Rattan furniture is one of the oldest furniture varieties in the world, first brought to Europe by European merchant ships in the 17th century. Baskets made of rush were found in Egypt, dating back to 2000 BC, and portraits of eunuchs sitting on wicker chairs are often seen in ancient Roman frescoes. In ancient India and the Philippines, people used rattan to make all kinds of furniture, or cut rattan sticks into very thin and flat rattan, edited into various patterns, used as chair backs, cabinet doors or rattan utensils .

The development and utilization of rattan has a long history. Before the Han Dynasty, high-footed furniture had not yet appeared. Most of the furniture for people to sit and lie down was seats and couches. Among them, there were seats woven by rattan. There are records of rattan seats in ancient books such as "The Biography of Yang Fei", "Chicken Forest Chronicles", and "The Chronicle of Things". Rattan seats were a relatively simple rattan furniture at that time. Since the Han Dynasty, due to the development of productivity and the improvement of rattan craftsmanship, the variety of rattan furniture in our country has increased day by day. The ancient Chinese book "Sui Shu" appeared to use rattan as an offering. The "Zhengde Qiongtai Zhi" and the subsequent "Yachuan Zhi" compiled during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty described the distribution and utilization of palm rattan. Quanzhou Museum in Fujian Province preserved rattan furniture on the sunken ship of Zheng He's voyage to the Western Ocean in the Ming Dynasty, all of which confirm the development level of rattan furniture in China at that time. In the existing exquisite furniture of Ming and Qing Dynasties, there are also seats with rattan seats.