Page "Brick" Paragraph 21

In pre-modern China, brick-making was the job of a lowly and unskilled artisan, but a kiln master was respected as a step above the former.

Early traces of bricks were found in a ruin site in Xi ' an in 2009 dated back about 3800 years ago.

Before this discovery, it is widely believed that bricks appeared about 3000 years ago in the Western Zhou dynasty since the earliest bricks were found in Western Zhou ruins.

These bricks are the earliest bricks discovered that were made by a fired process.

Early descriptions of the production process and glazing techniques used for bricks can be found in the Song Dynasty carpenter's manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 by the government official Li Jie, who was put in charge of overseeing public works for the central government's construction agency.

The historian Timothy Brook writes of the production process in Ming Dynasty China ( aided with visual illustrations from the Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedic text published in 1637 ):