When it comes to traditional Chinese furniture, the most well-known and proud feature is that it is all connected by a mortise and tenon structure, and there is no nail used on the whole body!
Tianyuan local circle chair Bao Tianwei Treasure Treasury Ingenuity Collection
But, is that really the case?
Cheng Dachang, the Shangshu of the Southern Song Dynasty, once mentioned in his book "Yan Fanlu" a kind of furniture called "handing over the bed", which said: "The bed is enough for the noon of the wooden bed... At noon, the foot is re-worn in a circle, and the iron is penetrated, and the one that can be held hostage can be put away, and the one that can be put away can be sat. ”
"Repeat the circle through, through the iron", which means to chisel a round hole and then put the iron into it.
If I'm not mistaken, isn't this the legendary nail?!
The Southern Song Dynasty, which needs to use iron nails, is the famous chair in what we now call the "first chair".
Huanghuali straight back carved eagle stone figure chair late Ming and early Qing Dynasty 2012 China Guardian lot
As for the chair as a typical representative of traditional Chinese furniture, why the betrayal organization secretly used iron nails, everyone will understand after reading the following tragic story.
In 1996, at sotheby's auction in New York, an elderly man auctioned a Chinese huanghuali chair for more than $500,000 and later donated it (also said to have sold) to the Minneapolis Museum in the United States.
According to reports, this chair was born during the Ming Dynasty's Wanli Calendar, and the one donated by Mr. Wang Shixiang in the Shanghai Museum today is a pair.
Rosewood round back-turn chair Ming Shanghai Museum collection
To get such a precious chair, of course, it is necessary to exhibit it to the outside world. The Minneapolis Museum not only exhibited, but also generously stated that everyone who visited it was allowed to try it out.
The story then goes beyond the museum's control: a viewer weighing more than 300 pounds sits on this $500,000 chair! collapse! finish!
Although professional restorers restored the shattered chair to its original shape, the museum has since dared not let people try it out.
Chair fragments vs. handover chairs after being repaired
This story tells us that Chinese furniture (especially hardwood furniture) is not afraid of 300 pounds of fat people, except for the handover of chairs.
The chair can be said to be the least strong and most easily damaged in Chinese furniture, not to mention the kind that has a history of four or five hundred years during the Wanli calendar, even if it is new, it is possible to throw people on their backs and face the sky.
The Southern Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli recorded in the book the story of Su Dongpo sitting on a collapsed chair:
After the tricks were erected on the eastern slope, the person who relied on the east slope hu bed laughed and fell, and the hu bed was folded, and the east slope fell to the ground. ——Southern Song Dynasty, Yang Wanli, "Poetry of Chengzhai"
Why is the chair so fragile?
The reason is on this "jiao" word: most of the Chinese chairs are four-legged landing, bearing weight on the four legs and feet; while the cross chair is different, its stress center is at the intersection of the front and back two chair feet.
This place was punched in a hole, destroying the structural texture of the wood itself, so it was very easy to damage.
This is also why people almost do not use small leaf rosewood to make chairs, small leaf rosewood hardness is high, but the flexibility is not as good as red rosewood, yellow pear and other wood, after being pierced and then load-bearing more easily cracked.
Knowing that there is such a big hidden danger, why do we still insist on such a structure for hundreds of years without wavering?
That's because the primary consideration of the chair is not to be durable, but to be lightweight and portable. Because, the furniture of the chair was not originally used in the hall.
The chair originated from the Hu bed (also called crossbar) used by the northern nomads during the Han Dynasty, and its shape was very similar to today's maza - the seat was woven from soft rope, the legs and feet were crossed to form a folding structure, and the soft rope was tightened after the legs and feet were unfolded, and the legs and feet were defined to form a seat.
This foldable seat is very convenient for nomadic people to carry with them when grazing.
Huanghuali crossed the Ming Dynasty Collection of the Palace Museum
Northern Qi School Book Map Northern Qi Yang Zihua Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
After the Hu bed was introduced to the Central Plains, it was added by the craftsmen with a backrest and armrest, and it became a cross chair.
Of course, there are also chairs without armrests, and the backrests are also straight and round. But either way, the two core features of the legs and feet are crossed and fixed, and the seat is woven from soft rope.
"Tongyin Qingmeng Tu" Ming Tang Yin Collection of the Palace Museum
The chair first appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty, which was also called "walking chair" at that time. It can be seen that although it is more comfortable to sit up than the bed, the use of the scene has not changed, and it is still used when going out.
"Spring Tour Late Return" Song Anon. Collection of the Palace Museum
This requires that the chair be folded, and the weight should not be too heavy, and when the Song Dynasty Tao Gu's "Qing YiLu" mentioned the chair, the words "heavy is not counted".
To this end, compared with other chairs, the materials used in the cross chair are streamlined, the structure is lightweight, and the multi-bending and turning bearing are made.
The tomb of Zhu Tan, the king of Minglu, was excavated from the zhu lacquered wooden round back to the chair and foot pedal
Such a chair, but also frequent folding and handling, coupled with the existence of structural "defects", even the tightest mortise can not guarantee its load-bearing safety needs.
In order to protect the fragile chair and make it more durable, people can only add some more metal components to it, in technical terms, called copper work.
The chair is one of the furniture with the largest proportion of copper in traditional Chinese furniture, and the most important thing is to run through the front and back feet to ensure that the chair can be opened and closed normally, folding the shaft nails.
Round copper eyeliner is also padded at both ends of the shaft nails to prevent wear and tear on the nails and furniture surfaces.
Rosewood has shaft nails and eyeliner on the crossroads of the tread bed Ming Shanghai Museum collection
In addition to the shaft nails, the bent parts of the legs and feet, the legs and feet and the chair circle are usually connected by metal rods to play a supporting role.
Finally, the parts connected by mortise and mortise, such as the seat ring, the leg foot and the seat ring joint, etc., are also reinforced with copper blades or other metal objects.
These copper works as a reinforcement and also has a unique decorative effect.
However, even with so many layers of protection, the chair is still not as stable as other chairs. Therefore, people who really know how to do it will definitely focus on protecting it.
For example, the chair in front of it that was unfortunately collapsed was the former owner of Chen Mengjia, a famous archaeologist in China and the first person in the collection of ancient furniture.
According to Mr. Wang Shixiang's recollection, Chen Mengjia would "stop the red head rope before handing over the chair, and no touch, let alone sit."