How to assemble a chinese wedding bed

Most of what you will read on the internet about the Chinese wedding bed and other Chinese Wedding furniture is wildly inaccurate! Lets use history correct that!

Years ago, I was searching for some photos of Chinese wedding beds and Chinese canopy beds when this humorous page came up on Chris Johnson’s personal website entitled “How to Assemble an Antique Two Room Chinese Wedding Bed.” This along with his main Chinese Bed page which talks about his quest to find and buy a Chinese wedding bed, was worth having a look at. Unfortunately as is the case with the internet, Chris’s page is now long, long gone. Thankfully I had archived both his posts here in two sections: The Chinese Bed & How to Assemble an Antique Two Room Chinese Wedding Bed. If you want to read just those posts specifically, you can skip the other sections and go right to them directly by clicking on the links.

Otherwise, lets give you some background on that question of “what is a Chinese Wedding Bed?” and where did this particular custom come from?

what is a Chinese Wedding Bed?

The simple answer is a Chinese wedding bed is a particular type of ornate canopy bed typically given as part of the brides dowry. Wedding beds generally possess specific decorative motifs alluding to themes of fertility, prosperity and harmony.

Now that is the short version and it doesn’t really tell you anything about what a Chinese wedding bed actually is, where the custom comes from or where the name comes from. Not only that, but there is lots of incorrect, misinformed information out there in terms of just “what is a Chinese Wedding bed?” Some of it slightly incorrect. But unfortunately most of it is wildly inaccurate.

Now this is a deep topic and we can only dig in so deep but lets see if we can correct some of this a bit. However, before we can dive into properly answering that question of “what is a Chinese wedding bed?” we need to back up a bit and start with a different much more fundamental question: “what is Chinese wedding furniture?”

what is "Chinese Wedding furniture?"

To answer this question of “what is a Chinese wedding furniture,” we need to go back to ancient times when the “Six Rites” (“六礼) became common place. Without going to much into depth here, these were things like asking for the “bride price,” accepting the “bride price,” preparing the dowry, setting the wedding date and so on. This is a very complex topic which we are not going to go into here. That would be a massive rabbit hole. Suffice it to say, the process from the proposal all the way to the marriage, was a very complex one with specific documents, customs and rituals that must all be followed to guarantee a prosperous future.

But we need to acknowledge such formal rituals as they in turn gave rise to the practice known as “Ten Miles of red makeup” (十里红妆). Now this practice is unique to Zhejiang, province which is VERY important to point, however the overarching general principals of how the dowry works is universal and thus relevant for our discussion.

Let me explain.

Ten Miles of red Makeup

In ancient times, despite the practice of having concubines, only the wife could be formally married; not the concubines. And when she was married, the dowry was still considered to be the woman’s own private property, despite having been married into the man’s family. This is an important point. Why?

This guaranteed a certain amount of status in the man’s family, as even if one of the concubines was more “favored,” the wife herself still had a large amount of property. So the dowry can be seen as a symbol of the girl’s/girl’s family’s status and wealth. Of course if the dowry is not generous, the daughter could potentially be looked down upon by the husband’s family.

So in order to both show off their wealth as well as to “protect” the daughters status in the new family, wealthy families would prepare all the necessities of daily life for their daughters as part of the dowry.

There were many different types of dowries, but usually they would fall into one these four categories:

Furniture: These are items such as tables, beds, cabinets, bedside cabinets etc.
Small daily utensils: Items like wooden plates for holding fruit, candlesticks, mallets etc.
Women’s tools: These are things needed for maintaining the house. Things like irons, needle boxes, baskets, sewing goods, looms, racks etc.
Wedding clothes: dresses, bedding etc.

In terms of the furniture itself, it can be be divided into two main types:

Inner furniture (内房): used in the bedroom
Outer furniture (外房): used in other rooms

These dowry items (sometimes a doze or sometimes hundreds or more) would make their way to the new home, usually a day before the wedding. This procession sometimes stretched for miles, hence the name “Ten Miles of Red Makeup”. There were other names for this event such as “A thousand baskets and boxes” (千箱万笼).

We can also say this event was also a chance to publicly “show off” the families wealth.

Chinese wedding beds cabinets and furniture 0001

Chinese wedding beds cabinets and furniture 0002

Moving forward to contemporary times, in the 1950ies and 60s, when China was quite poor and in the throes of communist upheaval events like the cultural revolution, the dowry was reduced to a mere 5 items – people called it the “Five in one project” (五个一工程) meaning a bed, a washbasin, a spittoon, and a thermos.

Heading into the 197oies it became “The 32 legs” (三十二条腿) meaning a cabinet, a cupboard, a bed, and a table & four chairs (each item has 4 legs for a combined total of 32 legs). It was not until closer to the 80ies, in which appliances began to gradually replace furniture as the main items in a dowry.

Today, its both furniture and appliances. But in general though, we can see that even in modern times, furniture still is and was always a main part of the dowry.

What is the importance of the Chinese wedding bed?

Setting aside discussions surrounding the importance of children and fertility, we can see that among all of the dowry items, aside from the sedan chair, the other most eye catching, expensive and complicated to make item was the “wedding bed.”

It was said that it takes “thousands or ten thousands of people” just to make one wedding bed (千工床, 万工轿, 十里红嫁妆). Of course, this is just a saying, whereas in actually it probably took a collaboration of several people. Nevertheless these were complex, time consuming and expensive items to make. Because of this, the sedan chair was often rented, whereas for each bride, the wedding bed was always custom made. Consequently this became one of the many auspicious symbols of a happy marriage and families spent large amounts of money on the wedding bed.

Types of Chinese wedding bed

Remember – not all beds can be seen as “wedding beds.” Keeping this in mind, there are generally three types of “wedding beds:”

Canopy Beds (架子床 jiàzi chuáng)
Step beds (拔步床 bá bù chuáng)
Thousand worker beds (千工床 qiān gōng chuáng)

Essentially all of these are all just different forms of canopy beds. “Step beds” are basically the same as the canopy bed, with the exception that an additional separate front section/corridor is added at the entry to the bed. And “Thousand worker beds” simply take this concept to the extreme by extending that corridor outward thus supposedly requiring the labor of “a thousand workers over a thousand days.”

A Chinese step bed sometimes known as a "babu bed."

A note about Chinese camphor wood wedding chests

In certain parts of China (usually south of the Yangzi river), a camphor wood chest was a “must-have” dowry item. So where does this tradition come from? There is a story that “in ancient times,” when a daughter was born, a wealthy family would plant several camphor trees in the yard of their house. By the time the daughter has grown up and reached the age of marriage, the tree too would have also grown to a fitting size. Later on, just before the daughter was to be married, the family would cut down the tree, and make two large trunks which would be filled with silk, as part of the dowry. This practice was known as “two boxes of silk” (两厢厮守)

And as long as matchmakers continued to see such trees in the yard, they would know that there was a girl waiting to get married and could thus they could come with marriage proposals.

Misconceptions about Chinese Wedding Furniture

Up until now we have used terms like “Chinese wedding beds” and “Chinese wedding cabinets” but this is where things get a little complicated. In 25+ years in the industry, I have never heard a Chinese carpenter or craftsmen use a term such as “wedding basket” or “wedding cabinet” or even “wedding bed” for that matter. Why? Because this terminology simply doesn’t exist in the Chinese language. All of these are terms invented by westerners. Even terms like “red furniture” (红妆家具) are not the same as “Wedding furniture.”

There is no such thing as "wedding furniture"

To assume that all red cabinets are "wedding cabinets" or that all beds are "wedding beds" is just silly. This would be like assuming that ALL microwaves and ALL blenders were given as wedding gifts, while ignoring that fact that appliances exist outside of that context. We would never call something a "Wedding blender;" we would simply call it a blender.

Let me give some examples why these are not helpful terms.

Other types of furniture we see may or may not be “dowry originated furniture” and it can be difficult to say so without specific indicators. For example, certain motifs and symbols can offer clues. A red box alone might be wedding related furniture. A box of a different tone may or may not, depending on the imagery and associated symbolism depicted on the box. With that in mind, remember that not all beds are “wedding beds” and not all cabinets are “wedding cabinets.”

This actually IS a wedding box

This is a special kind of box known as a "bottom of the box" box (压箱底). It was tucked away as the name implies and used to hold certain private items belonging to the bride. This 压箱底 term can refer to a few different items including "erotica items," but ultimately whether it be gold or it be erotic art, all were private to the bride only and not to be opened by any other. Without this knowledge one might mistake the scholarly looking motifs as having another meaning.

Are you starting to see how problematic these terms are? Can you see how divorced they are from the cultural realities of the items themselves and how they were used. Terms like “wedding cabinet” or “wedding bed” are simply misnomers, even if they are commonly still used in the English language.

Fun Fact: in some places when funds were limited or some other economic situation limited the options available, it was not uncommon to take an old piece of furniture and re-lacquer it in red; a sort of “upcycling.”

The Role of Zhejiang Furniture

And finally, because of the popularization of the “ten miles of red makeup” concept, what most people think of as “wedding furniture” is actually more often than not, just common furniture from Zhejiang that more often than not ended up coming into existence via the dowry.

Hopefully by now we can see that “wedding furniture” is in fact just “dowry furniture” and even that term can be problematic because for wealthy families, the dowry could have even included ALL the furniture including the outside furniture and even furniture for the ancestral hall. So what are we left with? Just the term “furniture” (家具) with each type given its own unique name. So unless the context is very specifically pertaining to a wedding, in general these western terms are best left unused.

My Chinese Bed!

These 2 sections are from Chris Johnson’s personal website. They are “How to Assemble an Antique Two Room Chinese Wedding Bed” and “My Chinese Bed ” which talks about his quest to find and buy a Chinese wedding bed. As is often the case with the internet, Chris’s page is now long gone. Thankfully, years ago I had already archived them both here. Thanks to Chris for sharing these!

I have a beautiful antique Chinese bed. Simply put- it’s outrageous, and that’s just what I wanted. This is the story of how it came to be mine. When I finally started to settle down in 2000 I began purchasing real furniture. Everything I bought I intend to keep permanently. If I couldn’t find what I wanted I had it custom made, such as a beautiful James Taylor writing desk. I wanted an exotic canopy bed and I asked around to see the most unusual items. I was unable to find anything even close to what I had in mind. Everything seemed so generic and mass-produced.

I spent endless hours searching the Internet and found some antique Chinese beds that piqued my interest. Basically, they were elaborate old canopy beds with nice carving and scrollwork. I struck up a relationship with a Chinese furniture importer who showed me pictures of specific pieces he had in stock or could import. I kept pestering him for more elaborate examples and he showed me more pictures. I ultimately settled on a nice bed, but I expressed that I would really prefer to find something more exotic. He opened up a bit and said he could get something he thought I might be interested in, but that it would require a healthy deposit and a few months time. He showed me pictures of a two-room wedding bed from the mid 19th century. Finally, something interesting! I asked him to find me the largest, most elaborate bed possible on his next buying trip to China. Several months went by with only sporadic e-mail contact between us.

The call came unexpectedly and the good news was that my bed had finally arrived Stateside. We arranged for a couple of his guys to drive the bed to me in a truck, haul it up into my apartment and assemble it in place. A bed like this consists of around 100 discrete pieces that fit together without fasteners. Everything locks together in a deceptively simply arrangement that would have been difficult to figure out on my own.

Orchids are fragrant, Osthmanthus is sweet

This bed was originally built in the mid 19th century, probably for a wealthy merchant. A beautiful inscription that translates into "Orchids are fragrant, Osthmanthus is sweet" hangs over the sleeping chamber. The bed still has the vague smell of camphor wood, of which certain parts are carved. The carvings, painting, gold leaf and detail is simply phenomenal. There are many panels that depict scenes of life in a Chinese village and also carvings of figures from Chinese mythology. There are embedded colored-glass bullseyes, mother-of-pearl inlays, sliding panels and so much more. It's one of those pieces where the closer you look, the more detail you notice. It's endlessly enchanting. And yes- there are several secret compartments built into the structure, but I'll never tell where.

When the bed was finally assembled and towering over my apartment, I was in a state of shock. It was an absolute show stopper! I honestly began to wonder if I had finally gone too far. A lot of people use the phrase “Museum Piece” when they see this bed, and with good reason. Other people have the mistaken impression that I must be a kinky bastard and this is my deviant workbench. But honestly I just think certain things are cool. Hunting down and importing something like this shows the power of persistence coupled with an un-willingness to settle for anything less than the extraordinary. And I’ll tell you this- I sleep like a baby in there. It’s cool, dark, quiet and comfortable.

The right panel scrollwork is carved through cleanly

The old wise-man watches from underneath his jade tree

The squirrels stretch to peer down at you

How to assemble a Chinese Wedding Bed

I have done this myself and its not as bad as it looks, though it takes a few people to do it (I am surprised two was enough). Amazing how the whole thing collapses down, eh? One thing to be careful about – if there is a missing or left behind piece, the whole thing may be impossible to assemble. I had a new reproduction Chinese canopy bed made for my home and due to the effort and labor it takes to make one, it cost me about twice as much as an antique one. Bed’s are funny things in that, Chinese tend not to buy antique wedding beds due to superstitions (namely that someone probably died in them and therefore the bed is probably haunted). Consequently at the time I made mine, antique canopy beds were cheaper then reproductions. However this is no longer the case.

The final assembled bed:

Books about Chinese Weddings

Chinese Birthday, Wedding, Funeral and Other Customs - 1923

Chinese Birthday, Wedding, Funeral and Other Customs by Annie Cormack is a comprehensive guide to the various customs and traditions observed in China for important life events. The book covers a wide range of topics, including the significance of the Chinese zodiac, the importance of auspicious dates, the role of family in Chinese culture, and the customs associated with birth, marriage, death, and other major life events.The author provides detailed explanations of each custom, along with their historical and cultural significance.

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4 Responses

TAN YONG HWE says:

July 19, 2017 at 2:46 pm

I am contemplating of buying one similar set from a friend nearby. It is the real one by the look of the seasoned and worn out wood in certain part of the bed. It is black and has intricate carvings which are so beautiful. The wood is solid and firm. I figure out that this could be 300 years old set. My only problem is where to put this set. I am short of space. It would make a great conversation piece and a pleasure to own one.
TAN YONG HWE says:

July 20, 2017 at 5:46 pm

I must add that it is dull red in colour and not as stated earlier. I am fighting my inner urge to buy this set. It is too beautiful to pass. I am not superstitious about it been haunted. It would be welcoming if the spirit comes along with the set. Someone from the past to chat with.
quail egg says:

March 4, 2019 at 1:27 am

this is so funny! this is MY bed! i mean, my actual bed. i purchased it many years ago. i got it on eBay. that was even the original photo with the red pillows that i requested they send along with the bed, which they did. it arrive gorgeously crated and in great shape. i bought it about 18 years ago. used it in a loft for several years, but sadly it is in storage and has been for the past 9 years. very nice bed. very dreamy to sleep it. everyone thinks they are ‘rare’ (the sellers all say the same thing: commissioned by a wealthy family hundreds of years ago, of such and such dynasty). they are not. they are very nice reproductions that are a joy to sleep in. not worth more than i paid though. $5k that many years go
Roger Schwendeman says:

March 4, 2019 at 8:48 pm

Ha! Thats awesome. Beds like this are a lot of fun. Like little forts or little houses! There are reproductions out there as well, but yours is indeed antique though. At that time they were around and reasonably priced. One of the reasons you can still get antique ones is local Chinese tend to be superstitious about sleeping in antique beds. Although you are correct in the “flowery stories” the sellers make up about them. 🙂