Chapter 20 Section 3 Ancient Chromatography

As early as the Zhou Dynasty, my country divided colors into positive colors and secondary colors.Cyan, red, yellow, white, and black are the "square five colors", and green, red, blue, purple, and liu Liu (sulphur) are the "five intermediate colors".The east is blue, the south is red, the west is white, the north is black, and the center is yellow, and it is concluded that between yellow and blue is green, between red and white is red, between blue and white is blue, between red and black is purple, yellow Between black and black is the conclusion of liuhuang.From the perspective of modern color science, the five colors belonging to "positive colors" are the most important basic colors. Among them, cyan, red, and yellow can be blended into various colors in different proportions, so they are also called three primary colors.As for black and white, they are important reference colors for comparing the lightness of various colors.Determining them as "five colors" shows that people at that time knew and used colors at a very high level.

The ancients divided colors into "positive colors" and "secondary colors", which also shows that colors in ancient times were associated with political activities.Because the dignitaries regard the right color as the respect and the second color as the humble, and the right color and the second color cannot be confused, so the kings and nobles at that time were very particular about the color of the clothes they wore, and they did not wear anything other than the right color.There is such a record in the book: "Gentlemen don't decorate with cyanide (deep purple with reddish light) and 緅 (crisp black), and red and purple are not considered obscene." In modern terms, cyanosis, 緅, red, and purple are all in between. The color, the gentleman does not regard it as the color of sacrificial and court clothes.

After the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the gradual and widespread application of various dyeing methods, the color spectrum of fabrics is rich and colorful. Among them, the color spectrum of silk fabrics only includes red, yellow, green, blue, purple, cyan, scarlet (red), black, and twig (orange red). , 纁 (light red), 緅, Qi〔qiqi〕 (green ai color) and many others.Purple was once the most popular of these colors. "Han Feizi Wai Chu Shuo Shang Zuo" records: "Qi Huangong likes to take purple, and the whole country takes purple. When it is time, five elements cannot be purple."

During the Qin and Han dynasties, due to the continuous development of dyeing technology, especially the solution to the purification and storage of plant pigments, as well as the progress of different dyeing and mordant dyeing technologies, the color spectrum of dyed fabrics was further expanded. The color spectrum of fabrics in the Han Dynasty is scattered in various books, among which there are more concentrated records in "Jijiupian" by Shiyou of the Western Han Dynasty, "Shuowen Jiezi" by Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and "Shiming" by Liu Xi of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Arrange the color names or special words recorded in these three books according to the color spectrum, and you can get thirty or forty colors.in:

The similar tones of red are: red, jin, 繎 (ranran), fei, crimson, 纁, 灰, 绵 (wan bowl), 綪, 絑. The similar tones of orange are: twig, 縓 [quan persuade]. Approximate tones of yellow are: turmeric, half see, steamed chestnut, Xiang, silk.Approximate tones of green are: green, 綥〔jiji〕, 綟〔lili〕.Approximate tones of cyan are: blue, 蜟, (纟皮), and 鹱 (cong hurried). The approximate tones of blue are: blue, (废呙) [guo pot].The similar tones of purple are: purple, cyanosis, 缲, 緅. The similar tones of black are: black, soap, (饼 character 饣 for 纟), (纟白) [tan Tan]. The approximate tones of white are: (vegetable spoon) [yao Yao], Wan, tie, [fou no], 緂 [tian sweet].

Although the color tone recorded in ancient documents cannot give us a better understanding of its exact color, a large number of colorful silk, embroidery, linen, and wool fabrics unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha and the Eastern Han Dynasty site in Minfeng, Xinjiang make up for this deficiency. The colors of the fabrics unearthed at these two places include vermilion, crimson, purple, dark green, yellow green, dark light brown, dark light brown, medium yellow, dark blue, royal blue, light blue, silver gray, black, white, and gold and silver.Although they have been buried in the ground for more than two thousand years, their color is still as bright as new and radiant enough to reflect the achievements of the dyeing process and the gorgeous colors of the clothing at that time.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the dyeing technology was further developed. Someone once conducted chromatographic analysis on the brightly colored silk fabrics unearthed in Turpan, and found that only this batch of fabrics had 24 colors, among which the red tones include silver red, water red, scarlet, Crimson red and crimson purple; yellow hues include goose yellow, chrysanthemum yellow, apricot yellow, golden yellow, earthy yellow, tea brown; green and blue hues include egg green, sky blue, emerald blue, sapphire blue, red blue, and navy blue; green hues include lake green and bean green , leaf green, fruit green, dark green, etc.

After the Song Dynasty, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, unprecedented developments have been made in dyeing technology and selection of dyes, and the types of plants used for dyeing have also increased to dozens. The room for choice also promotes a wider spectrum of fabric colors.For example, the red tones include scarlet, lotus red, peach red, water red, wood red, dark red, silver red, carmine, vermilion, bright red, and light red; the yellow tones include yellow, golden, light yellow, willow yellow, bright yellow, ochre, tooth Yellow, valley yellow, beige, agarwood, autumn colors; green tones include green, official green, oil green, bean green, willow green, dark green, sand green, big green; blue tones include blue, sky blue, emerald blue, sapphire blue, stone blue, Sand blue, scallion blue, lake color; cyan hues include cyan, sky blue, yuan qing, grape green, egg green, light cyan, Baotou cyan, snow cyan, azurite, true blue; purple and brown tones include purple, eggplant color, caramel color , lotus root brown, bronze, brown, bean, agarwood, mouse color, tea brown; black and white colors are black, black, black green, white, moon white, ivory white, grass white, light white, silver, jade, reed color, western white, etc.The above list is based on the fabric color and dyeing items listed in the four books "Tiangong Kaiwu", "Tianshui Bingshanlu", "Sericulture Cuisine" and "Suzhou Weaving Bureau Zhi". In fact, it should be far more than this, so Zhang Jian [ Jian Jian〕 said in "Xuehuan Embroidery Spectrum": After combining natural colors such as heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, animals, and plants with shades, 704 colors can be matched.So many colors, especially the clear separation of dozens of similar colors in one hue, can only be achieved by mastering the combination of dyes, formulas and changes in process conditions, which shows that the level of dyeing technology at that time was quite high.