When did tiles appear?
According to unearthed physical data, building tiles appeared in my country during the Western Zhou Dynasty three thousand years ago. Bricks also began to be used in construction during the Western Zhou Dynasty.
In the late Neolithic Age in my country, the pottery industry developed further. The capacity of the pottery kiln room was expanded, the fire chamber was deepened, there were more branches and holes in the kiln grate, the firepower was large and the heat was evenly distributed. In addition, The kiln was sealed tightly and water was poured in the final stage to reduce the iron in the pottery embryo, making gray pottery and black and shiny eggshell pottery that are harder than red pottery and brown pottery. This pottery-making technology prepared the conditions for the later emergence of bricks, tiles, and pottery water pipes.
In the 1970s, a wall made of rammed earth and adobe was discovered in the ruins of the mid-to-late Shang Dynasty in Taixi Village, Gaocheng County, Hebei Province. Adobe was the prelude to the later appearance of fired bricks.
In the mid-1950s, a number of large-scale building foundations of the Western Zhou Dynasty were unearthed in Fengchu Village, Qishan County, Shaanxi Province and Zhaochen Village, Fufeng County, both in the center of the ancient Zhou Dynasty, and a large number of tiles and tiles were unearthed. Thus, abundant unearthed material proves that building tiles appeared in my country during the Western Zhou Dynasty 3,000 years ago. This is an important progress in ancient Chinese architecture. However, the use of tiles did not become common until the Spring and Autumn Period.
Bricks also began to be used in buildings during the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Cultural Relics Census Team of Baoji City, Shaanxi Province discovered a batch of hollow bricks and strip bricks from the Western Zhou Dynasty in Zhaojiatai, Qishan County, Shaanxi Province. These are the earliest bricks discovered in my country so far. The hollow brick is rectangular and hollow, with a fine rope pattern printed on the outside. It is square and square in shape, 1 meter long, 0.32 meters wide, 0.21 meters thick, and 0.02 meters thick. It has an opening at one end and is blocked at the other end. After on-site investigation and identification by archaeologists, it was confirmed that the ash pit where the hollow bricks were unearthed was a standard ash pit from the Western Zhou Dynasty.
A small number of bricks from the Warring States Period have been unearthed, and their types include hollow bricks, floor tiles, strip bricks, etc. Some floor tiles and large hollow bricks have been unearthed from Warring States sites such as Yong, Dongyang, Xianyang and Yanxiadu in the early Qin capitals. The longest hollow bricks can reach 1.5 meters. Such long bricks can only be burned through if they are made hollow. At the same time, the weight is reduced and it is easier to move. A variety of bricks were found in the ruins of Xianyang, the capital of Qin. They are hard in texture and mostly blue-gray in color. They are generally made by molding and imprinting patterns. According to the unearthed cultural relics, the main methods of making blanks at that time were the "piece making" method and the one-time molding method. The "piece making" method is to beat the clay into pieces and lay them on a patterned template that is the same size as the bricks. Use four pieces of mud to form a square tube, then block one end with a small piece of mud, and smooth the joints with soft mud. In the one-time molding method, the brick wall shell is thicker and is made of piles of bricks and mud. There are no joints at the corners of the bricks, and the patterns on the brick surfaces are carved after the bricks are made.
In the late Warring States Period, a hollow brick coffin tomb appeared in our country. In 1988, two brick-chamber tombs dating from the late Warring States Period were discovered in the Eastern Tombs of Lintong, Shaanxi Province. These are the earliest brick-chamber tombs ever discovered in my country. One of the two tombs is built flat with 475 bricks, and the other is built with 155 vertical bricks. The dimensions of the brick are approximately 42 cm long, 15 cm wide, 9 cm thick, and weigh 18 kg.
In the Qin Dynasty, bricks were widely used in construction. In the ruins of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum, three kinds of strip floor tiles and one kind of curved brick were found. Bricks in the Qin Dynasty were mainly produced by the government-run handicraft industry. Bricks stamped "Zuo Sixian Wa" and "Zuo Sigao Wa" were unearthed from the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin. Zuosi is the abbreviation of Zuo Sikong. Zuo Sikong in the Qin Dynasty mainly made bricks and tiles.
Hollow bricks were more popular in the early Western Han Dynasty. They were used to lay steps or steps in ground-level buildings and to build tombs underground. The structure of hollow brick tombs can be divided into flat-top box type and double-sloped roof type. The bricks used range from a dozen to more than a hundred bricks, with styles such as rectangular bricks, cylindrical bricks, and triangular bricks. The shape and size of the hollow bricks are designed separately according to the location of each brick. They also need to be numbered when making the bricks to avoid confusion during assembly. This may be the earliest prefabricated building. Hollow bricks are generally plain or printed with simple geometric patterns. However, in Henan, there are many hollow bricks with portraits stenciled on them, with rich and colorful contents, such as music and dance, riding and shooting, chariots and horses, field hunting, gates, fairy tales, etc. For example, in September 1970, a well-preserved hollow brick tomb with Han Dynasty portraits was discovered near Xintong Bridge in Zhengzhou.
The entire tomb is built with 133 hollow bricks of various shapes. All the hollow bricks used in the whole curtain, except for the door sealing bricks and floor tiles are plain, the bricks on the top and four walls of the tomb are all printed with exquisite portraits.
During the Western Han Dynasty, in addition to the government-run handicraft industry, private production also developed in the brick-making industry. Seven brick kilns were discovered at the site of the Western Han Dynasty village in Sandaohao, Liaoyang, Liaoning. Each kiln can hold about 18,000 bricks. There are many wells next to the kilns.
Because hollow bricks are complicated to make and are not suitable for mass production, strip bricks have the advantages of easy production, strong load-bearing capacity, convenient masonry, and flexible application. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, strip bricks gradually replaced hollow bricks. In the Han Dynasty, the size of small bricks was gradually standardized, with the ratio of length, width and thickness being approximately 4:2:1, allowing them to be flexibly matched when building walls. In order to cooperate with the use of strip bricks, a variety of special-shaped bricks have also been created, such as mortise and tenon bricks, tongue and groove bricks, wedge bricks, curved bricks, etc.
After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the application of strip bricks became more widespread and the output also increased. In the Tang Dynasty, the use of floor tiles was relatively common. A large number of plain and lotus pattern square tiles were unearthed at the Longweidao site of the Daming Palace in Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty. According to expert speculation, plain square tiles were laid on the level of Longwei Road, while lotus pattern tiles were laid on the slopes.
Tile is an important roof waterproofing material, and its use began in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. In 1976, a group of large-scale building foundations were discovered in Fengchu Village, Qishan County, Shaanxi Province. According to the radioactive carbon determination of a carbonized wooden pillar, its age was in the early Western Zhou Dynasty around 1000 BC. A small number of tiles were found in the roof accumulation, and it is speculated that they were only used on important parts of the roof and part of the ridge. At the same time, a large-scale Western Zhou building foundation group was also discovered in Zhaochen Village, Fufeng, Shaanxi. Judging from the unearthed pottery, the superstructure was built in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Many types of slab tiles, tube tiles, and semi-tile tiles were found in the ruins. (The tiles are laid on the roof with their backs, and the tube tiles are covered between two rows of tiles. The tiles are the tile heads of the tube tiles in front of the eaves.) There are tile nails and tile rings on the tiles to fix the position of the tiles. A piece of tile fragment was found in Keshengzhuang, Fengxi, Shaanxi Province, with a herringbone cross-section, which may be a ridge tile used on the roof ridge. Unfired tile blanks were also found. It is speculated that there was a handicraft workshop specializing in firing tiles. Tiles from the late Western Zhou Dynasty have also been found in Wangwan, Luoyang, Henan, Dongjialin, Liulihe, Beijing, etc. Based on this, it is speculated that palace buildings in the early Western Zhou Dynasty began to use tiles on parts of the roof (perhaps on the ridge, etc.), and that most of the roofs were covered with tiles from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The tiles at that time were all made of clay strips. The manufacturing method was to first use the clay strips to form a circular pottery blank, and then cut the blank tube into four or six sections to make plate tiles, and to cut it in half to make tube tiles. Then it is fired in the kiln. The thickness of the tiles is uneven, there are hand marks on the back, and there are thick and messy rope patterns on the surface.
In the late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the use of tiles increased. There are many tiles left in the ruins of cities in various countries, including many patterned tiles. The patterns of tiles in different countries are different, reflecting the unique cultural and artistic styles of each country. For example, in the Qin State, round tiles with various animal patterns were popular, including running deer, standing horses, four beasts, three cranes, etc.; in the Zhao State, round tiles with three deer patterns and deformed moire patterns were popular; in the Yan State, there were mainly Taotie, double dragons, double birds and mountains. Moiré and other half tiles. An important improvement in the structure of tiles during the Warring States Period was to separate the tile nails from the tile body. This not only enhanced the consolidation of the tiles, but also simplified the production of tile blanks.
The Qin and Han Dynasties were the development and prosperity stage of tiles. During the Warring States Period, tiles began to evolve from semicircular to full circular, and by the Eastern Han Dynasty, they were all circular. Qin and Han Dynasty tiles have rich patterns and many characters. For example, some of the tiles built in the Chang'an area of the Han Dynasty are decorated with auspicious words such as "Chang Le Weiyang" and "Eternal Life"; some palaces and government offices often use their names as decorations, such as "Shanglin", "Zuo Yi", etc. During Wang Mang's period, due to the popularity of prophecy theory, and the use of four gods to symbolize the four directions was the content of prophecy theory, the four gates of Wang Mang's ancestral temple were generally made of green dragon tiles for the east gate, white tiger tiles for the west gate, red bird tiles for the south gate, and Xuanwu tiles for the north gate. In 1986, the cultural relics department of Liaoning Province discovered the ruins of a large Qin and Han palace in Qiangzili Village, Suizhong County. The tiles discovered were 52 centimeters in diameter. With such large tiles, one can imagine the grandeur of the architecture at that time.
In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, wheel-making technology began to be applied to the tile-making industry, and the mud strip-pan construction method was gradually eliminated.
At the site of a Northern Wei Dynasty official building complex in Longhutan Village, Luoyang, a large number of various tiles, which are dense and solid, with scraped surfaces, shiny and finely crafted, were unearthed. Including slab tiles, tube tiles, lotus pattern tiles, animal face pattern tiles, flat rhombus-shaped tile nails, animal face pattern ridge-head tiles, owl tails, etc. It is speculated that these are the official handicraft products of the Northern Wei Dynasty. There are inscriptions or stamps on the tiles about bricklayers. According to the inscriptions, we can know that at that time, the government made tiles in units of tunnels. The tunnel master was a low-level military officer. Under the tunnel master, there were skilled workers and several types of workers. Skilled workers are called craftsmen, and they are divided into processes such as wheeling (making tile blanks with a pottery wheel), cutting (cutting tile blanks), and Kun (polishing tiles). The craftsmen and workers who produced tiles may have been organized according to military organizations.
There were three types of tiles in the Tang Dynasty: gray tiles, black tiles and glazed tiles. Gray tiles have a rougher texture and are used in general buildings. Black tiles are compact and polished and are mostly used in palaces and temples. For example, the black pottery tiles unearthed from the ruins of the Hanyuan Hall of the Daming Palace in Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty have a large diameter of 23 centimeters, which is roughly used for the roof of the palace; a small diameter of 15 centimeters, and the larger one is used for the roof of the corridor. There are also a small number of green glazed tiles, probably used for the eaves ridge. After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the tile decorations were mostly lotus patterns due to the influence of Buddhist art. As many as 73 types of lotus pattern tiles were discovered in the ruins of Xingqing Palace in Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty.