Wooden furniture popular in China in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Choose high-quality and precious wood produced in the south, such as Huang Huali and rosewood. Raw materials include wood, iron, beech, etc. Because this kind of furniture has hard and dense wood, elegant color and beautiful texture, it is collectively called hardwood furniture. Its production history can be divided into two stages: the first stage lasted from the Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, that is, from the beginning of the 4th century to the 8th century, which was the climax of the development of ancient Chinese furniture, and it formed Ming-style furniture which was becoming more and more perfect in artistic modeling, technology and practical functions, and still had high cultural relics value; In the later period, from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the climax gradually declined. At this time, although the furniture production materials are fine, they are too pursuing complicated carving and gorgeous decoration, losing the simple and elegant artistic style of the previous stage. With the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the history of hardwood furniture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which flourished for five centuries, came to an end.

Ming-style furniture has many varieties and forms, which can be roughly divided into five categories:

① Chairs and stools. Including stools, piers, forks, benches, chairs and thrones. Among them, chairs are widely used. Chairs are generally divided into armchairs, armchairs, round-backed chairs and top chairs. More popular are all kinds of armchairs, including rose chair, official hat chair and southern official hat chair. The most comfortable is the round-backed chair, also known as the round chair in Ming Dynasty. Its back and handrails are smooth, and its lines are round and beautiful. When sitting, not only the elbow can rest, but also an arm can be supported under the armpit, which makes people feel quite comfortable. The round chair with Kirin back of Wang in Ming Dynasty is one of beautifully decorated masterpieces. As for the throne, it is the seat used by the emperor. The rosewood in the Palace Museum has a waist and a clay throne, which is the only treasure in the Ming Dynasty.

2 console table. Comprises a square table, a narrow table, a desk, a drawing table, a small wine table, a half table, small incense sticks, a short-legged kang table, a kang table and a kang table placed on the kang. Ming-style console table is still simple and simple along the tradition of furniture in Song Dynasty. There are no drawers for desks and drawers. Because it originated from the traditional two systems, namely, the big wooden beam model and the pot door model, it developed into two models: waist-free and waist-free. The former model has legs and feet falling straight to the ground, and the latter model has legs and feet to make horseshoes and support mud.

③ Bed. Including couch, arhat bed and frame bed. The pedals are combined with the bed, and the front of the bed is short and paired, and the bed is unique and slender.

(4) shelves. Including shelves, open cabinets, corner cabinets and square feet.

⑤ Furniture that does not belong to the above four categories can be classified into the fifth category, including screens, wardrobes, boxes, mirror tables, clothes hangers, washstands, etc. There are also exquisite masterpieces, such as bright yellow gorgeous clothes hangers handed down from generation to generation, among which the brand is composed of three finely carved Feng Huangwen tapestry ring plates, which are beautiful and practical.

The outstanding characteristics of Ming-style furniture are not only exquisite materials and beautiful design, but also the precision and ingenuity of tenon-mortise structure. The most commonly used mortise-and-tenon structures are: dragon and phoenix tenon for assembling thin plates, edge-saving slotted plate for assembling plates, wedge tenon for connecting curved materials, shoulder tenon for combining legs and feet with waist and teeth, and overlord tenon, chuck tenon and shoulder tenon.

Hardwood furniture in Ming and Qing dynasties attracted the attention of Chinese and foreign scholars for its simple and elegant artistic charm. For example, German Eker compiled Textual Research on China Huali Furniture, and China's Yang Yao also published the article "Interior Decoration and Furniture in China in Ming Dynasty" on 1942. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the collection, arrangement and research of Ming-style furniture handed down from generation to generation were strengthened. The publication of Wang's Appreciation of Ming-style Furniture (1985) and Research on Ming-style Furniture represents the current level of Ming-style furniture research.