What was the interior of the ancient sedan chair like? Is it the same as on TV?

In ancient times, marriage was a woman's only life value and destiny. Therefore, the grand ceremony and complicated procedures in ancient times are unimaginable in modern society. Today, let's get a glimpse of how grand the ancient traditional wedding in China is through the sedan chair where the ancient bride got married.

I believe everyone has seen this kind of thing in TV series. This kind of thing is a necessary means of transportation for ancient dignitaries to travel, and most people can't afford it. People in the Han Dynasty called the sedan chair "Yu", because it was supported by shoulders, so it was also called "Shoulder Yu". Sedan chair is a special kind of sedan chair, also called Xi sedan chair, which was specially designed for the bride when the ancients got married.

The sedan chair, which is usually used as a means of transportation, is more comfortable and durable, but its appearance is too exaggerated and easy to attract attention, which does not conform to the golden mean emphasized by the ancients. But the sedan chair is different. This kind of sedan chair for marriage is extremely luxurious, and all kinds of decorations are quite gorgeous. The sedan chair is red. It should be sewn with red satin and decorated with dragon, phoenix and crane.

Of course, the sedan chair used by ordinary people to get married is definitely different from that used by the emperor's old son to marry his daughter. The royal family used a "dragon and phoenix sedan chair", the merchants used a "star crown sedan chair", the squire used a "rich peony sedan chair", and ordinary people could only use a "soft sedan chair".

However, the above types of sedan chairs are only suitable for first marriage. If you remarry, you can't take a sedan chair, you must take a "colorful sedan chair". However, this is limited to legally married women. If it's a concubine, you don't even have to sit in a sedan chair. You must sneak in through the back or side door.

However, it should be emphasized that the sedan chair used in most film and television dramas is very different from the real sedan chair in ancient times. The luxury of ancient sedan chairs far exceeds the sedan chairs we see on the screen, and it is not lost to today's millions of luxury cars. In the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, there is an ancient gold foil applique sedan chair called "the treasure of the town hall", which can give us a glimpse of how luxurious the ancient sedan chair is.

This kind of sedan chair is a special sedan chair used in Ningbo and other places in the late Qing Dynasty. Because of its exquisite craftsmanship, it is also known as the "Wangong sedan chair". It is 150 long, 90 wide and 275 cm high. Carved out of wood, covered with vermicelli, and then pasted with gold foil. The exquisite degree of this sedan chair absolutely kills any sedan chair you have ever seen, and it is listed as a national first-class cultural relic.

At the top of the sedan chair is a tin three-dimensional lotus, which has always occupied a very lofty position in ancient China, symbolizing noble dust. Lotus is decorated with golden carvings, followed by ancient embroidery, pearls and glass paintings. The whole sedan chair is glittering with various figures, flowers and birds, as many as 24 phoenixes, 38 dragons, 54 cranes and 74 magpies. The shape is quite gorgeous, and the meaning is extremely beautiful.

As a product of modern industry, nails were definitely not available in ancient times, so this universal sedan chair is also complete, without any nails, and it is completely spliced by tenon-mortise structure. The complexity and exquisiteness of its technology are amazing.

This sedan chair is also amazing, that is, it has no door, but is made up of hundreds of detachable flower boards. Before the bride gets on the sedan chair, the flower board is removed to a place where people can pass. After the bride gets on the sedan chair, she puts on the flower board, and then removes the flower board to let the bride down. To tell a joke, it seems that it is not ordinary for the bride to escape marriage on this sedan chair road.