China Glazed Tiles

China Glazed Tiles

The glazed tiles, as a high-grade building material in ancient China, were used exclusively

on palace buildings of the imperial house. As early as the North and South dynasties the

glazed tiles were used on architecture as roof ornaments .Till Yuan dynasty the glazed tiles

were used for palace buildings on a large scale. Ming tombs and Nine Dragon Screen Wall

are the masterpiece in the history of architecture.

The glaze was normally in one of four colors: yellow, green, blue and black. Tiles were fired

and coated with it not only add splendour to the buildings but also, in old times, carried a

political significance.

Yellow glazed tiles were reserved for use on the roofs of imperial palaces, mausoleums,

imperial gardens and temples. This, it is said, was because yellow is the color of the Yellow

River, which was believed to be the cradle of the Chinese civilization. Yellow, therefore, was

taken as the cardinal color and became the imperial color to be used exclusively by the rulers.

It can be seen that the colors of the roof tiles indicated the positions of the people who lived

in the house. Even in the same part, for example the Summer Palace of Beijing, different

colored tiles were used for different houses.  The groups of halls and pavilions used by

the monarch and his family have yellow roofs. Whereas the house for the officials have

green roofs. As for other structures for landscaping or for the accommodation of people

without a senior rank, they have as a rule black tiles.

                                                                     ------  reprint news of China Royal Gardens