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Sui Dynasty covered pot made of green glass.

Glassware containing lead and barium emerged as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty. The lead-barium glass requires a relatively low melting temperature. It looks sparkling and crystal clear, but thin and brittle, and can not resist sharp drop or rise in temperature. It is therefore unfit for making utensils or apparatuses. Often lead-barium glass was processed to make ornaments, ritual objects or funerary objects.

By the beginning of the Warring States Period, dragonfly-eye and jade-imitation glass was invented. Dragonfly-eye glass is prepared by adhering multicolor rings on top of glass beads, looking like dragonfly-eyes, thus the name. in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, glass techniques became mature and technical exchange with foreign country started. The technical process in making glass includes casting, twining, inlaying, etc. glass objects such as bi (a round piece of jade with a hole in its center used for ceremonial purposes in ancient China), ring and sword are prepared by pouring melted glass into moulds.
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A porcelain pillow from the Dingyao Kiln of the Song Dynasty, a piece of rare ancient porcelain exquisitely made in the shape of a vivacious kid.

As the handicraft level of the Song Dynasty was rather high, obvious development was made in various aspects, such as the development of varieties, the scale of production, the technology of handicrafts, the management and trading. The administrative setups of government-run handicrafts were more unwieldy and the division of labor was more elaborate than the Tang Dynasty. Most of the artisans of the government-run handicraft were recruited and had personal freedom to a certain extent while the management of the folk handicraft workshop was even more flexible and open. The commerce of the Song Dynasty was well developed, the urban economy became brisk day by day and handicrafts became commodity production universally. In Bianliang (the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty in the present Kaifeng, Henan) and Lin’an (the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty in the present Hangzhou, Zhejiang) shops and stores stood in great numbers, gathering together almost all articles of daily use, and urban handicrafts were very flourishing, The scroll of the Qingming Shanghe Tu (Pure Brightness Day on the River) drawn by Zhang Zeduan(1085-1145) of the Northern Song Dynasty showed the busy commercial activities in Bianliang city in a lively and visual representation. There was regular country fair on the outskirts of bi cities like Chang’an, Luoyang, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Yangzhou and Chengdu. Gradually the rural fairs developed into marked towns.

The Song Dynasty deserved the title of the “Porcelain Age” as porcelain was the most outstading of all its handicrafts. Famous kilns were scattered from north to south. The Dingyao Kiln, Ruyao Kiln, Guanyao Kiln, Geyao Kiln an Junyao Kiln were known as the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty. They created ceramic varieties with their respective characteristics, such as the white porcelain of the Dingyao Kiln, the celadon of the Ruyao Kiln, the light greenish blue porcelain of the Guanyao Kiln, the crackle porcelain of the Geyao Kiln, the transmutation porcelain of the Junyao Kiln and the shadowy blue porcelain of the Jingdezhengyao Kiln. In addition, the simple and straightforward porcelain fired by folk kilns like the Cizhouyao Kiln in the north and the Jizhouyao Kiln in the south was verypopular among the people. The ceramic technology of the Song Dynasty achieved unprecedented prosperity by incorporation the great achievements of the successive dynasties. The dyeing and weaving technology of the Song Dynasty was also greatly developed. The varieties of silk weaving were plentiful and the center of silk weaving was in the regions south of the Yangtze River. For the production of lacquer ware, not only did the government have special administrative setups, the fabrication among folk people was also so common that local centers were formed. For the jade carving technique, as the “qiao se” (coincidental natural colors) on the jade was given full play to, gigantic achievements were obtained.
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Furniture is closely related to people’s life-style and environment. The sitting posture of the Chinese people has changed from sitting on the floor as in ancient times to sitting on a seat as in present day. The shape of furniture falls accordingly into two series, the low-type and the high-type to suit people’s needs at respective historical stages.

From the Shang and Zhou down to the Han and Wei dynasties, people used to sit on the floor or take a half-kneeling, half-sitting position. The limited pieces of furniture available at that time such as narrow oblong tables and side tables were all low and short, which could be moved about without being placed in fixed position. In the Three Kingdom Period, a high-type seat Hu-chuang (literally bed from non Han areas), similar to present-day campstool, was introduced for the first time to Han people from the minority nationalities region. As time went by, higher articles for home use such as round stools, square stools started to appear in the Central Plain area. Beds, couches, etc. also became higher gradually, though low furniture still took a dominant position. Starting from the Western Jin Dynasty, the concept of half-sitting, half-kneeling posture as was required by etiquette, gradually faded. People either sat on the floor with legs stretched out, or sat cross-legged, or sat aslant, just as they pleased. And then the side-table was created which was placed on the bed for leaning against or leaning back, together with yinnang, something like a modern back-cushion.
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