Chapter 9 Chapter Three Ancient Wool Textiles

The wool fiber raw materials used for textiles in ancient my country include wool, cashmere, camel hair, yak hair, rabbit hair and bird feathers, etc. Among them, wool is always the main wool fiber raw material with the largest amount of use, such as felt, blanket, brown, Most of the main woolen textiles in ancient times, such as 罽〔ji吉〕, were made of wool fiber. (1) Wool There are two types of sheep raised in ancient my country: sheep and goats. The wool of sheep is good, and its fibers have many good textile properties, such as good elasticity, warmth, softness, firm texture, and soft luster. The reason is that the scales on the surface are well developed, suitable for curling, and are of great textile value.The main breeds of sheep in ancient my country are Mongolian, Tibetan and Kazakh.The Mongolian species is native to the Mongolian Plateau, and later widely distributed in Inner Mongolia, Northeast China, North China, Northwest China and other places. It is the most widely raised variety in my country.The Tibetan species is native to the Tibetan Plateau, and later widely distributed in Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and other places.Kazakh species are widely distributed in Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and other places.Due to the different natural conditions and pastoral conditions in various regions, many subspecies appear in various places.The wool quality of sheep of different breeds and different origins varies greatly.The wool of Tibetan and Kazakh sheep is relatively good in terms of fineness, length, strength, and elasticity, and can be used to weave fine wool fabrics. The wool of Mongolian sheep is relatively thick and hard, and can be used to weave thicker fabrics and blankets. Especially rugs.Although the Wu sheep, Hu sheep, Xia sheep, and Tong sheep in Jiangnan, Qinjin, and Tongzhou belong to the Mongolian sheep breed, their wool quality is similar to that of the Tibetan sheep after long-term breeding and breeding in the locality.

(2) The textile value of cashmere goat hair is not high, but the fluff under the long hair is a rare textile raw material.The breeding of goats and the utilization of cashmere in my country have gradually developed from Xinjiang to all parts of the Central Plains through the Hexi Corridor.According to Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu", a kind of sheep called Yule (yule) was introduced from the Western Regions in the late Tang Dynasty.The outer wool of this kind of sheep is not very long, but the inner wool is very soft, which can be used to weave fine woolen cloth.Shaanxi people call it "goat" to distinguish it from sheep.This kind of sheep was spread from the Western Regions to Lintao, Gansu, and now Lanzhou has the most, so the fluffy fine cloth comes from Lanzhou, also known as Lanrong.The ethnic minorities in the west call it solitary velvet, which is a very high-grade woolen fabric.

(3) Yak hair The ancients called yak "yak [lili] cattle", and yak wool fabrics were "yak".my country has an early history of using yak wool to weave. In 1957, a site equivalent to the early Zhou Dynasty was discovered in Nuomuhong, Dulan County, Qinghai Province. A batch of wool fabrics were unearthed. There is yak hair in it, which shows that the Qinghai area had begun to use yak hair as a textile raw material at that time.According to other records, the nomadic Xiqiang people living in southwest Gansu, western Sichuan, Qinghai, Tibet and other places lived in tents made of "weaving yak tail" or "羖〔gu股〕 wool" (goat) ("Wei Book · Dangchang Biography").

(4) Camel hair my country's camels are mostly produced in Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and other places, so in ancient times these areas used more camel hair textiles than other areas.Before the Han Dynasty, because the technology of collecting and separating camel hair was not good enough, the quality of the spun camel hair yarn was not high, and it was usually used for blending with wool. The fabrics containing camel hair found in the tomb are all mixed fabrics of camel hair and wool.After arriving in the Han Dynasty, the collection and separation technology has improved, and pure camel plush fabrics have gradually increased.In the Tang Dynasty, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and other places also offered brown and felt made of pure camel hair to the imperial court as local specialties.

(5) Rabbit fur According to records, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Anhui and Jiangsu generally used rabbit fur to weave, which was called rabbit brown.According to another record, the brown rabbit fur made of rabbit fur in the Xuancheng area of ​​Anhui in the Tang Dynasty was as precious as brocade and silk. . (6) The story of "Yong Qingwen mends peacock fur" is well-known in feathers, which makes us no strangers to peacock fur fabrics.In fact, in ancient my country, bird feathers have been used for weaving since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the choice of feathers is not limited to peacock feathers.According to the "Book of Southern Qi·The Biography of Prince Wenhui", the prince asked the weavers to "weave peacock feathers as furs, which are bright and emerald, and are far away from the pheasant (zhi) head." Mao (pheasant) weaving.According to "New Book of Tang Wu Xing Zhi" and other related records: Princess Anle made people combine the feathers of birds to weave the feathers of birds that "see the same color when looking at the front, the same color when looking at the side, the same color in the middle of the day, and the same color in the shadow". After seeing the skirt, the nobles and rich families rushed to imitate it, so that "the feathers of the strange birds and animals in the rivers and mountains were exhausted", which shows that many kinds of bird feathers were also used for weaving in the Tang Dynasty.The weaving process of this kind of bird feather skirt is very noteworthy. It is made by using different yarn twists and feathers of different colors to form different reflections of light under different light intensities.This weaving method is a great invention of textile technology in the Tang Dynasty, which was only seen in the world's textile technology at that time.

Dingling Museum in Beijing preserves a Ming Dynasty Kesi dragon robe and a batch of Ming Dynasty Kesi remnants. Part of the patterned threads on the dragon robe and some flowered weft threads on the Kesi are all twisted with peacock feathers.In an embroidered dragon robe of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty preserved in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the background part of the dragon pattern on the chest is also made of twisted yarn made of peacock hair fibers.These existing cultural relics are the physical evidence of the use of bird feathers for weaving in ancient my country.