Chinese silk fabric
17 min readFabrics are materials for costume making with heat-preservation, soft, good -looking, and trim-fit features, so the advent of fabrics is of great significance for human’s life. Moreover, silk usually has expressive patterns, making it an important and convenient carrier to spread aesthetic fashion. Silk and other fabrics account for a big share in ancient China’s arts and crafts, although survived objects made of silk or other fabrics are outnumbered by ceramics, jade, bronze wares, etc. because the former are hard to preserve.
Early in primitive society, linen, hemp and wool fabrics already emerged, even with simple weaving patterns. In the Shang Dynasty (.1600-C.1046 BC), there were qi silk fabric with meander patterns, and luo silk fabric made using twisted threads. In the Western Zhou Dynasty(1046-771 BC), brocade with colorful patterns has been weaved. During the Spring and Autumn Period (770-475 BC) and Warring States Period(475-221 BC), the silk weaving craft has reached a high level, accompanied by various patterns such as geometric pattern, rhombus pattern,s -shaped- pattern.some of geometric patterns were supplemented by patterns of dragon and phoenix, kylin, and human being. As for so far seen silk fabrics, those unearthed in the No.1 Chu Tomb at Mashan in Jiangling, Hubei Province are considered as the most exquisite ones, covering eight types including juan, luo, gauze, brocade, ti (a kind of smooth and thick silk), tao (silk ribbon), qi, zu ( silk rope ) Among them, the three-colored dancing person and animal patterned brocade has close structure with 143 jacquard healds, sawing the advanced jacquard loom.
In the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), and the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) in particular, the weaving and embroidering techniques developed by leaps and bounds, contributing to the booming silk industry in ancient China. The Qin and Han dynasties had a great variety of silk fabrics, such as brocade, ghatpot, qi, luo, gauze, juan, jian (a kind of rough and thick fabric), hu (a kind of light, thin and rugose silk fabric), gao (a kind of light and fine silk fabric), wan(a kind of pure, white and fine silk fabric), pile -loop brocade, etc. In the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), the silk weaving craft reached superb level, where the gauze could be as thin as cicada’s wings, represented by the “Gauze Gown in Plain Color”unearthed in No. 1 Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha City, Hunan Province. It is 128cm long with entire sleeves of 190cm in length, and weighs only 49g, which has fine structure and evenly eyelets, and is rather delicate. Hu, of only 0.07-0.1cm in thickness, is lighter and softer with more scattered eyelets than plain gauze.
The pile-loop brocade, made by complicated weaving craft, is weaved by virtue of manual jacquard loom and double-beam weaving device, which has stereoscopic impression due to raised wool on the surface. The popular patterns in Han Dynasty’s silk fabrics were clouds pattern, animal pattern, flower pattern, auspicious words and geometric pattern. As for theme and style, the animal patterns in the Western Han Dynasty usually were a small quantity of birds in plain and elegant color; those in the East Han Dynasty (25-220) mainly were a large quantity of colorful and powerful beasts, supplemented by auspicious words. China’s products, represented by silk fabrics were transited into the West via the Silk Road; meanwhile, images such as grape as well as wool fabrics from the West also spread into China. During Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties(220-589), the silk produced in the north had a strong exotic style, and outshined its counterpart produced in the regions south of the Yangtze River. At that time, the Northern China had frequent exchanges with the West, thus parts of brocades were decorated with realistic pattern and linked-pearl pattern sourced from the West. Majun in Cao Wei period (220-266) improved the machine for production of ghatpot, which not only enhanced the machine’s work efficiency, but also brought about exquisite patterns. At the time, the silk weaving industry in the Southern China was in the ascendant, emerging Yangzhou, Jingzhou and other important places. Furthermore, benefited from exchanges and transmission between Chinese and western culture, Xinjiang’s silk weaving industry also started its development. The Tang Dynasty (618-907) boasted advanced silk weaving technique, and a variety of colorful silk products were made on a work-specialization basis. The central government set the Weaving and Dyeing Office to conduct specialized management over production of silk fabrics; the folk silk production spread all over the country and produced large number of products. In high-grade- silks, the brocades were most popular, which, under the influence of western textile culture, were made by adopting jacquard weave with horizontal threads different from traditional vertical thread, and called “Tang brocade” and “horizontal brocade.”Patterns in such brocades were weaved with multilayer multicolored horizontal threads. The weaving machine has complicated structure but convenient operation, which could weave more complicated patterns than that weaving with vertical threads, as well as wide fabrics.
The “horizontal brocade” boasts bright colors rich patterns, and well-marked western characteristics. Additionally, ghatpot, silk fabric with basic characteristics of twill weave, was also prevailing in Tang Dynasty, which had wide varieties. The twined ghatpot produced in regions south of the Yangtze River earned the best renown, which was made of extremely fine silk, following by grinding to let the silk thread as smooth as paper. High quality luo ghatpot was light, thin and gorgeous; the clothes tailored with it were endowed with outstanding charm. Xinqi Embroidery on silk fabrics of the Western Han Dynasty, unearthed in 1972 in the No. 1 Han Dynasty tomb in Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan. Xinqi Embroidery is named after the varying migrant bird-swallow in the pattern. Plain gauze unlined garment of the Western Han Dynasty, kept in Hunan Provincial Museum. Unlined garment in ancient literature refers to garment without lining. It is made of delicately reeled silk with very thin strands, demonstrating that China has mastered sophisticated silk manufacturing techniques as early as in the Western Han Dynasty In the early Tang Dynasty, Dou Shiguan designed and produced a batch of Lingjir (a kind of twill-weave brocade) patterns for the royal court, including sheep, horse, long, phoenix and other birds and beasts that look novel, exquisite and vivid, by adopting the symmetric composition method. Those patterns are known as”Duke Lingyang’s Patterns” because he was promoted to act as duke of Lingyang for this achievement. Generally, we can be seen the symmetric bird and beast image on the internal linked-pearl weave Lingjin. After the 8century, the linked-pearl weave suddenly fell into decline, with a sudden rise of the po-phase flowers (with peony and lotus as main part, the pearls regularly arranged therein as other floral leaves, pistil and petal base, plus multi-layer Tuiyun (integration of more than one color)colors) and realistic painting of flowers and birds.
Since then, there were three themes including birds, flowers and geometric weaves for Chinese silk patterns, of which the proportion of flower weaves gradually increased. In the Song Dynasty, the silk industry had further developed; the center of silk production gradually shifted to the southern regions where Zhejiang played a particularly important role. Song brocade was characterized by the times most, but there are a few physical findings. Song brocade was woven with three kinds of twill weave, two kinds of wrap yarn (using raw silk in natural color as surface and the colored boiled-off- silk as background) and three kinds of colored weft.
It had regular texture and elegant and harmonious colors and mostly used little flower and regular weaves. Song brocade was not only used for clothes, reward and economic trade, but also used as the special material for mounting paintings and calligraphies; it was very popular among calligraphists and painters. Among new varieties of silks in the hinterland, the k’o-ssu would be the top one. It was woven in plain weave, through using boiled-off silks as wefts throughout the whole area of a fabric. The raw silk in natural color was used as the longitude in the process of weaving; then wefts in colors were tatted with small shuttle according to basic picture; finally, there were interspaces between wefts in different colors, e.g.: the chased shape, and therefore k ‘o-ssu was also called as “kesi.” The k’o-ssu was mainly used to copy painting and calligraphy by craving and such copy was in beautiful form and with romantic charm, reflecting that the practical silk weaving process transformed to appreciative one. There has been kesi in the northwest of Tang Dynasty, and as of Song Dynasty the production center had been moved to the east. For main production area of k’o-ssu, it was Dingzhou of Hebei in the Northern Song Dynasty, while it centralized in Yunjian (current Songjiang, Shanghai) and Linan(current Hangzhou, Zhejiang) in the Southerr Song Dynasty. During the period of Song Dynasty, the masters in this aspect came forth in large numbers, such as Zhu Kerou and Shen Zifan. A part of the brocade with the patterns of linked-pearl and knights hunting lions. Exquisitely made, its 6patterns are of the style of the Western Regions: the hunters have an appearance of the northern arbarians; the horses have two wings; the flowers and trees are bizarre; and the lions seem to come from foreign areas. In the late Southern Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, there emerged the water-driven big spinning wheel equipped with dozens of spindles, while its predecessor only had two or three spindles, at most five. The water-driven big spinning wheel is an important invention that Chinese ancient people used natural force for textile machinery, and has the early form of modern spinning machinery, leading the large-scale- specialized production.
Take the spinning for example.the maximum output of a common spinning wheel is 1.5 kilograms everyday, while the output of a big spinning wheel in one day and night is more than 50 kilograms. ①Picture of modern K’o-ssu machine in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province ②Silk tapestry scroll with patterns of flowers and birds, 95.7x38cm, made by Shen Zifan in the Southern Song Dynasty, kept in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Shen Zifan, a master of silk tapestry with cut designs in the Southern Song Dynasty, adopted multiple silk tapestry techniques to fastidiously present the realistic and serene style typical of fine flowers-and-birds painting in the Southern Song Dynasty. Cotton planting originated from the northwest and southwest of China and was popularized in the late Southern Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. Then cotton weaving process had been generalized in wide areas of China thanks to the efforts of Huang Daopo. Huang Daopo had ever learnt cotton spinning in the region of Li nationality of Hainan for thirty years, and then returned to Songjiang, her hometown, taught local people to span cotton and improved instruments. She invented Songjiang cloth and “Wunijing quilt”with fine patterns woven through cuosha(a process of spinning and weaving) and color matching which both had become famous products on both sides of the Yangtze River. In Yuan Dynasty, cotton cloth was gradually generalized and became common people’s main clothing supply in place of linen fabric. Because Mongolian had governed Islamic state, the silk weaving articles made in Yuan Dynasty have full-bodied characteristics of the Western Regions in terms of theme or process. The governors of Yuan Dynasty liked using gold, therefore gilt brocade became fashionable. The gilt brocade was in sumptuous colors, had fine patterns, and can be divided into nashishi and jinduanzi. At that time, nashishi was made by Muslim craftsmen with Western process and ornament material. Such products were mainly produced by workshops of local authorities, and supplied to the emperor, empress and nobility due to the noble grade of quality. The similar brocade is sadakg, traditional product in Central Asia. For Jinduanzi, it adopted Chinese traditional process and ornament; its weavers were mainly from the Han nationality Due to the production of official and private workshops, such products were a bit more and the rich and honor could also enjoy that.
At that time, a kind of satin was called as “Zhusi” which had longer floats on the surface and could embody the smoothness and softness of silk particularly. There have been satins in the Song Dynasty but the quantity was pretty small due to immature skills; after Yuan Dynasty, satin has become the representative of Chinese silk in place of brocade. The silk patterns were mainly flowers, and also included auspicious pattern. Under the influence of Mongolian nomadic people, the ermatoglyphic patterns of animals increased on high-end fabrics and the wool weaving had also developed specially. The varieties of woolens were mainly carpet, bedding, saddle, shoes and hats and so on, whose production areas were Ningxia and Helin (currently belonging to Mongolia). Fine kesi was mainly used for the portraits of former emperors and empresses and the figure of Buddha. Gold-wefted brocade wrap of Buddhist garment with encircling dragon phoenix patterns of the Yuan Dynasty, 43cm in length, kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing. This piece features traditional themes of Han ethnicity like encircling dragons, encircling phoenixes and turtlebacks. It is a gem in gold-wefted brocade works in the Yuan Dynasty with its regular jacquard patterns, uniformly thin gold threads, and pleasant floral patterns and luster. This gold-wefted brocade is a type of golden satin rather than Nasich brocade In Ming Dynasty, silk fabrics were mainly produced from regions south of the Yangtze River, Shanxi, Sichuan, Fujian and Guangdong; the silk weaving in the northern regions gradually decreased; Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces became the center of silk weaving; and Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou,etc. played an important role in official and private weaving. Among high-end silks, satin is on a par with brocade. The two both have abundant colors mainly including red, yellow, blue and green colors, use black, white and gray colors to balance the cool and warm tones therein, and usually adopts gold and silver threads to highlight luxury. The satins in Ming Dynasty could be divided into four types including subtle pattern, Zhijin, Su and Zhuanghua; the satins in the civil society were mainly subtle patterns, while the other three types of satins were often seen on the products of local authorities.
Wherein, Zhuanghua originated from Tang and Song dynasties and became popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The weaver weaved colorful silk threads with weft bobbin twined with colorful knitting wools through the swiveling shuttle (known as”Guoguan ” process; he was weaving when twining the colorful knitting wools. Such product was in many and ordered colors and had vivid and beautiful ornamentations, having a splendid and glorious effect. New important varieties of silks were the Gaiji(the name of a kind of fabric) produced in Fuzhou, Fujian and the Luchou (the name of a kind of fabric)produced in Changzhi, Shanxi. The former had two-layer jacquard brocade and was light and soft with poor fastness, while the latter was thick and well-knit and popular among the emperor, gentries and civilians. Silk cloth in Ming Dynasty was dominated by the flower-pattern one, with the flower highlighted and branches and tendrils weakened. And the brocade decoration was always themed at ancient looking and auspicious images. For example, the “Joyful World,” dating from the auspicious pattern in the Five Dynasties, is composed of lanterns to which the icker is hung and bees flying around, implying the bumper grain harvest; the “Ba Da Yun, “dating from the Five Dynasties, is based on flowers connected by straight lines in the shape of”.” They were already used for silk in the Song Dynasty, and loved by people in the Ming Dynasty. The five-poisonous -creature (polecat, centipede, toad, house lizard, snake, scorpion, etc) pattern, believed to be able to exorcise evil spirits, were the popular auspicious pattern for the Dragon Boat Festival. The “Bu Fu”system(put an embroidered patch to the robe, bird pattern patch for the civil official’s robe and beast-pattern patch for the military official’s robe )in the Ming Dynasty led to the popularity of the bird or beat pattern in the high-class fabrics. The pattern was connected four-square structured, with master patterns and ancillary patterns clearly separated. The master patterns were larger and mostly the front image, and the ancillary patterns were smaller, with the formality and model highlighted and the sense of flow weakened. Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as the production center of silk fabric since the Southern Song Dynasty, take the lead in China in terms of both silk fabric production and quality.
Jiangning (Nanjing), Suzhou and Hangzhou are the most important production places. Besides, Sichuan, Guangdong and some other places are also active in this industry, providing a great variety of fabrics, and well-known for the Nanjing Brocade and Song Brocade. The brocade including jacquard satin (mostly the natural -color patent satin, and also golden ones), tinseled brocade (satin with flower patterns made of gold and silver line), and the Zhuanghua Satin (It is the typical satin of Nanjing Brocade, among which the Jin Bao Di is extremely luxury. Jin Bao Di is the gold line woven base decorated with the colorful line woven flower patterns.) made in Jiangning have compact texture, full patterns, splendid colors, demure patterns, frequently use of gold lines, and bold and unconstrained styles, all called the “Nanjing Brocade” after late Qin Dynasty. A part of the Tianxiale brocade satin of the Ming Dynasty, engraved on the cover of the Tripitaka. The main patterns feature lantern comprising of flower blossoms and geometric designs with colored ribbons and rice ears hanging around it, and a pair of bees flying above the lantern. This picture is a little disorderly in composition but conveys a festive atmosphere The Song Brocade from Suzhou, with patterns imitating that of Song Dynasty, textures smooth, colors coordinated and styles elegant, can be divided into three categories: the heavy brocade, thick and exquisite, colorful and of great variety, with gold lines frequently used.
It is often used as hanging scroll and decorative mat; the fine brocade, moderate in thickness, relatively loose in texture, rich in themes, and moderate in pattern size, varied in layout, and mostly used for mounting and garment; the box brocade, relatively coarse, thin and light, and plain. The pattern is dominated by small-size flower, usually used for decorating the painting and calligraphy purse and box. In addition the velvet from Zhangzhou of Fujian is featured with the longitude-line velvet loop and fluff, plain or flowery, classic in color, luxury and durable. This kind of brocade was mature in technology in Ming Dynasty, Wider in variety and higher in output in Qing Dynasty, especially in Jiangning, Suzhou and Hangzhou, where the product enjoys even higher reputation. The Qing Dynasty silk are mainly decorated with realistic flowers, especially the neolamarckia cadamba, big or small, compact or loose, fresh and natural. The geometric patterns are used as the fame of the pattern or to decorate the edge, finding increasingly more applications. Auspicious patterns are more popular. Although jubilant, sometimes it can be worldly The pattern composition is large and flexible, but the decoration meaning is getting weaker. Silk style in Qing Dynasty can be divided into three stages: early, medium and late stages. In the early stage, the traditional features of silk weaving of Ming Dynasty was followed, mostly the geometric framework, decorated with small flower patterns, and following a strict standards. In the medium stage, affected by European Baroque and Rococo art, the brocade was overelaborate in pattern design and gorgeous in color. In the late stage, the broken-branch flower and big flower pattern was the trend, as well as the plain and coarse style. With the communication between Chinese and Western countries getting more frequent, more European patterns are taken into the silk decoration, and lots of brocade products are exported. A part of the brocade with four-season entangled-branch sanduo patterns, a brocade of the mid Qing Dynasty. The structure is luxuriant and the pattern is delicate with a lucky implied meaning of children, happiness and long life Since the 19 century, the satin brocade industry has developed around Hangzhou. Use the satin as the base, to which the three-color treble jacquard pattern woven. Materials are real silk and man-made silk, and some times both silks are used interlaced. Being thin, colorful and lustrous, it is usually used for daily articles. The soochow brocade, derived from the satin brocade, is primarily decorated with landscape, such as the pavilion and open halls. The “Nine Creeks and Eighteen Gullies” the first silk woven landscape painting in China is made by Du Jinsheng by hand. In 1922, Du Jinsheng founded the Du Jinsheng Silk Weaving Plant in Hanghzou, making silk woven pictures themed at the ten views of the West Lake. Later on, figures, calligraphy and painting were added. He won the gold award at the Philadelphia World Expo in 1926.
Silk spinning and weaving picture Night Tour Picture of Princesses in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, designed by Du Jinsheng in 1926, winning the gold medal of the Exposition in Philadelphia, USA After the Opium War, production of Nanjing Brocade was on decline. The Nanjing Brocade needed in the court was made in the folk workshop, which contributed to the development of silk industry in the folk. At the 1910 Nanyang Commodity Exposition, Banjing Brocade work the”Tuo Luo Jing”won the exceedingly good award, the tinseled brocade, gold and silver hacquard satin,”万”shaped silver tinseled brocade won the gold award, silver award respectively, and the work of Su Wantai and Lu Wanchang from Suzhou won the gold award. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, the foreign wool fabric, velvet were dumped into China, traditional brocade industry such as Nanjing Brocade, Sichuan Brocade, Suzhou Brocade and K”o -ssue industries gradually declines, due to change in public way of dressing and the impact from foreign silk products. In early Republic of China, Chen Zhifo, Lei Guiyuan, Li Youhang and Chai Fei were working hard to develop China’s textile industry and explore the modern fabric design. Jinbaodi brocade with entangled-peony patterns in Nanjing, Jiangsu, designed by Xu Zhongjie and woven through silk gold thread machine in 1970s. Since 1950s, efforts were made to explore the new technology, new material and new design in the modern silk weaving industry. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai were the active places of innovation of silk variety and pattern design.
The silk jacquard design of Zhengjiang, silk printing design of Shanghai and the silk yarn products of Jiangsu were the innovation based on traditional technique, and were the representative of Chinese silk works Suzhou is the center of modern K’o-ssu industry. Based on research on the two-side-identical K’o-ssu, the new product with two sides different in shape and color are created. In 1982, the different-weft weaving method was invented, and the “Red Lotus and Kingfisher”was created. It has different pictures in the two sides. Modern K’o-ssu finds application in screen, central scroll, hanging scrolls, horizontal scroll, hand scroll, album of paintings, round silk fan and other art wares, as well as cushion for leaning on, blanket, belts The folk textile fabrics made by hand in Shandong is dominated by square geometry patterns, fine in workmanship and colorful. Because it resembles the brocade, it was named the “Southwest Shangdong Brocade”or “Lu Jin” in short in 1985. In addition, woolen fabrics also has great variety: woolen goods(wool and cashmere fabric), Tibetan wool (Tibetan handmade wool fabrics, fine and smooth, and soft), felt (wool blanket, carpet etc.). Among them, the carpet enjoys higher artistry and greater variety. Chinese carpets are tough in texture, diverse in style, wide in distribution, and large in output. North China is the main producing areas, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, etc. Aidelaisi silk fabric in Xinjiang in 1980s. The silk fabric is made of silk and is woven after multiple times of dyeing. The colors are rich and bright and the geometric patterns are changeful, making it luxury and unique. Natural woolen carpet in Liaoning, artificially made through tufting in 1995 As for brocade of China’s ethnic minorities, Guangxi brocade uses cotton yarn as warp and velvet as weft, with rhombic shape often used and small flower patterns decorated, rich in subject and implying good wishes. Tujia Brocade of Hunan, also called the “Xi Lan Ka Pu”(embroidered blanket in Tujia language) is composed of longitude and latitude filament or longitude silk and latitude cotton. Mostly are decorated with birds, flowers or landscape patterns, brilliant in color. For the Adlai Silk Cloth of the Uygur in Xinjiang, the longitude filament are dyed in segment and woven to both sides of the cloth, rich in colors.
In addition, the Miao Brocade, Tai Brocade,li Brocade, and Tong Cotton are all of their ethnical features. Modern Chinese textile materials are diverse and of plentiful subjects, demonstrating the modern, traditional and folk element coexisting production pattern. In line with the modern life and production mode, textile production is tending to be simple, practical, natural, and plain, with ethnical tradition and folk characteristics emphasized.
