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Further reading

Chinese joinery books and Ming furniture reading list

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If you want to understand Ming furniture and its joinery properly, start with Wang Shixiang; for measured drawings of real pieces, read Ecke; for a comparison with Japan, read Seike. Each title links to the WorldCat library catalogue so you can find the nearest copy; the Yingzao Fashi links to its full text on Wikisource.

Chinese furniture and joinery

  • Classic Chinese Furniture: Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

    Wang Shixiang · tr. Sarah Handler; Joint Publishing 1986; Art Media Resources 1991 · ISBN 1878529021

    The standard work in English, with a chapter on joinery and line drawings of the joints. Out of print; widely held in libraries.

  • Research on Ming Furniture 明式家具研究

    Wang Shixiang · 生活·读书·新知三联书店 2008 · ISBN 9787108027269

    The Chinese original of the study above, with its glossary of terms (名词术语简释), the standard vocabulary of the subject.

  • Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture 明式家具珍赏

    Wang Shixiang · 文物出版社 2003 · ISBN 9787501015092

    A plate volume of Ming and early Qing pieces, useful for seeing where each joint is used.

  • Chinese Domestic Furniture 中国花梨家具图考

    Gustav Ecke · 1944; Charles E. Tuttle 1962 · ISBN 0804800987

    The first Western study, with measured drawings of real pieces. A Dover reprint is also available.

  • Austere Luminosity of Chinese Classical Furniture

    Sarah Handler · University of California Press 2001 · ISBN 9780520214842

    Furniture type by type, set in the life of the Ming house.

  • Friends of the House: Furniture from China’s Towns and Villages

    Nancy Berliner & Sarah Handler · Peabody Essex Museum 1996 · ISBN 9780883891346

    Vernacular furniture outside the hardwood tradition.

  • Chinese Furniture

    Craig Clunas · Victoria and Albert Museum / Bamboo Publishing, Far Eastern Series, 1988 · ISBN 9781870076067

    A short history drawn from the V&A collection.

Timber architecture

  • Yingzao Fashi 营造法式

    Li Jie · Song dynasty, 1103; public domain

    The Song government building manual; the source for timber-frame joints such as the mantis-head splice. Full text on Wikisource.

Japanese and world joinery, for comparison

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