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Round-backed armchair from the Ming Dynasty, well-proportioned in scale and lofty in shape.

The artisan system of the Ming Dynasty inherited the hereditary system of the Yuan Dynasty. Artisans had more personal freedom. During the non-service period, they had the freedom to be freely engaged in handicraft profession, which promoted the development of handicrafts.

The handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty achieved obvious development in both technology and art and many handicraft varieties formed their respective famous centers of production. Jingdezhen was the nationwide pottery-making center. During different periods there were different technological characteristics and various kinds of utensils, such as the Yashou Bei (a kind of cup) during the Yongle period (1403-1424), the celadon during the Xuande period (1426-1435), the colored celadon and the Ji Gang Bei (another kind of cup) during the period

Gold crown from the Ming Dynasty, 24 cm high, woven with extremely thin gold filament, having two dragons vying with each other for a pearl on the top. It is one of the masterpieces of gold and silver handicrafts of Ming Dynasty.

of Chenghua (1465-1487), the monocolored glaze during the period of Zhengde (1506-1521), and the export-oriented porcelain during the period of Jiajing (1522-1565) and Wanli (1573-1619). The technology of dyeing and weaving in the Ming Dynasty developed by leaps and

bounds, such as the silk weaving in Suzhou and Hangzhou, the cotton weaving of Songjiang, the printing and dyeing of Wuhu, and the embroidery of the Gu School in Shanghai. The metal handicraft was featured with the Xuande Lu (a batch of small copperware cast with the copper mined in southeast Asia for meeting the demands of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors as well as for lavendering clothes) and cloisonné (a kind of enamel with copper base and clipped copper wire). The development of garden buildings, the abundance of timer and the improvement of carpenter’s tools brought up the developed furniture handicraft of the Ming Dynasty, which was known for its simple and unsophisticated shape, perfect handicrafts and refined style. In the Ming Dynasty, numerous craftsmen came to the fore, such as Gong Chun and Shi Dabin killed in Zisha Tao (purple-clay pottery), Han Ximeng clever at the embroidery of the Gu School, Madame Ding skillful in cotton, Yang Xun accomplished in golden lacquer, Lu Zigang good at jade carving and the family of Zhu are talented at bamboo carving.
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Animal-mask patterned cong (long hollow piece of jade) of the Liangzhu Culture, 8.8cm high, about 6,500g in weight

Jade has been cherished by the Chinese as a symbol of man virtues. Its hardness suggests firmness and loyalty, and its luster projects purity and beauty. Typical subjects are carvings of flowers, animals, vases, and human figures.
In the Neolithic Age, when people gradually recognized colored stone similar to jade in choosing stone for making implements, they used such stone to make implements, ornaments and sacrificial offerings. The colored stone turned items can be called the embryonic form of jade artworks, which can be traced back to the Hemudu Culture in China. By the middle and late yeas of the Neolithic Age, jade-carving had been detached from stone ware making to become an independent handicraft. China is a major jade producer in the world. According to Shan Hai Jing (Book on Mountains and Seas), an ancient writing about geography, there are more than two hundred palces where jade is found, which means that the source of jade is inexhaustible in China. Hetian of Xinjiang is a well-known place of JDE ORIGIN IN China; Jiuquan of Gansu, Lantian of Shaanxi, Dushan and Mixian of Henan, and Xiuyan of Liaoning are also rich in quality jade resources.

Generally, the procedure of jade carving includes jade observation, designing, opening, piercing, cutting and polishing.

Yu the Great Curbing the Flood, a jade carving of Qing Dynasty, the world’s largest jade piece. 224cm high, 96cm wide, more than 5,000kg in weight. It is now kept in Palace Museum.

Tang Rongzuo, a collector in the late Qing Dynasty, once wrote a book entitled Of Jade in which the working procedure, methods and implements in carving jade ware are illustrated with twelve color drawings. As viewed from the perspective of craft, a jade artwork with superb workmanship excelling nature is not made by carvin, but by grinding with water using minerals such as emery, silicon, garnet, etc. that are harder than jade. Therefore the process of jade making is called jade rolling or jade grinding. While the skills in grinding jade are superb, the tools used are simple and crude. The primitive implement used is simply a revolving round disk called tuo (emery wheel), which is used to move emery which rubs, smoothes and polished jade. During he Neolithic Age and the Bronze Age when ironware was not yet been invented, tools used were largely made from wood, bamboo, animal bone compounded with sandstone. Until the modern times, Chinese people always used traditional tools in the manufacture of jade artworks such as wire saw, round disc made of steel and wrought iron, etc.
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Embroidery in China goes back to ancient times. Some four thousand years ago when China was passing from primitive society to slave society, there was as rule that the tribal leaders should wear formal attire with patterns of the sun, the moon, and stars embroidered on the upper garment; of weeds, fire, etc., on trousers (skirts) when grand ceremonies were held such as celebrations, sacrifice-offerings, etc.

In the spring and autumn and the warring states period, along with the progress of agriculture, the lifestyle that men plough the fields and women weave became more firmly fixed, mulberry-and—hemp planting and spinning-and-weaving extensively spread, and the embroidery craft grew mature gradually. To date the earliest embroidery works handed down from ancient times are the two pieces unearthed from the Chu Tombs in the Warring States Period. By applying braid embroidering method (also known as locking embroidering) that features neat stitch, flowing line, and tasteful coloring, the patterns of swimming-dragon and dancing-phoenix; fierce-tiger and auspicious-beast embroidered on silks appear natural and lifelike, which gives full expression to the achievements of embroidery art in the ancient State of Chu.

When it came to Qin and Han dynasty, the art of embroidery further developed following the progress of silk-spinning. A diversified batch of embroidered works well preserved was unearthed from the Han tombs at Mawangdui of Changsha, Hu’nan Province. These embroideries, which represent the artistic style as well as the high level of embroidery in the Han Dynasty, mostly have patterns of ripple-like clouds, soaring phoenix, galloping holy beast, ribbon-shaped flowers, geometric figures, etc., using basically locking method with neat stitching, compact composition and smooth lines.
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