What are the four legs and eight forks of mahogany furniture?

Northern craftsmen call it "four-legged and eight-forked", also known as "four-legged and eight-forked". The word "fork" here, pronounced zhā, means to open outward, such as opening your hand, which is called "hand". The name of "four legs and eight legs" should be the "side foot" of four legs. In the Song Dynasty, Li Jie's Architectural Style said: "Where the column shrinks slightly inward and the column foot is slightly exposed, it is called the side foot." The so-called lateral foot is that the lower ends of the four feet roll outward and the upper ends shrink inward, which is called "tip" in Lu Ban Jing. All furniture with side feet on the front is called "horse racing" (like a horse running with its hind legs spread apart), while those with side feet on the side are called "riding" (like a man riding a horse with his legs spread apart), and those with side feet on the front and side are called "four legs and eight legs".

The "four legs and eight feet" side feet show the origin of furniture and architecture, that is, structurally, they absorb the construction method of large wooden beam frame. The pillars of the big wooden beam frame are mostly logs, which fall straight to the top stone. For stability, columns are often equipped with side feet, with the bottom relaxed, the top folded, tilted inward and connected by beams. In his early years, Mr. Wang, who attended the Construction Law Society with Mr. Liang Sicheng, will retain the basic modeling characteristics of the large wooden beam frame in his research and classify it as Ming-style buttonless furniture with logs, straight feet, straight legs and "four legs and eight legs" as the basic forms.