"Table" was originally written as "Zhuo"
The original meaning is "high", such as excellence, high talent, outstanding. As for how it evolved into furniture, we have to go back about a thousand years to find the answer.
Mr. Ma's "One Hundred National Treasures" introduced an ancient painting, which is a "forbidden" cultural relic, which is simply forbidden to be exhibited abroad, which is the "Han Xizai Night Feast Map" by Gu Hongzhong, a painter of the Southern Tang Court during the Five Dynasties period. It is also from this painting that we can see that the furniture at that time was no different from the later Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture.
From this, it can be seen that that era was like a watershed, five generations ago Chinese was still dominated by sitting on the ground, and in the Western Han Dynasty, due to the increasingly frequent exchanges with the Western Regions, a relatively simple seat such as a hu bed (maza) also began to appear, and people really universally realized that sitting on their feet was still a matter of five generations to after the Song Dynasty.
Five Generations Gu Hongzhong's Painting of Han Xizai's Night Feast Volume (Partial) Collection of the Palace Museum
(In the picture, Han Gong sits cross-legged, Yuanlang Cangshu sits, guests sit on their feet, and there are various sitting postures)
This is also why we will have such an idiom as "raising the eyebrows of the case", if you put aside this history, what comes to mind must be a strange woman like Gu Dajie, who can hold the case high, no wonder the husband and wife can respect each other as guests, which husband does not dare to become the "case" in his arm!
Stills from the 1998 edition of Water Margin
Gu Dajie (Zhang Xiuyan)
In fact, the earliest "case" is convenient for the ancients to share the meal system to put food in a wooden plate with short feet, because the seat is sitting on the floor, considering the hygiene and elegance, naturally can not be directly put on the mat to eat, it can be seen that the history of the case is much earlier than the table, otherwise the yamen Qingtian is the table, not the case.
Stills from the 1993 edition of "Bao Qingtian"
The appearance of the table is particularly grounded, the Northern Song Dynasty Zhang Zeduan's "Qingming On the River Map" can be seen, the wine table is also called the table, is the most similar to the case, its edge along the edge of the yang line, called "water barrier", can block the wine dishes pouring, flowing clothes. Gradually, the difference between the table and the case became more and more obvious, the position of the leg was indented into a case, and the position of the leg was against the four corners of the table.
Northern Song Dynasty Zhang Zeduan "Qingming River Map" Volume (Partial)
Collection of the Palace Museum
Late Ming Dynasty Huanghuali inlaid bamboo hexagonal brocade noodle table
Guanfu Museum Collection
After unremitting efforts, the grounded "table" finally earned face for itself, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the most important hall of the large household, the middle hall, the C position was the square table, also known as the Eight Immortals Table, and it was also said that this name should be popular in the Jiajing Dynasty where the Eight Immortals culture prevailed.
Guanfu Museum A view of the Redwood Hall in the middle hall
The eight immortal table has a simple structure and economical materials, and a piece of furniture has only three parts: legs, edges, and tooth plates. The Eight Immortals table of the Ming Dynasty was divided into two forms: corseted waist and unset waist, and the style was relatively simple and generous. In the Qing Dynasty, the waist was basically tied, the legs were also three-curved, and the tooth plate began to pay attention to carving dragons and painting phoenixes, and the workmanship became more and more detailed.
Mid-Qing Dynasty Mahogany Stone Imitation Bamboo Knotted Square Table
Guanfu Museum Collection
For example, the square table of the Guanfu Museum in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, made of red rosewood, it is not tied up, and the fun thing is that it has a cat cake on the table, or a panda cake.
There are only two colors on the giant panda, the classic black and white match, the marble embedded in this table is the same color, black and white, it is not easy to find such a clear black and white marble in nature, not to mention that the traffic is not so developed in the Qing Dynasty, it is easy to find, but also to transport it to Nanjing, Suzhou area, where the craftsmanship is exquisite, the so-called "Su Zuo" is this meaning.
The craftsman must have thought the same as I thought, this piece of marble as a giant panda, tailored for it with bamboo knot-shaped tooth plates and legs and feet, and implied the meaning of "rising higher and higher", and this sincerity did not impress the buyer. Who would have thought that the sincerity of this table touched Mr. Ma on one day, and today it touched every guest who came to observe it, beautifully telling the stories of its experiences...