Mortise And Tenon Joints And Nails: The Trace Of Nails In Early China

     From the perspective of human civilization development, although nails are small, they play a huge role. Without nails, humans would not be able to invent wheels, and would miss out on the ability to move quickly and over long distances due to the inability to nail horse hooves. They would also be unable to make buildings taller, larger, and more beautiful.

     In China, nails have a very long history of appearance. There is currently no consensus in the academic community on whether nails were first invented by Chinese ancestors or came from external travel. However, it is unknown when Chinese people did not use nails, especially the saying that "ancient Chinese architecture does not require a single nail" is widely circulated. Those who hold this view are resolute in their claims, stating that ancient Chinese architecture does not require nails due to its unique mortise and tenon structure.

     In fact, from the perspective of historical development, nails have never been absent in Chinese architecture, and the mortise and tenon structure is not unique to China. In the popular science masterpiece "A History of Technology" edited by Charles Singer of the University of Oxford in the UK, it is recorded that from the pyramids of Egypt to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, from the Roman Colosseum to ancient Greek temples, the ancestors of both the East and the West used mortise and tenon joints and nails to fix the components. Professor Zhang Jianwei from the School of Culture, Museum and Archaeology at Peking University also pointed out that the use of nails in Chinese ancient architecture is a misunderstanding, and "the various connections of ancient architecture cannot be separated from the use of iron nails.".

     Of course, records of the use of nails in ancient Chinese architecture are also frequently seen in historical records. There are records of nails in literary works as early as the Eastern Wei Dynasty.