The atlas of Chinese joinery

A groove or rebate cut along one board to receive the edge of another; one of the basic board-to-board joints.

Boards edge-joined with a tongue on one fitting a groove in the other; made in several variants.

Boards edge-joined with tenons of dovetail section, so the joint cannot pull apart across the width.

On everted-end tables, the upturned end and breadboard end cut from one piece.

A face-to-face joint, often used to fix the standing spandrels that brace screens and stands.

Through dovetails, visible on both faces of a board corner.

Two tenons side by side on one member.

Two slats each carry a tenon and swallow each other’s at a mitred corner.

A slat corner where one piece is slotted to clamp the other.

Two slats halved and laid palm to palm at the corner.

Three members crossing at one point, each notched to lock with the others.

Short pieces assembled into swastika and other lattice patterns.

A variant where the apron hooks onto a pin on the leg from behind.

A waisted kang-table corner where apron and leg meet square.

Tall waist with exposed leg posts, often with struts and openwork panels.

Legs tenon straight into the seat frame, with or without wrap-around stretchers.

A table corner where each leg meets two aprons plus a corner spandrel.

Chair back legs run continuously through the seat frame.

A stretcher arched in the middle, often with short struts.

Ways of fitting a corner spandrel: grooved on both sides, or grooved on one and pinned on the other.

Carved blocks between stretcher and top, fixed with loose tenons.

The chair crest rail sleeves over a squared tenon on the leg.

The joint between trestle-table legs and their floor runners.

Posts fixed into heavy feet with standing spandrels for stability.

Curved frame segments joined end to end with loose tenons.

End-joining curved members with hidden or visible tenons.

A sloped, hooked lengthening joint.

A frame with a raised rim to stop spills, panel set below it.

Panel fitting on tables with upturned ends.

A round top built from curved frame segments with a floating panel.

A mitred frame drilled for a woven rattan-and-palm seat.

Assembling short members or small blocks into openwork patterns.

Door stiles extend into pins that pivot in sockets, with no metal hinge.

The joints of box lids, for document boxes and clothes chests.

A wooden key passed through members to lock them.

A wooden locking pin found on official’s hat chairs.

Butt or lapped end joints in the plate beam, with hidden dowels.

A stepped tenon seating a beam end onto a purlin.

A beam threaded through a column with its cut cheeks glued back.

A notched lock joining hip rafters to crossing purlins.

A lap joint pressing members together at the ridge.

Interlocking blocks and arms stacked under the eaves, held by small tenons and dowels.

The classic six-piece burr: notched sticks that lock into a cross.

A nine-piece burr.

A twelve-piece burr.

A twenty-four-piece burr.

A many-piece burr shaped like a pineapple.

A smaller pineapple-shaped burr.

A traditional named burr.

A traditional named burr.

A traditional named burr.

A traditional named burr.

A traditional named burr.

A ball-shaped interlocking puzzle.

A traditional named burr.