Author: Wang Yuehui (PhD candidate, Institute of Arts, Communication University of China) Wang Heite (Professor, Institute of Arts, Communication University of China)
"A hundred years of life, the time that has passed, the day is half the day, and the night is half the time." The bed, as people's "night residence", is an indispensable piece of furniture in life, and its long history, rich shape, exquisite production, and rich cultural content can be called a large category of classical furniture.
Moon cave type door cover shelf bed (Ming Dynasty) Palace Museum collection
In ancient times, there was no bed, and the seat was used as a sitting device. Guxi is mostly woven with grass and leaves and birds and animal skins, which can play a role in preventing cold and keeping warm, and there is a saying of "Shennong as a banquet". During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the post of Chunguan Zongbo was in charge of the state ceremony, and there were special supervisors responsible for the materials and grades of the mats. The story of "Zeng Zi Changing Seats" tells that when Zeng Zi was critically ill, he found that the mat he laid was a bamboo mat that could only be used by princes and nobles, so he "lifted it and changed it" and kept the ceremony. It can be seen that at the beginning of its birth, the bed only had a practical function, but with the development and evolution of society, cultural significance gradually entered it.
In 1957, Changtaiguan, Xinyang, Henan Province, unearthed the Warring States lacquer painted fence wooden bed, which is the earliest and most complete preserved physical bed in the mainland. The bed is black lacquered throughout, decorated with red square moire. The bed frame has two horizontal and one vertical, with a bamboo drawer on the top, a bamboo pillow on the drawer, and an opening on the side to facilitate getting in and out of bed, which is basically the same shape as the wooden bed in later generations.
Qiu Wenbo "Wen Hui Tu" (Five Dynasties) Taipei National Palace Museum collection
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the high-type seat "Hu bed" was introduced to the mainland. Later generations have this description: "The handover bed is the style of the ancient Hu bed, and those who have silver and silver studs on both feet, carry them with mountain tours, or use them in boats, which is the most convenient." The "bed" mentioned here is actually a seat. This foldable, lightweight seat, without backrests and armrests, was similar to the maza we use today. It is precisely under the influence of such high-type seating that Tang Dynasty furniture has a parallel situation of high and low. The concept of "bed" also became vague and broad during this period. Any person who has support under the board, can carry objects on the board or provide people to sit and lie down can be called "bed". Some scholars have verified that the "bed" in Li Bai's poem "bright moonlight in front of the bed" refers to the sitting "Hu bed".
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, Chinese classical furniture basically completed the transition from low type to high type, and various furniture concepts were initially finalized. Bed types such as bib beds, arhat beds, and shelf beds are reflected in many Song paintings, and their model is the "broken grain small lacquer bed". In the Ming Dynasty, Wen Zhenheng's "Records of Long Things" once said: "The bed is the first bed with the Song and Yuan broken lines of small lacquer, and the second is the single sleeping bed made by the inner house." The so-called "broken grain" is a peculiar visual aesthetic effect formed by the evolution of wooden furniture with the evolution of lacquer. The lacquer process is an important handicraft in ancient China, and the utensils made by this process have the characteristics of acid resistance, alkali resistance and corrosion resistance, and can still be used for thousands of years. In beds made of lacquer, the fetal bones and lacquer layers continue to stretch and shrink with age, eventually forming different degrees of fractures. Huang Cheng of the Ming Dynasty described in his "Zhulu Shanggu": "Broken lines, the more lacquerware has been broken over the years, is made by artificially in the heavenly workers." ”
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the development of classical Chinese furniture became increasingly mature, and the decoration process of the bed changed from simple to complex, and the "pull-out bed", the largest bed in traditional furniture, appeared. The pull-out bed has a dust-bearing bed, a base underneath, and a gallery in front of the bed, similar to a log cabin. The space on both sides of the gallery can be equipped with small utensils such as stools, clean buckets, and dressing mirrors according to the needs of the owner, which is convenient for use before and after bedtime. The bed board is surrounded by a screen with various colored panes carved to let in light and to hang clothes. While enhancing the privacy of the bed, it also increases the aesthetic layering of the bed. This layout, which resembles the front hall and the back bedroom, and the house within the house, reflects the creation principle of the Chinese people who are subtle and restrained and make the best use of things. In addition, pull-out beds are divided into two to multiple advances, and the more weights, the higher the user level. It reflects people's respect and protection of personal private space and is an important symbol of civilization progress. The pulling bed is generally built on the wooden plank, which is raised layer by layer like a staircase, which can not only play a role in heat and moisture insulation, but also a symbol of the user's status. Because this kind of bed is huge and complicated in technology, it takes thousands of days for workers to complete, so it is also called "thousand-worker pull-out bed".
The structure is relatively simple than the pull-out bed for the shelf bed. The Palace Museum has a "cave-type door cover shelf bed", which is a very typical marriage bed. The most obvious external feature of the bed is the slightly rounded oval moon door. The reason why it is elliptical instead of a round is that considering that people's visual experience has the "auto-complement" characteristic, making a perfect circle will make it look sharp and cramped, and it is not beautiful enough. At the same time, the shape of the oval can also make the carvings on the shelves on both sides correspond appropriately with the simplicity and void of the moon cave, reflecting the harmonious beauty advocated by the ancients. The full moon shape represents a happy reunion in traditional Chinese culture, and holds people's good wishes for a happy and successful newlywed life. In addition to its unique shape, the four clusters of moire hoods on the bed are decorated with the most difficult bucket process found in classical furniture. This process uses the middle cloud bucket to make a single piece of wood to avoid the jagged feeling caused by the splicing of four pieces of wood, and at the same time connects the cross between the buckets with a tenon and tenon structure, which is stable and beautiful. The four clusters of cloud patterns are modeled on the shape of Ruyi head, crisscrossing each other, with the auspicious meaning of "four ruyi". The decoration plate on the lower part of the door fence is decorated with large and small dragon and phoenix reliefs, with curly grass patterns, ruyi patterns, cloud patterns, etc., taking the meaning of "dragon godson, dragon and phoenix chengxiang". The relief pattern of the girdle part is divided into five parts by bamboo dwarf and elder, which are five groups of pictures: "Magpie Shou Peach Diagram", "Mandarin Duck Lotus Leaf Diagram", "Luan Feng Ru Intention", "Magpie Denmei Diagram" and "Magpie Pomegranate Diagram". This is the traditional theme used by the ancients when they got married, and it contains the beautiful hope of the newlywed's love and melons. In the Kunning Palace of the Palace Museum, another marriage bed was preserved, which was used by the Qing Dynasty emperors for their weddings. The flower cover is carved with spiraling vines and gourds, and the bed is hung with a hundred child chart tent curtain, which also expresses the aesthetic meaning of many children and many blessings, and heaven and earth eternal spring.
Most of the ancient beds that exist today are carved beds from the Ming, Qing and Republican periods. The carved content ranges from landscapes, plants and trees, to birds, beasts, fish and insects, to dragons, phoenixes, unicorns and other exotic beasts, like a vivid and informative folk culture treasure. Li Yu wrote in "Idle Love": "Where you are in a daytime, there is no place for a hall or a house, or a boat or a car, but at night, there is only a bed." It is the bed, and it is my half of the body, and it is better than the knotted chaff that is better than the latter. The treatment of man is the thickest of all. This statement tells the reason why people spared no effort and did their best to carve in the process of carving ancient beds. Just because the bed, as the birthplace and companion place of people, is the most intimate and indispensable furniture object with people.
If the "bed" is an important bedding for people to sleep at night, then the "bed" has become an important tool for people's daytime activities because of its small size, narrow and long, and easy to move. In the Shi Ming: "Long and narrow and lowly bed, it is said to be a nest, but it is also close to the ground." ”
The tatami has a wide variety of shapes. There is a slender and delicate "chaise longue", one end of which is upturned for women to lean on for a nap. In "Dream of Red Mansions", there is a noble concubine's bed in the "Xiaoxiang Pavilion" where Daiyu lives, which is placed next to the window and has a piano case next to it. There is also a slightly larger body, with a girdle and a three-sided back behind it, also known as the "Maitreya Bed", if "put in the Buddhist hall and study fast, you can practice meditation and talk about Xuanqiao". There is also a utensil between the bed and the tatami, called "Luohan Tao", which has a screen on three sides, and is slightly higher in the middle, which has the function of sitting and sleeping. In "Han Xizai's Night Banquet Map", the protagonist sits on a bed with a screen on three sides to meet guests, which is the predecessor of Luo Han Tao. With the advancement of production technology, five-screen style, seven-screen style and other styles have also appeared in later generations. Compared with the other two small beds, the Luohan bed can be used for banqueting guests in the hall and placed in the bedroom for lunch naps. If divided by material, there are yellow flower pear bed, small leaf sandalwood bed, golden silk nest, red acid branch bed, beech wood bed and so on.
Shiren and Tatari have been closely related since ancient times. The Book of the Later Han records that Chen Bo of the Eastern Han Dynasty was too punctual in Yuzhang, and specially set up a bed for the local famous scholar Xu Xiaozi, and when he went, he was hanging, and Wang Bo of the Tang Dynasty also had the elegant sentence "Renji Diling, Xu Xiao under Chen Bo's bed" in his "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng". Wen Zhenheng said in the "Chronicle of Long Things": "The ancients made several beds, although the length, short, wide and narrow were uneven, and when placed in the fasting room, they must be quaint and lovely, and they should sit and lie down, and there is no inconvenience. Yan Yin has no time, to exhibit the history of the scriptures, read calligraphy and painting, Chen Dingyi, Luo Yunu, Shi Pillow, why not Shi. "A rectangular "tatoden" can be placed in front of the tatami for placing shoes. You can also add a backrest and a hidden sac filled with cotton and various spices. In the forest spring and under the bamboo window, there is a place to live.
On the bed, you can not only enjoy books, enjoy paintings, drink and sleep alone, but also enjoy tatami meetings or games around the bed. The four Gaoshi Yaji in the Five Dynasties Qiu Wenban's "Wen Hui Tu" rely on are exactly a Tang style ancient bed. This bed is composed of three parts: panel, leg and clay, there is no screen back around the bed, and the foot curl teeth are in the shape of a lotus, which are placed on the wooden frame of the clay. Another fifth-generation painter Zhou Wenzhu's "Heavy Screen Chess Diagram" depicts Li Jing, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and his younger brothers playing against each other in front of the screen. In the painting, four people play against each other on a chess bed, with a two-eared pitcher placed on the seat behind them, and a small table and a box cage placed on a long sofa on the side. In the screen behind him, another su is painted, and the white-haired old man in the painting "in front of the pillow arm stove" is believed to be the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi. The old man's sense of leisure while leaning on the bed may be the inner projection of the middle lord Li Jing. In 1972, a set of Eastern Han green-glazed pottery figurines were unearthed in Henan Province, with two terracotta figurines sitting on the bed, a rectangular sheep plate in the middle of the bed, and a square game in the center. This is an important physical reference for tatami as a gaming seat.
"Guding burns incense, plain gluten waves, meaning little tired, temporarily rest the bamboo bed." Although the tatami is small, the monks can use it to practice meditation, the literati can use it to join the night talk, and the king can use it to add a dashing attitude. In the Tang Dynasty painter Yan Liben's "Picture of Emperors of the Past Dynasties", Sima Yan, the emperor of Jinwu, and Chen Qian, the emperor of Chen Wen, were arranged on the bed, their hands were clinging to their will, and they looked ahead. In Tang Dynasty painter Zhang Xuan's "Minghuang Chorus Map", Tang Minghuang lies on his back on the bed, holding a pipe in his hand, and his demeanor is relaxed. It can be seen that busy as a king, you can also soothe your soul on the small bed and temporarily leave the world.
Bed and bed, life and companionship, inseparable. The carved bed embroidered with brocade carries the rich folk culture and is a concentrated display of the owner's identity, character traits and even life aspirations. The small tatami with an antique shape more reflects the pursuit and perception of the literati Coats's life feelings, and conveys to us a quiet and far-reaching life aesthetics. The ancient Chinese bed is not only a resting place for people's busy life, but also an exhibition hall for national culture and aesthetic fashion.
Guang Ming Daily (November 30, 2022, version 16)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily