中国明清家具英语词汇

Chinese antique furniture glossary（术语表；：难懂或专门性的词汇表，具有解释，） - A

矮老: Pillar-shaped strut.

矮面盆架: Washbasin stand.

矮桌展腿式: Low table with extended legs. Low waisted table which is transformed into a high table

by adding round extensions to the square legs.

案: Recessed-leg table.

暗抽屉: Hidden drawers, opened by raising from underneath

rather than with a pull.

凹面: Concave moulding

Chinese antique furniture glossary - B

拔步床: Alcove bedstead.

百宝嵌: One-hundred- precious-material inlay.

半槽地: Half-and-half relief. The most common type of relief carving with relief and ground

occupying about the same amount of space.

半桌: Half table, slightly larger than half an eight Immortals [9ImR:`tel] table.

抱鼓: Embracing drums. The drum-shaped elements at the top of a shoe-foot used to hold the

spandrels of screens, clothes racks and lampstands in position.

抱肩榫: Embracing-shoulder tenon. A mitred joint used in waisted furniture of the corner-leg

construc-tion to attach the leg and apron. A concealed triangular-shaped tenon in the apron fits into a

mortise in the leg. Simultaneously a concealed long and vertical dovetailed tenon slides into a mortise in

the apron.

宝塔纹: Pagoda pattern. Term used in Suzhou to describe the natural grain of beech.

包镶: Complete veneer, a hardwood veneer covering the entire piece of furniture.

宝座: Throne, for emperor or god.

宝座式镜台: Throne-type mirror platform.

霸王枨: Giant's arm brace, extending from the leg to the underside of the table top at a 45° angle.

八仙桌: Eight Immortals table. Square table suitable for seating eight people.

边簧: Tongue, on four sides of the floating panel of a table top.

边框: Frame.

边抹: Square or rectangular frame, consisting of two sides with tenons and two sides with mortises

(.榫眼matou).

鳔胶: Fish glue, the best cabinetmaker's glue made from the air bladder of the yellow croaker fish.

冰盘沿: Ice-plate edge. General term for allinward-sloping mouldings.

波纹: Wave lattice. Term found in Yuan ye (The Art of the Garden) and also used for furniture.

步步高 赶枨: Stepped chair stretchers. Chair stretchers which are arranged with the front one

lowest, the side ones higher, and the back one highest, so that the joints do not overlap.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - C

踩: Lowering the surface of the wood. General term popular among craftsmen.

草龙: Curling limbed dragon. Stylized dragon pattern in which the legs and tail turn into curls,

derived from the curling tendril design.

侧脚: Splayed legs. Term borrowed from ancient architecture (where it describes the splay of pillars

at the base) to describe the slight splay of furniture legs at their base.

茶几: Tea table. High table derived from the Ming incense table and popular in Qing times.

插肩榫: Inserted shoulder joint. One of the essential joints of the recessed-leg construction. The

upper part of the leg is split to form two tenoned pieces; the front one is made shoulder-like so that it can

be inserted into cavities in the apron. When the joint is in place the surfaces of leg and apron are flush.

铲地浮雕: Relief carving on smoothed ground.

长凳: Long bench, general term.

长方凳: Rectangular stool.

缠枝莲纹: Scrolling lotus design.

朝衣柜: Court costume cabinet. Compound wardrobe in four parts with side panels. A kind of

sijiangui with panels between the doors and outer frames which make the wardrobe wide enough for

court costumes to be placed inside without being folded.

插屏式座屏风: Removable-panel screen set in a stand, the panel having tongues which can be slid

in and out of grooves in the vertical pillars.

枨子: Stretcher. Member used mainly to connect two legs.

螭虎闹灵芝: Hornless dragons inter-twined with Iingzhi fungus.

螭纹: Stylized hornless dragon design.

抽屉架: Drawer frame, put inside a cabinet or shelf to hold the drawers.

抽屉脸: Front of a drawer.

抽屉桌: Narrow table with drawers.

橱: Cabinet, southern term for gui, which is more current in the north.

穿带: Penetrating transverse brace, which fits into a groove in the floating panel.

床: Bed, which in China is used for daytime sitting as well as sleeping. General term for both large

and small beds.

床围子: Railing on Luohan and canopy bed.

床衣镜: Full-length mirror, a type derived from a screen set into a base which became popular

during he Qing dynasty.

春凳: Large bench. In south China the term refers to a bench for two or more people. Northerners

use this term only for a bench for more than two people.

攒: To join.

攒斗: Latticework. Literally joining the straight and assembling the curved, two methods of making

lattice. General term which is a contraction of cuanjie and doucu.

攒牙子: Apron or apron and spandrel made by joining the straight.

攒边打槽装板: Assembling a mortised-and-tenoned frame with floating panel. This is done by first

making a groove all around the inner edge of the frame and then inserting the tongue of the panel.

攒边装板围子: Railing of a Luohan bed consisting of frames with inset panels.

攒接: Joining the straight. Term used for the method of making a lattice from short straight pieces

of wood, placed vertically, horizontally, and sometimes diagonally, and mortised and tenoned together.

The resulting lattice may have square or rounded corners.

攒接围子: Bed railing made by joining the straight.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - D

搭板书案: Board and stand desk, consisting of a top resting on two separate stands with drawers

which originally were not intended to be used apart from the table.

大边: Tenon-bearing frame member. If the frame is rectangular the term refers to the two long

pieces with tenons; if square, it indicates the two tenon-bearing members; if round, each piece is called a

dabian.

大方扛箱: Large square box carried on a pole. Term used in Lu Ban jing (Lu Ban's Classic) for a

large picnic box.

带: Transverse brace, which always connects the tenon-bearing frame members. General term

which includes the penetrating transverse brace and the curved transverse brace.

带口: Dovetailed groove for the penetrating trans-verse brace on the back of a floating panel.

大理石: Marble, and in particular Dali marble, from Mount Diancang点苍 in the Dali District of

Yunnan Province.

搭脑: Top rail. Highest rail on the back of a chair. The term also refers to the highest horizontal

member of any frame, such as a clothes rack or towel rack.

挡板: Inset panel on a recessed-leg table with side panels. It usually has openwork carving finished

on both sides and sits on a side floor stretcher or base stretchers.

倒棱: Rounding the edges. Procedure done to soften the sharp edges of a member.

打洼: Concave moulding; also called aomian or wamian.

大叶榆: Large leaf elm, a kind of ju wood; also called juyu.

凳: Stool. Also wudeng.

灯草线: Beading, a rounded moulding.

Dengcao 灯草: are rushes used as lampwicks.

灯挂椅: Lamp-hanger chair. Side chair wkh a high narrow bacic resembling the bamboo lamp

hangers commonly used in south China.

雕刻: Carving.

吊牌: Metal pull.

吊头: Protruding end. The part of the top of recessed-leg table which extends beyond the leg

towards the sides.

地枨: Lowest stretcher on a cabinet.

顶箱: Upper part of a compound wardrobe in four parts.

顶箱立柜: Compound wardrobe in four parts, consisting of two lower cabinets and two upper

cabinets; also called sijiangui.

地平 : Platform. Large low wooden platform, usually square, placed in a room to hold furniture.

When used for an alcove bed it is slightly larger than the bed. Very large ones are for a screen and

throne.

斗: Assembly of more than two members.

斗柏楠: Burl of nan wood; also toubainan, the term used in Gegu yaolun (The Essential Criteria of

Antiquities).

斗簇: Assembling the curved, a term for the method of making a lattice unit from large or small

curved pieces of wood joined together by loose tenons.

斗簇围子: Luohan bed railing lattice made by assembling the curved; or Luohan bed railing lattice

made by assembling the curved together with joining the straight.

斗拱式: Bracket model, a type of spandrel inspired by architectural members.

断纹: Crack patterns, the fortuitous designs formed of small cracks on the surface of aged lacquer.

独板面: Solid board top, found most often on narrow rectangular tables with recessed legs, trestle

tables, and benches whose top is not made with a frame.

独板围子: Solid board railing.

都承盘 或 都丞盘 或 都盛盘 或都珍盘: Desk tray or desk treasure tray, for holding the treasures

(the paraphernalia used in calligraphy and painting) on a scholar's desk.

墩子: Shoe-foot. Horizontal, usually bridge-shaped, piece of wood supporting a vertical member of

a screen, clothes rack or lampstand. It tends to be large and includes the embracing drum.

垛边: Frame-thickening inserts. Separate pieces of wood added, mainly for aesthetic reasons,

beneath the four sides of a frame of a table top in order to increase its height. They are commonly found

on tables and stools, often on the type with leg-encircling stretcher, or with three spandrels to one leg,

and a humpbacked stretcher. The inserts are less deep than the frame members and thus give the

illusion of a thick frame without having its weight.

朵云双螭纹: Cloud surrounded by confronting dragons motif.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - E

鹅脖: Gooseneck front posts. Curved posts of an armchair which are often made from the same

piece of wood as the front legs.

二人凳: Two-seater bench.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - F

方凳: Square stool.

方角柜: Square-corner cabinet. Usually a metal hinged cabinet with very little or no splay, and in

which each of the four corners forms a right angle.

方桌: Square table. Term refers to tables of various sizes.

风车式: Windmill lattice. Patterned on the shape of the windmill motif used in Chinese paper toys.

分心花: Dividing-the-heart motif, the cusp in the middle of an apron.

浮雕: Relief carving.

浮雕透雕结合: Relief and openwork carving. Term used when both types of decoration occur in a

single piece.

扶手: Arms of a chair.

扶手椅: Armchair.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - G

盖面: Convex surface or moulding. Term used in Yingzao fashi (Building Standards) and by

cabinetmakers today; also called hunmian and tumian.

赶枨: Changing the level of stretchers, in order to spread out the mortises. The term usually refers

to the lower stretchers of chairs.

甘蔗床: Sugar-cane squeezer.

高拱罗锅枨: High humpbacked stretcher. Stretcher which often appears on the type of table with

three spandrels to one leg and on rectangular tables with recessed legs.

高面盆架: Washbasin stand with towel rack. The two back legs are extended to form the towel rack.

高束腰: High waist. On some examples the influence of a Buddhist pedestal is still discernible.

高桌: High table.

格肩: Mitre; single or double.

格肩榫: Double-mitred tenon.

供案: Recessed-leg altar table.

供桌: Corner-leg altar table.

勾挂垫榫: Hook-and-plug tenon joint, used to attach a giant's arm brace to the leg. The slightly

hooked tenon is secured in the mortise by a small block of wood placed beneath it.

瓜棱线: Melon-shaped moulding, a ridge-shaped moulding used on legs. (When the leg is seen in

section, it resembles the section of a fluted melon.) It is often found on waistless square tables and

round-corner cabinets. Also called甜瓜棱.

管脚枨: Base stretcher, a bar placed just above the feet of a piece of furniture to hold the legs in

position.

官帽椅: Official's hat armchair. Term includes the official's hat armchair with four protruding ends

and the southern official's hat armchair. See also nanguanmaoyi.

官皮箱: Dressing case, usually having a base with drawers, which are often behind doors, and a

top consisting of a lidded tray.

挂销: Hanger tenon. Dovetail-shaped tenon on the top of a leg on which to hang the apron, usually

as long as the apron.

挂牙: Hanging spandrel. Spandrel whose length is greater than its width, and which narrows

towards its lower edge.

挂檐: Canopy lattice, around the top of a canopy bed.

鼓钉: Bosses, the nail motifs on a drum stool.

鼓墩: Drum stool; also called zuodun.

柜: Cabinet, northern term for chu, which is more current in the south.

柜帮: Side of a cabinet. Craftsmen's term.

柜帽: Cabinet's cap, the top of a round-corner cabinet which protrudes beyond the side posts to

allow for the wood hinged construction and which usually has rounded edges.

鬼面: Devil's face. Term used in Gegu yaolun (The Essential Criteria of Antiquities) to describe a

particular formation in the grain of huanghuali wood.

柜塞: One-drawer coffer, literally the plug between two cabinets, because the coffer is often placed

between a pair of cabinets or compound wardrobes in four parts.

柜膛: Ridden compartment, occupying the space below the door and above the bottom board of a

cabinet.

滚凳: Roller stool. Stool with movable rollers, used to exercise the feet.

裹腿枨: Leg-encircling stretcher. Stretcher continuing around the entire circumference of a piece,

passing over the outside edges of the legs.

裹腿做: Leg-encircling.

鼓腿: Bulging leg.

鼓腿彭牙 Convex apron and bulging leg ending in a horse-hoof foot. Term used by Beijing

cabinetmakers and in the Qing Regulations.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - H

海南檀: Daltergia hainanensis, the scientific name previously given to huanghuali wood.

海棠式: Begonia-shaped.

耗子尾: Upward-tapering member, such as the side posts of an armchair.

横枨: Side stretcher, on rectangular tables.

横拐子: Short horizontal members on the base of a washbasin stand.

合页: Metal hinge.

荷叶托: Lotus-leaf support, often occurring on mirror stands.

红木：Hong wood. There are two kinds: old hong wood was the principal hardwood used by

furniture makers from mid Qing times to the first quarter of the 20th century, and new hong wood is one of

the main hardwoods used by furniture factories today.

画案: Recessed-leg painting table. Large, wide rectangular table without drawers.

花梨: Huali wood, Ormosia henryi. One of the main hardwoods used for furniture after the mid Qing

dynasty.

花榈: Huali wood. Pre-Ming way of writing the term which at that time referred mainly to huanghuali

wood.

黄花梨: Huanghuali wood, Dalbergia odorifera, the principal hardwood used for furniture from mid

Ming until the first part of the Qing dynasty.

黄杨: Boxwood, Buxus microphylia, a dense yellowish wood.

画桌: Corner-leg painting table, a large, wide rectangular table without drawers.

胡床: Barbarian seat. Earliest name for a cross-legged stool. It was imported from the west in the

Eastern Han and is the ancestor of the folding stool and the folding armchair.

回纹: Angular spirals, based on a motif resembling the archaic form of the character hui , repeated

continuously.

混面: Convex surface or moulding. Term used in Yingzao fashi (Building Standards) and by

cabinetmakers today. Also called gaimian and tumian.

活销: Loose tenon.

护眼线: Hole-protecting coin, a round coin-shaped metal disc used between the metal pivot and the

surface of a piece of furniture as a protective device device against abrasion.

Chinese antique furniture glossary - J

几: Narrow waistless table, each side of which usually consists of a board meeting the top at right

angles.

嫁底: Trousseau coffer, a common name for a coffer since a bride's trousseau was placed in it, tied

with red strings, and carried to her new home.

架格: Shelf; also屉板.

架几案: Trestle table. Long table supported by two separate stands.

架几书案: Wide trestle writing table on stands with drawers.

降香黄檀: Huanghuali wood, Dalbergia odorifera, new name given by Cheng Junqing.

降真香: Truth-bringing incense. A type of incense with which huanghuali wood is often compared in

old texts.

剑脊棱: Sword-ridge moulding. Moulding which slopes downwards from a central ridge. Lu Ban jing

(Lu Ban's Classic) calls it jianjixian. 剑脊线

践金: Gold designs hammered into iron.

践银: Silver designs hammered into iron.

脚床: Footstool. Song dynasty name for the footstool in front of chairs and beds. Also jiaota and

tachuang.

交圈: Continuous flow. The continuous connec-tion (upwards, downwards, sideways) of mouldings

or the surfaces of different members in order to give the piece of furniture a unified appearance. This

term is also used by architects and other craftsmen, especially for four-sided and curved forms.

脚踏: Footstool. Also jiaochuang and tachuang.

交杌: Folding stool; most commonly mazha.

角牙: Spandrel.

交椅: Folding chair.

假三上: Pseudo thrice attached. See zhenliangshang.

夹头榫: Elongated bridle joint. This and the inserted shoulder joint are the two basic joints of the

recessed-leg construction. The top of the leg has tenons, fitting into mortises in the tenon-bearing frame

of the top, and a slot, into which the apron and apron-head spandrel can be inserted. Sometimes there

are false elongated bridlejoints, with the outward appearance of an elongated bridle joint but constructed

in other ways.

架子床: Canopy bed.

: ichi wood. Hardwood with purplish-brown patterns, belonging to the Ormosia family.

jichimu: Chicken-wing wood, another name for jichi wood

接桌: Extension table. When one Eight Immortals table is not enough, a table slightly larger than

half its size, similar to a half table, is added to extend it.

锦地浮雕: Relief carving on diaper ground.

镜架: Mirror stand.

镜台: Mirror platform.

镜箱: Mirror box.

井字棂格: Well lattice. Lattice of a design centred around the character jing井 (well), and its

variations.

金属饰件: Metalwork ornaments.

几腿架格: Shelf supported by two separate stands.

臼窝: Door pivot mortise.

酒桌: Wine table. Small rectangular table used for wine and food.

吉祥草: Lucky grass. Leaves forming a round motif which is often found on a decorative strut.

卷草纹: Curling tendril design.

卷书: Scroll termination. Termination which appears on the sides of narrow waistless tables and

splats or top rails of chairs. The term refers to the resemblance of the termination to a soft book when

rolled up.

椐木: Ju wood, ancient simplifled form of ju Zelkova schneideriana, one of the semi-hard furniture

woods imported in the Ming dynasty; known as southern elm in north China.

榉榆: Large leaf elm, a kind ofju wood; also called dayeyu