Furniture In China

Outdated Concept，Sadness of Furniture Industry

——Reconsideration of material use of Chinese traditional furniture

YU Lizhan

Key words: red sandalwood, precious wood，environmental protection, prohibition of cutting and trade

It has long been a tradition of preference of rare materials.

It has long been a tradition of preference of furniture made by precious woods like red sandalwood and Bulinga Keva. However, along with the ever increasing enthusiasm on investment and collection in China in recent years, this new tendency has been also becoming stronger and more persistent. Without doubt, it is not today that people have the preference on such materials as red sandalwood and Bulinga Keva. According to textual research of historians,

In the last years of Ming Dynasty, the high quality red sandalwoods in Southeast Asia had been exhausted, so the furniture made by these precious woods has become the sign of royal family to show off their wealth. According to historical data record, Qing Dynasty also sent some people to Southeast Asia to bring in red sandalwood, but the red sandalwood there was too thin and not straight, and was useless at all. Since it takes very long time for red sandalwood grow up, and it can not be used without a hundred years of growth history. It was depleted in Ming Dynasty, and it had not grown up in Qing Dynasty. As a result, the sources of red sandalwood were dried up. Therefore, the imperial court of Qing dynasty gave explicit instructions to officials in different regions to collect red sandalwoods from folk society. Once finding red sandalwood, it was confiscated and turned in to the imperial court. After hundreds of years of plunder, almost no red sandalwood can be found in folk society. Therefore, red sandalwood had become a material exclusively enjoyed by royal family. Depletion of the sources of the material made the value of red sandalwood dramatically increased. Its royal status builds a mysterious atmosphere on it and this is one of the reasons why today so many people are fighting for the red sandalwood. Scarcity of the wood, exclusive royal use, and praise from literati once made the red sandalwood a national treasure, and a symbol of prosperity and status. Its noble status can be reflected from