafts.

  Due to the consistent advocacy of the Ming dynasty imperial family, the literary and scholarly class also attached great importance to lacquerware furniture. Typical examples include the inventory of confiscated and sold property from Yan Song's mansion in "Tian Shui Bing Shan Lu" and many descriptions of furniture in "Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua", which will not be elaborated here.

  The above historical records and physical materials show that until the late Ming Dynasty, the vast majority of palace furniture were lacquerware with Nanmu wood as the base material. However, previous studies on Ming Dynasty palace furniture have barely mentioned Nanmu wood, which is a significant omission.