8 replies to this topic

[Jook Sing]

A friend was interviewed for an article in the New York Times recently and as usually happens, a reader contacted my friend and offered the following "information":
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"The Chinese royal chamber, where obsession on cleanliness and aesthetic is just as keen as here and now, was covered with unbaked dirt tiles, if I remember correctly. It's blackish gleaming grey in color. The emperors had chosen unbaked dirt floor over other materials [snip]

The Chinese tiles are made of mud through a very special process.

I heard about it when I was in China, but that was at least 20 years ago. I learned about it in a Forbidden City tour a few years back. The tour guide talked about the process which I only remembered that it involved soaking the clay in "tong you" (oil of tong tree). "
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And the reader offered the following link to an image of the chamber mentioned above:

http://travel.websho...015859535FMCKuJ

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My question to this group is:

Is the reader's information (above) accurate ?

Knowing the prejudices that Chinese in general have towards unfired clay (ie cheap, non-durable) and our extensive history with earthenware and fine porcelains it seems highly unlikey to me that the choice of flooring for an Emperor's "royal chamber" i n the relatively young Forbidden City complex would be a material (ie unfired compressed earth) that is more typically found in the dwellings of poor peasants.

Is there anyone here who has direct knowledge of the materials and methods that were used in the flooring of the "royal chamber" depicted in the photo ?

As my ID indicates ("Jook Sing"), I am an overseas-born Chinese and I have never been back to China. I can't even identify which of the 10,000 rooms in the Forbidden City is depicted in the photo at the above link. Your expetise/assistance will be greatly appreciated, by both my Occidental friend and I.

If you choose to respond, I would also appreciate it if you could send a copy of your response to me directly at < A r c h i L o g i c at Y a h o o dot c a > (with spaces and munging removed of course) so that I am sure to see it.


Your expetise/assistance will be greatly appreciated, by both my Occidental friend and I.

Gung hay fat choi to all.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Interesting, I never knew the chinese floor tiles were made of mud. Can you provide further information about the material and art tiles?

[bayonet]

These bricks had a particularly smooth and seeming polished surface, and were cynically referred to as Bricks of Gold despite their black colour. This was a satirical reference to their enormous cost, although the comment gradually became to be taken literally and several writers have solemnly stated that the bricks were actually made of gold but were painted black on the surface to conceal the fact! They are sometimes called metallic bricks, because of the sound they emitted when they were struck.

ye, i find Chinese records about it. Just one thing ,royba, can you be sure that those bricks are black in color? From the Chinese resource, it is said green in color, so i m corious.

[Jook Sing]

The webshots photo is of the throne in the Shenyang Palace. This was only considered “royal” after the Manchus had over-run China. The floor tiles were of baked clay, as was the custom of the time. They were hard and durable, but were liable to wear and to create dust, but the only alternative was to use polished marble, somewhat difficult to obtain at the time of the construction of the Shenyang Palace. (And in any case at the time they were covered by carpet)

In the Forbidden City the creator, the Yongle Emperor, had special tiles made for his throne rooms. Special brick kilns were also set up in Suzhou and Song-jiang to supply the somewhat larger and higher quality black slabs used for the more important buildings. These bricks had a particularly smooth and seeming polished surface, and were cynically referred to as Bricks of Gold despite their black colour. This was a satirical reference to their enormous cost, although the comment gradually became to be taken literally and several writers have solemnly stated that the bricks were actually made of gold but were painted black on the surface to conceal the fact! They are sometimes called metallic bricks, because of the sound they emitted when they were struck. The slabs were around 60 centimetres square, say two feet, and required a special technique of manufacture calling for a firing lasting over 100 days in a kiln heated by special kinds of wood. They were then given a final soaking in tung oil to provide a smooth highly polished appearance, and a surface which is actually enhanced by wear, as can be seen today in the main halls. They appear to be polished with wax, but the surface is the result of the special method of manufacture. The slow process, however, meant that the rate of output was limited and it is recorded that the production of 50,000 slabs took over three years.

Most of the square slabs were brought to Peking via the Tong Kuei river and the Grand Canal, which, in those days went right into the city itself, and the bricks were delivered to the "Square Brick Yard" situated just east of the Drum Tower. "Square Brick Lane" at the site exists even today.

Thanks to Royba for this detailed, well-informed response. Apologies for my tardy reply since I've only just now found these archives. I will pass on this information to my Occidental friend who will no doubt be disappointed to learn that the clay tiles were in fact, fired in a kiln.

[sylvester]

My question to this group is:

Is the reader's information (above) accurate ?
...
Is there anyone here who has direct knowledge of the materials and methods that were used in the flooring of the "royal chamber" depicted in the photo ?

the information is accurate, but nobody really know how to make that knid of brick nowaday.
there are many type of chinese brick, the photo you shown is the best type of it, 金磚.
the best type of chinese brick can be found in 紫禁城's wall and the ground in front of 太和殿, named 青磚 and 金磚,
nowbody know how to make them nowaday too...

青磚means brick in green(very dark green), usually used to build house or wall, making the house feel cool at summer and feeling warm at winter.
青磚 is much more expansive then those in red or orange coloured one.

金磚 named not only becox it's golden colour(lightly), but meaning it was VERY expansive, one piece of 金磚 can even more expansive than a piece of gold.
it spent MANY man power to polish, to burn, to soak, and dry out very slowly...

since 木(wood) beat 土(soil? earth? ground?) in chinese culture(五行相剋 5 elements born and beat each other),
and the 3 hall (太和、中和、保和殿) is a big big 土,
so NO grass of tree or any wood is allowed to grown on the platform of 3 hall,
those drick on the platform and inside the 3 hall was SO FINELY polished to make NO chinese on it.

my english limited me to tell more=.="

[Bo Christensen]

Legend has it that the floors inside the emperor’s palace were paved with golden bricks. Inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, a symbol of imperial power, the floors are paved with special bricks, which have withstood the many vicissitudes of the dynasties, and kept their smooth, fine surface until today.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony was the highest structure in the empire during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and no other buildings anywhere in the empire were permitted to be higher. It was here that the emperors would receive high officials and exercise their rule over the nation. Whenever a new emperor came to power, his reign would begin with a grand ceremony in this hall. It was also used to hold the emperors’ birthday parties, wedding ceremonies and other important occasions such as the Winter Solstice, the Lunar New Year and the dispatch of generals into fields of war. Almost 4,800 of these “gold bricks” were used in building this magnificent hall, and it is said that a total of 100 million were used to construct the Forbidden City.
But these so-called “golden bricks” were not exactly made of the real thing. They were produced in south-east China’s city of Suzhou, which boasted a wide variety of fine materials, as well as an intricate canal system designed to facilitate water transportation. Making these bricks was no easy task, and required dozens of tedious processes, including digging, grinding, sun-baking and kiln-baking. Finally, the bricks were soaked in Tung oil, and this gave them their smooth and shiny appearance. Then the finished bricks were transported to Beijing, and after stringent inspection by designated officials, they went on to their final destination, the Forbidden City.
Laying these bricks was also a complicated process. They were bonded using a very fine material, consisting of crushed glutinous rice mixed with egg white. You can imagine that it took tons of these ingredients to make this uniquely Chinese “mortar.” The smooth bricks are golden-yellowish in color, and when struck, they chime like a bell. Their name, “golden bricks,” has two implications: one signifies their color, and the other is that their value can be compared with gold, as they cost a huge amount of money and time to create.
The sands of time gradually withered away the know-how and technique of making these fine gold bricks. However, after years of research and experiment, scientists and historians have rediscovered this ancient skill.
This was what I could find for you.

[carolgreen616]

Occidental friend who will no doubt be disappointed to learn that the clay tiles were in fact, fired in a kiln.

[mohistManiac]

The black appearance seems to be an ash glazen after effect of being laid to fire in the kiln for so long but I wonder how it can be covered in oil and not produce stains for the people stepping over them and out into the open where they don't use the "gold" bricks anymore.