When were chairs introduced to China?

Eastern Jin Dynasty.

In the Eastern Jin dynasty, and even earlier, chairs were probably already present in Chinese monasteries. Even if we take the most conservative dating (i.e., the early 6th century), the evidence for the use of chairs by Han monks is still hundreds of years older than the non-Buddhist sources on the subject.

The Tale of the High Priests was compiled in the early 6th century, and an image of a monk sitting in a chair on a statue stele at the same time may be the earliest chair in Chinese imagery. Thereafter, a statue stele from the first year of Emperor Wu's reign in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (566) has depictions of monks sitting in chairs on both the shaded side and the side of the stele.

The murals of Cave 285 in Dunhuang have images of two people sitting in separate chairs; the murals of Cave 257 have women sitting on square stools and cross-legged benches; and the stone carvings of the Lotus Cave in Longmen have women sitting on round benches.

These images vividly reproduce the use of chairs and stools in the families of the gentry and aristocracy during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Although the sitting furniture has a chair, stool shape, but because of the time there is no chair, stool, people are still used to call "Hu bed", in the temple, often used in meditation, it is also known as Zen bed.

After the Tang Dynasty, the use of chairs gradually increased, the name of the chair is also widely used, only from the bed category separated.

Tang Dynasty before the word "chair" there is another explanation for the "side of the car", that is, the car's fence. Its role is to rely on when people ride in the car

. Later chair, its form is in the four-legged support platform installed on the fence, the system is inspired by the car side of the fence, and follow its name and called this sitting for the "chair". From the existing data, the Tang Dynasty has been quite elaborate chair.

Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, the unprecedented popularity of high type of seating, the form of the chair is also more up, the emergence of back chairs, armchairs, chairs, etc.. At the same time according to the different levels of honor, chair form, material and function also makes a difference.

The Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty period of furniture largely retained the legacy of the Tang Dynasty, but the high type of furniture is more popular than before.

The chair is known for its antiquity and simplicity, though for many centuries was a state of common use.

Chairs have existed since at least the Early Dynastic period. They were covered with cloth or leather, carved in wood, all far less than the chairs of the 21st century, and the chair seat was sometimes only 25 centimeters high. In Ancient Egypt chairs seem to have been enormously rich and brilliant.

Old-fashioned ebony and ivory carvings and gilded wood, they were covered with costly materials, ornate patterns and legs of beasts or captives after the figures to indicate support. Generally, the higher the rank the higher the individual, the more ornate is the greater honor on the chair in which he has sat.

On occasions of national importance Pharaoh sat on the throne, often with a small footstool far in front of it.

Baidu Encyclopedia_Chair(Furniture of Daily Life)