The Research And Exploration On Virtual Symbol Of Ming Furniture

In the long history of more than 5000 years, a large amount of precious and splendid cultural legacies were left by our ancestors. One of those is the Chinese classical furniture. With the development of the times and the change of dynasties, the furniture evolved from the simple composition of raw stone blocks to the mature cultural art with both practical and aesthetic values. This development was achieved with the wisdom and effort of the ancient skilled craftsman. As time passed, as a necessity in our lives, furniture, which is more than a simple additional article, also reflects the profound development of the production, living habits, emotional and aesthetic consciousness at that time.Besides practical value, the Chinese classical furniture also embodies the artistic styles of different times, and the Ming's furniture is typical of that function. In the visual arts and craft skills, it has reached the highest level in the world at that time which is a pride to all the Chinese. However, not until recently was it paid attention to, if any, it was limited to academic field. Due to the ignorance in the design industry, there is little modern furniture with Chinese traditional feature. The Chinese modern design was deeply influenced by western modernism design, but the traditional elements were usually neglected. If the situation continues, the traditional culture would be assimilated, and the national culture would disappear in the end. Fortunately, this situation has been noticed by a number of designers, and some designs with intense Chinese traditional characteristic are emerging, such as the logo of Beijing Olympic Games, the torch and the medals, which absorbed the traditional cultural nutrients. However, it is still a big question for the designers to apply the traditional furniture and use it as a reference in the design.Ming's furniture, as top achievement in design of traditional furniture, attracted a lot of people with its generous modeling, and scientific structure and high quality. Books and papers about Ming's furniture emerged frequently in recent years, but few of them involved in analyzing the Ming's furniture from the aspect of design. This paper will put the design as the major concern and will study the design of Ming's furniture by means of visual symbols to provide other researchers and designers with reference in the design of traditional furniture.