Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture

Sarah Handler

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2001
• eBook ISBN: 9780520921351
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Arte
• Subtopic: Arte asiatica

Chinese classical furniture is esteemed throughout the world for its beauty, functionalism, and influence on contemporary design aesthetics. Sarah Handler's stunningly illustrated volume traces Chinese hardwood furniture from its earliest origins in the Shang dynasty (c. 1500 to c. 1050 B.C.) to the present. She offers a fascinating and poetic view of Chinese furniture as functional sculpture, a fine art alongside the other Chinese arts of calligraphy, architecture, painting, and literature. Handler, a widely respected scholar of Chinese furniture, uses her knowledge of Chinese social, political, and economic history to provide a backdrop for understanding the many nuances of this art form. Drawing on literary and visual evidence from excavated materials, written texts, paintings, prints, and engravings, she discusses how people lived, their notions of hierarchy, and their perceptions of space. Her descriptions of historical developments, such as the shift from mats to chairs, evoke the psychological and sociological ramifications. The invention of a distinctive way to support and contain people and things within the household is one of China's singular contributions, says Handler. With more than three hundred exquisite illustrations, many in color, Handler's comprehensive study reveals "the magical totality of Chinese classical furniture, from its rich surfaces and shrewd proportions down to the austere soul of art that resides in the hardwood interiors." Austere Luminosity recognizes Chinese classical furniture as one of China's premier arts, unique in the furniture traditions of the world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• CONTENTS
• Acknowledgments
• Chronology of Dynasties
• Introduction
• 1 Rising from Mat to Chair: A Revolution in Chinese Furniture
• 2 A Ming Meditation Chair in Bauhaus Light
• 3 George Kates Discovering Chinese Furniture during the Years That Were Fat
• 4 A Yokeback Chair for Sitting Tall
• 5 The Folding Armchair: An Elegant Vagabond
• 6 The Lowback Armchair with Carvings of Bamboo, Magic Fungi, or the Three Friends of Winter
• 7 A Ubiquitous Stool
• 8 Life on a Platform
• 9 A Couchbed Day and Night for Comfort and Joy
• 10 The Canopy Bed: A Little World Made Cunningly
• 11 On a New World Arose a Kang Table
• 12 A Square Table Where the Immortals Dine
• 13 A Clean Table by a Bright Window
• 14 The Side Table: A Surface for Treasures and Gods
• 15 Cabinets and Shelves Containing All Things in China
• 16 The Screen: A Movable Wall to Divide, Enhance, and Beautify
• 17 The Incense Stand and a Scholar’s Mystical State
• 18 Lamp Stands and Lanterns: Carriers of Light
• 19 Perfumed Coals in Precious Braziers Burn
• 20 Washbasin Stands for Ablutions and Washing Clean
• Notes
• Works Cited