Jinxi Ancient Chinese Bricks and Tiles Museum

Jinxi Ancient Chinese Bricks and Tiles Museum

The Jinxi Ancient Chinese Bricks and Tiles Museum is located in the Qing Dynasty building “Ding Residence” on Shangtang Old Street in the ancient town area. It is a unique creation of Jinxi and a national rarity. The museum houses over 2,300 artifacts across 14 categories, including roof tiles, water spouts, ridge components, construction bricks, inscribed bricks, and ritual bricks. From Han Dynasty city bricks, Six Dynasties roof tiles, Western Jin Dynasty dated bricks, and Sui-Tang Dynasty mortise-and-tenon well bricks to those from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Taiping Rebellion period, the Republic of China era, and even blue bricks marked with a five-pointed star, the collection offers a comprehensive chronicle of the evolution of bricks and tiles. The thin roof under-tiles, palm-sized window decorative bricks, millennium-durable tomb bricks, as well as golden bricks fired for a hundred days and soaked in tung oil—all reflect the wisdom and artistic brilliance of ancient Chinese laborers.

The museum treasures the most “primitive” brick yet discovered—dating back 5,500 years, unearthed in 1992 at the Zhao Ling Shan Liangzhu Cultural Site in Zhangpu Town, Kunshan City, one of China’s Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries. This artifact is a remnant from the semi-subterranean dwellings of our ancestors—the Liangzhu people. Made using bamboo and reeds as frameworks, with clay, chaff, and straw mixed together and fired in massive bonfires, archaeologists refer to it as “baked earth,” a “prototype” of bricks and also their “ancestral origin.”

One of the museum’s treasures, the “Copper Sparrow Terrace Tile End,” is a relic from the three terraces—Golden Phoenix, Ice Well, and Copper Sparrow—constructed by Cao Cao in Luoyang, Henan in the fifth year of the Jian’an era. The front of the tile end bears an inscription handwritten by Weng Fanggang, one of the Four Great Calligraphers of the Qing Dynasty: “A natural piece of tile, carved into this wondrous form; dragons and fish dance in the North Sea, rain and dew nourish the center.” The engraver referred to himself as the “Iron Brush Taoist” and added a note: “This tile was found in the wild grasses of Luoyang; its clay is fine and compact, its nature tough and enduring; a true antique, a perpetual keepsake from the Copper Sparrow Terrace…” The back of the cylindrical tile is inscribed with the date “Made in the third month of the fifth year of Jian’an.”

Another precious item is a decorative brick from the Qin Dynasty’s Wangyi Palace, dating back 2,100 years, and the most well-preserved in terms of pattern and design among all ancient bricks unearthed in Xianyang, Shaanxi. Made from sandy soil, each side of the brick is over one foot long, with a yellow-brown surface engraved with four stylized meander patterns. The lines are simple and smooth, the edges distinct, all exuding an ancient, weathered beauty that showcases the highest artistic level of Qin Dynasty brick-making.

The Western Han Dynasty tomb bricks, also known as “qin bricks,” measure 1.12 meters in length, 0.25 meters in width, and 0.19 meters in thickness. They are hollow, thin-walled bricks with diamond-patterned carvings on the surface. Used in constructing tombs during the Western Han Dynasty and later repurposed by the Ming people to hold guqin (ancient zithers), these hollow bricks resonate softly when tapped, creating a sympathetic vibration that enhances the tonal quality and resonance of the instrument’s music.