Daily lacquerware packaging in Han Tombs at Mawang

Daily lacquerware packaging in Mawangdui Han tomb in the early 1970s, a large number of exquisite cultural relics were unearthed in Mawangdui Han tomb. Among them, the toilet boxes, boxes and plates in daily lacquerware intensively reflect the ideas and methods of lacquerware craftsmen who solved packaging design problems more than 2000 years ago. To sum up, from the perspective of packaging form, these lacquerware are mainly divided into combined, serialized packaging and collective packaging

I. combined and serialized packaging

among the daily lacquerware unearthed from the Han tomb in Mawangdui, the lacquered toilet box ① containing cosmetics, spices and other items adopts the combined design of double-layer structure and multiple sub boxes, which is a typical combined and serialized packaging design. Among the 15 lacquered toilet boxes in Mawangdui tomb No. 3, there are 5 double-layer combined lacquered boxes, while the double-layer nine child toilet boxes in tomb No. 1 (Figure 1) are the concentrated embodiment of the combined and serialized packaging design concept. The reduction of double-layer Jiuzi wood flour is less than 3%. It is expected that the domestic scrap market will continue to operate at a low level in the near future. There are three parts: the upper and lower layers, together with the cover. Gloves, scarves and other items are placed on the upper layer, and there are nine small boxes on the lower layer, containing white powder, paint, rouge and other cosmetics and powder puffs, as well as wigs, combs, combs, etc. The shape of the upper lacquer ware is "convex", the upper half is sleeved with the outer cover, and the lower half is sleeved with the lower body. The full height of the three parts is 20.8 cm; The bottom plate of the lower lacquerware is 5cm thick, 9 grooves with a depth of 3cm are chiseled, and 9 oval, circular, rectangular and horseshoe shaped small boxes are placed. These 9 small boxes have different sizes and shapes, which are very skillfully suitable for the large box with a circular bottom [3]. This ingenious design perfectly deals with the combination relationship between sub boxes of different sizes and shapes. The overall and local coordination of the paint box realizes the rationality of function and the originality of form

like the shape and structural design of the container, this double-layer nine son toilet box also embodies the ideological essence of serialized packaging design in color design and decoration design. In terms of color design, both the outer box and the nine small boxes are painted with ② black brown primer, and then gold foil is pasted on the paint. The gold foil is uniformly painted with three colors of gold, white and red, and the color is gorgeous; In terms of decoration design, the unified use of smooth lines of moire patterns, with high painting skills. This coordination of color and decoration makes this combined and serialized package obtain a highly integrated visual image

II. Set packaging

as a multi piece packaging method, set packaging mainly refers to the complete packaging of multiple products of the same kind. Collective packaging design usually makes full use of the morphological characteristics of the product itself as the interior to promote the personalized customized structural design and modeling design of the packaging container, and achieves the purpose of multi piece packaging through the separation and combination of the internal space of the container [4]

the cup box ③ (Figure 3) unearthed from tomb 1 of Mawangdui is a work of collective packaging. This cup box is oval in shape and is made up of the upper cover and the body with a child and mother mouth. There are 7 ear cups of the same size in the cup box, of which 6 are buckled clockwise and 1 is buckled reversely. The cross section of the two ears of the reverse buckled ear cup is triangular, which is connected with the other 6 ear cups stacked clockwise, and the design is very clever; Moreover, the whole internal structure design is very compact and stable, which is integrated with the external container shape as a nano friction and wear tester

in modern packaging design, there are many excellent collective packaging designs (Figure 4). However, there are also a large number of unreasonable over packaging in the market. This kind of packaging design mainly has the following defects: not only the external form of the container is mediocre, but also the internal structure of the container is loose, and there is a lack of in-depth consideration of the shape of the inner contents, which makes the volume of the packaging container inconsistent with the actual size of the packed object. This kind of design not only wastes material resources, but also deceives consumers to varying degrees. As an example of collective packaging, cup box is really worth learning from today's packaging design practitioners

III. design features

these daily-use lacquerware mainly have the following design features:

first, the overall beauty of the form of utensils. No matter the lacquered toilet box or the ear cup box, no matter what form it adopts, its design always pays attention to the organic unity of sub box and master box, part and whole, and fully reflects the harmony and sense of integrity in the shape, color and decoration of utensils

second, the beauty of container structure. These lacquerware showed ingenuity in the structural design of the container. Lacquerware craftsmen made full use of the morphological characteristics of the interior parts themselves, worked hard to manage the spatial layout inside the container, and achieved amazing results

third, among these lacquerware as daily necessities, the designers have fully considered the practical functions of the utensils and designed them from the inside out, so that the external form of the utensils is unified with their functions, which also reflects the idea of "preparing things for use" in ancient Chinese design

the daily-use lacquerware of Mawangdui Han tomb has an artistic level that is difficult for future generations to reach, and has high design value and cultural value. Through the analysis of the typical utensils with packaging form and some comparisons with modern packaging design, it is not difficult to see the similarity and inheritance relationship between the two in the design concept. A systematic and in-depth study of them and the absorption of nutrients will provide ideas and methods of great reference for today's packaging design to the future

notes: ① toilet box: refers to the box used by ancient women for dressing

② paint: that is, paint on the utensils

③ cup box: a set box composed of ear cups for drinking

-- Huang Yanan, Hunan University, who can

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