The earliest tiles existed in the Neolithic Age of primitive society, about 10000 years ago. It was invented at about the same time as pottery.
The semi-circular tile appeared in the Western Han Dynasty.
Xiwa was made in China in the early 11th century BC.
During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, square and long bricks were successively created. The earliest bricks appeared in the tombs of the Warring States period from the fifth century BC to the third century BC. The technology, production scale, quality and fancy varieties of brick making in the Qin and Han dynasties have developed significantly, which is known as "Qin brick and Han tile" in the world.
The firing and use of Chinese architectural pottery began in the early Shang Dynasty. The earliest architectural pottery was ceramic water pipe. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, architectural pottery such as plate tile and tube tile were innovated. In the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang unified China and ended the scuffle among princes. Various regions and nationalities had extensive exchanges, and the economy and culture of the Chinese nation developed rapidly. By the Han Dynasty, the social productive forces had made great progress, and the handicraft industry had made rapid progress. Therefore, the production scale, firing technology, quantity and quality of the pottery industry in the Qin and Han Dynasties exceeded those in any previous era. Architectural pottery in Qin and Han Dynasties played an important role in the pottery industry, among which the most distinctive are portrait bricks and tiles with various patterns, known as "Qin brick and Han tile".
A large number of Qin Dynasty portrait bricks and green paving bricks have been found in the architectural ruins of Xianyang palace in the capital of Qin, Lintong, Fengxiang and other places in Shaanxi. Except that the green paving bricks are plain, most of the brick faces are decorated with sun patterns, meter patterns, small square patterns, parallel lines and so on. It is used as a step or rectangular hollow brick built on the wall. The brick surface or die printed geometric patterns, or the Yin line is engraved with dragon and phoenix patterns. There are also scenes such as model shooting, banquet and so on. The most remarkable thing is the construction project of the Great Wall in the Qin Dynasty. According to the biography of Mengtian in the historical records, "in the 26th year of the first emperor, Mengtian made 30000 people chase Rong Di in the north, collect Henan and build the Great Wall. Due to the terrain, the great wall started from Lintao to the east of Liaoning. It stretches for more than 10000 miles, so he crossed the river to Yangshan and crossed the snake to the north." It is rare in the world to build a magnificent and magnificent Great Wall at the top of high mountains and rivers. Its engineering is grand and uses many bricks.
Hollow brick, a creation of the working people in the Central Plains during the Warring States period, was used as a palace, official office or cemetery building. By the Western Han Dynasty, the production of hollow bricks had a new development. The decorative patterns on the brick surface had a wide range of themes, rich content, concise composition, vivid image and strong lines. It is not only used as building materials, but also used to build portrait brick tombs. This kind of hollow portrait brick is mainly concentrated in the Central Plains, and the portrait content is very rich, including que gate architecture, various characters, music and dance, cars and horses, hunting, animal training, stabbing, birds and animals, myths and stories, etc. These ceramic crafts with artistic value provide us with vivid material materials for studying the social appearance and painting art of the Han Dynasty. By the early Eastern Han Dynasty, the application of hollow brick portraits was extended from the Central Plains to Sichuan. The hollow brick tombs in the central plains were replaced by small bricks in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, while Sichuan continued to the Shu Han Dynasty. The content of portrait bricks in this period is more abundant. Sowing, harvesting, pounding rice, brewing, salt well, prospecting, mulberry garden, etc. reflecting various production activities; There are markets, banquets, games, dances, acrobatics, noble family life, etc. describing social customs; There are also riding trips, que temple, fairy tales and so on. These portrait bricks are the realistic portrayal of social life and production at that time, and are of great value in historical research, scientific research and art.
There are two kinds of building tiles: plate tiles and tube tiles. The production method is to build a cylindrical blank similar to ceramic water pipe with a clay strip pan, and then cut it into two halves to form two semicircular simple tiles. If it is cut into three equal parts, it will become plate tiles. After the tile blank is made, press the circular or semi-circular tile on the front end of the simple tile. The firing of this kind of simple tile and plank tile probably originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It was unearthed in a large number in the palace architectural sites of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Fufeng and Qishan, Shaanxi Province. It reflects the great creation of the working people in ancient China in building pottery and pioneered the construction of tile roofed houses.
The tile is the head of the tube tile, which is mainly used to protect the eaves from being eroded by wind and rain. At the same time, it is full of decorative effect, making the building more gorgeous and brilliant. Tile has a strong artistic style of different times. In the Qin Dynasty, most of the tiles were decorated with round bands, mainly including animal patterns, plant patterns and cloud patterns. There are running deer, standing birds, leopard prints and insects in animal patterns; There are leaf patterns, lotus petal patterns and sunflower patterns in plant patterns. The pattern structure of Moire tile is basically within the scope of the side wheel. The positive and negative sides of the tile are divided into two circles with string patterns. The quarter between the outer circles is filled with various moire patterns, and the inner circle is decorated with square patterns, mesh patterns, dot patterns, four leaf patterns or leaf patterns. This kind of cloud pattern tile was used in the Han Dynasty, but the pattern of the Han Dynasty is thicker than that of the Qin Dynasty. Qin Wadang, there are few words. The Han Dynasty tile is more exquisite in decoration and vivid in appearance. The green dragon, white tiger, rosefinch and Xuanwu tile in Wang Mang period are the representative works of this period. In the Han Dynasty, in addition to the common moire tiles, a large number of them were written tiles, many of which reflected the consciousness and wishes of the rulers at that time, such as "long live dry autumn", "Han and the world", "long life", "long happiness", "great auspiciousness, wealth and suitable Marquis" and so on. These characters are tiled. The fonts include small seal characters, bird and insect seal characters, official script, genuine script, etc. the layout is dense, beautiful, simple and mellow, showing the unique beauty of Chinese characters. Dating and staging of tiles in the Qin and Han Dynasties: from the Qin Dynasty to the early Western Han Dynasty, the tube tiles with round tiles were manufactured by cutting horizontally from the tile barrel to half, and then cutting vertically downward into the tile barrel. The half tile is cut from the central tile barrel. Therefore, there are obvious cutting marks on the back of the tile. By the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the tile making method adopted one-time molding, while the tile barrel was only made into a half barrel, and there was no trace of knife cutting on the back of the tile. In addition, the circular tile with decorative patterns in the Qin Dynasty has no large column in the center, while those in the Han Dynasty must have columns. Qin tile Dang has narrow edges and is made by hand. The width is uneven, and the side wheels of Han tile Dang are neat. The area of Qin tile is small, and the area of Han tile is slightly larger than that of Qin tile.
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