Chapter 20 Chapter 20 "Ming Jin" Inscription

Sericulture and silk weaving in China originated before history.By the time of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, it was already possible to weave silk with exquisite patterns.Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, history has entered a new stage. Men farming and women weaving are the main form of social production and the main source of state taxes. As a result, general textiles have been generally improved, and silk products have been highly developed.According to the records in the "Book of Rites", "Yue Ling", "King Zhi" and "Kao Gong Ji", there were special officials in charge of silk and dyeing at that time, and Chu State also had a special official in charge of the production of indigo. Yin" worker.The weight, length, and width of textiles have certain standard measurements. Any produced products that do not meet the specifications cannot be used to pay taxes, and are not allowed to be sold on the market.In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the beautiful brocade produced by Chenliuxiang, and the thin Luoqiqi onyx and exquisite embroidery produced by Qilu were famous all over the country. They not only occupied an important position in the economy, but also reached a high level in craftsmanship.In recent years, several patterns of silk have been unearthed from Chu tombs in Changsha, which proves that the quality of silk fabrics at that time has been greatly improved.

After the completion of the unified empire of the Han Dynasty, the society has further developed.Shandong special silk fabrics, the state specially set up officials to supervise the production.There are also east and west weaving rooms in Chang'an, which are in charge of the "Weaving Room Order".The Western Han Dynasty began to export a large number of Jinxiu Luo.As far as Korea and Mongolia, as far as Rome and Persia, they all value China's splendor.This exquisite product has made a great contribution to world culture.At the same time, the woolen fabrics 氍毹, 毹, and flower woven by workers in the northwest, yellow fine cloth in tubes, white folds, and railing kapok cloth woven in the southwest have also reached a high level of craftsmanship, and their economic value is no less than that of the Central Plains Jinxiu.In the past fifty years, due to the continuous discovery of underground materials, the correctness of historical documents has been fully proved.We also use this to understand that the rhomboid silk fabrics and various moiré embroidery patterns are mostly from the Warring States period, and are related to the patterns of lacquerware, gold and silverware at that time.Tigers, leopards, bears, deer, geese, and celestial feathers parade in the clouds, all of which are the basic patterns of general decorative art in the Han Dynasty, and they are a new development, perhaps created in the era of Emperor Wu, so they are also reflected in the high-grade silk fabrics at that time In the brocade pattern, it becomes the theme of the brocade pattern.Many brocades also weave people's names and auspicious characters.The dyes used at that time were only the roots and leaves of safflower, comfrey, oak bucket, green reed, blue indigo, yellow gardenia, and gallnut, as well as extremely cheap black alum and green alum.After two thousand years, the splendor excavated from the ground is still as bright as new.Ancient Chinese workers also created miracles in the progress of printing and dyeing technology, just like jacquard technology.Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xishu brocade has become famous. In addition to the colorful brocade, there has been the emergence of gold brocade.During the Three Kingdoms period, Ma Jun improved the brocade machine and simplified the jacquard procedures. After the Jin Dynasty, the production was further improved. The Wen Qi brocade described in "Old Things in the East Palace" has seen many new changes in its patterns.As for the brocade weaving industry in central Sichuan, until the Song Dynasty, it was still in a leading position in the country, producing products and exporting a large number of them overseas.

Since the Six Dynasties, Dingzhou in the north and Guangling in the south have gradually become the centers for the production of high-grade silk fabrics, and the patterns have also undergone new developments.Except for the "Big and Small Brightness", "Big and Small Tenggao", "Hu Wen", and "Leopard Head" mentioned in "Ye Zhong Ji", which still follow the style of the Han Dynasty, there are several kinds of flowers and birds that are loved by most people, such as lotus among flowers. Lotus, peony, hibiscus, crabapple, mandarin duck, pulsatilla, and sparrow among birds also gradually appeared in Jinxiu, which had an important influence on the patterns of silk fabrics after the Sui and Tang Dynasties.Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was a very extravagant feudal emperor. It is said that when the canal was first opened, he took a boat to cruise the south of the Yangtze River, and used colorful brocade as a sail to stretch ten miles.Tang poets chanted "Sui Dike" in the poem "The spring breeze cuts down the palace brocade, half as a barrier and half as a sail", "Hundreds of brocade sails are full of wind, and the golden hibiscus is spread all over the sky". How much manpower and material resources have been spent, but on the one hand, we can see the mass production of silk fabrics and the new trend of pattern development.Most of the famous brocade samples in the Tang Dynasty came from Dou Shilun, who was a Taiwan official in Yizhou in the early Tang Dynasty.Zhang Yanyuan mentioned in his "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" that there are more than ten styles of Ruijin, Tianma Qilin, flowers and trees facing deer, pairing pheasants, fighting sheep, Xiangfeng, and Youlin. It was still popular in the rest of the year.Because Dou Shilun was named "Lingyang Gong", people at that time called this kind of brocade "Lingyang Gong sample".The silk fabrics unearthed in the Northwest in recent years, and the silk fabrics handed down to Japan in the Tang Dynasty and preserved until today, can also see the special style of Shanling Yanggong Brocade, which integrates magnificence and beauty, and has developed a new look in decorative arts.The official uniforms of the Tang Dynasty mostly used natural colored silk, and birds carried flowers as the theme. According to different grades, each had different colors and styles.In addition, those used on women's singing shirts and dance skirts mostly depict flowers, birds, bees and butterflies;In addition to weaving, it can be divided into painting, embroidery and gilding and silver processing.Generally, mattresses and screens are used, such as Fang Shengping chess grid, big and small treasure photos, pan sash, scorpion and so on.These products have gradually become the general pattern of silk fabrics and have been widely developed.During this period, the printing and dyeing art from the Southwest folk since the Six Dynasties was developed, which can be roughly divided into three categories: "twisted valerian", "clamped valerian" and "wax valerian". "Twisting valerian" often forms a halo effect, "clamping valerian" is the predecessor of blue ground white calico, and "wax valerian" has more than three colors; both single-color dyeing and double-color dyeing have achieved great success.There are several types of printing and dyeing patterns: group flowers, continuous branches and small clusters of flowers.At the same time, foreign patterns are also integrated into the original Chinese decorative patterns, and the patterns of silk fabrics are therefore more diverse.The discovery of a large number of silk brocades in the Dunhuang Grottoes and the unearthed silk with patterns in various places in Xinjiang have enriched our knowledge in this area.In the Song Dynasty, silk fabrics developed sketches and brocade patterns, becoming a handicraft with more complex colors.Kesi originated from weaving in the Han Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the sketches of flowers and birds by famous painters Huang Quan and Cui Bai were meticulously reflected in the new production, and achieved unprecedented achievements.According to the government system of the Song Dynasty, "official jacket brocade" must be distributed every year according to their grades. There are seven grades in total, and they are given to all senior officials, each with a certain pattern.Such as Cui Mao, Yi Nan, Yunyan Fine Brocade, Lion, Lianque, Baozhao Large Flower Brocade, and Baozhao Medium Flower Brocade.There are also Daoxian, Qiulu, Persimmon Red Turtle, and Suozi brocades.Although the real objects were rare at that time, we can also use this to understand the value and grade of these brocades from the comparison of the names and the later real objects.The Tea Horse Department, which is in charge of the tea horse trade in the country, also set up a special brocade workshop in Sichuan to weave various brocades loved by the northwest and southwest ethnic groups as materials for exchanging tea horses.Yinanbaizi, green red quilt brocade, Baozhao brocade, and Qiulu brocade are mostly developed in this stage.

The above is just a brief overview of the production and pattern development of silk fabrics in my country before the Ming Dynasty. It can be used as a clue for us to understand the silk fabrics of the Ming Dynasty and before the Ming Dynasty. Let us understand that the achievements of Chinese silk fabrics are inseparable from an excellent craft tradition.It is developed from the old foundation, developed with the times, continuously improved, and enriched with various new contents. The sources of the materials in this collection are all from the cover of the Tripitaka published in the Ming Dynasty.The scriptures were published in the Yongle orthodox period in the early Ming Dynasty, and were completed in the Wanli period.The materials for these mounted scriptures are mostly taken from the inner warehouse and the four warehouses of "Chengyun", "Guanghui", "Guangying" and "Stealing Punishment". of old materials.Most of the materials can represent the products of the early Ming Dynasty.The styles of pattern design, some are rich and vigorous, some are beautiful and lively, and all of them are handled properly.Especially with the color, it can be said to be rich and bold.Among them, the thread-sprinkling embroidery inherited the production method of the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, it may be called "carved color work", which means that the color matching is like filling color. "Lady on a swing" is a common theme in craft patterns of the Ming Dynasty, and it is often used in lacquerware, painted and blue-and-white porcelain made by various methods such as "painting gold", "embedding", and "carving and filling".This embroidered work is bright and emerald, which is nothing more than a genre painting with beautiful sentiment.Very important are a few pieces of double-color halo brocade, which may have been produced before the Ming Dynasty. This style originated in the Song Dynasty.The color scheme is Danbi, black and yellow, mixed and mixed, achieving the extremely high effect of brocade fabric colors.Lantern brocade was founded in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it is also known as "Qingfengnian" and "Tianxiale".Since Wen Yan Boshou Chengdu weaves the pattern of golden thread lotus in the center and the pattern of golden brocade, here are a few different styles.In the middle of one piece, corn tassels are hung beside the lamp, and there are bees flying under the lamp, which is a metaphor for the meaning of "five grains are plentiful".This kind of theme popular with the people was widely used after the Song Dynasty, and it has been inherited, and it has even been developed to the table and chairs.Until modern times, Southwest folk embroidered aprons, headscarves and pillowcases, and often used it as a theme.The theme of requiring the development of production and hanging lanterns and festoons to celebrate the harvest of agricultural products is of positive significance and also expresses the people's desire for life.Although these colorful brocades are not in the style of Shu brocade in Song Dynasty, the style is obviously developed from Shu brocade.The styles of Fang Shengping Chess Grid, Fang Sheng Heluo, Guizilongwen, and Tuanfeng are also similar to the architectural paintings in the book "Building French Style" written by Li Jie (Ming Zhong) in the Song Dynasty.In addition, such patterns as Xiangluan, Wufeng, Yuyu, and Ruyiyun are all lively, elegant and generous, and their artistic achievements are fresh and realistic.Large and small twigs became popular in the Tang Dynasty. At first, large twigs were mostly used for gold decoration of Buddha's rings, while small twigs were mostly used for women's dresses.In the Song Dynasty, the scope of use was expanded, especially the use of large flowers for the curtain wall, which has become a common practice.During the Jin Dynasty, the official uniforms of the Jurchens were more clearly recorded, and the ranks were determined by the size of the flowers on the twigs.For the curtains and tents of officials above the third rank, large twigs are allowed, and other small twigs are used.Therefore, the flowers change a lot, and the matching colors are more unique.Some of the weaving gold may still be the style of Nashishi Jinjin Brocade in the Yuan Dynasty.Mongolian aristocrats usually use nashi and lose it on the edge of their collars, and it is even more indispensable in official uniforms when the imperial court holds "Ji Sun Yan".Scattered flowers can be roughly divided into two types: Small clusters of regular flowers originated in the Tang Dynasty, which are charming in simplicity and well-organized, which Tang people are good at.The painting of raw flowers was popular in the Song Dynasty, and the colorful ones should be called "shengsehua".There are several different styles collected in this collection, and different design methods can also be seen.The other kinds of broken branches may have been influenced by the method of dyeing valerian in the Song Dynasty.In particular, several kinds of light brown satins with light flowers can be considered as produced in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.It is prohibited to take "brown ground white flower" silk fabrics, which can be seen in the government decree. Because the dyeing of valerian was limited to military use in the early Northern Song Dynasty, the popularity of flower boards for printing and dyeing was also prohibited.The valerian pattern in the Northern Song Dynasty can be found in the halogen book of "Song History·Yu Fu Zhi" in great detail.It is possible that the forbidden brown ground white flowers are the ones that the Khitan people used.In the Southern Song Dynasty, dyeing valerian has become general and has been given opportunities for development.In the Yuan Dynasty, brown was not important for official products, but the people liked brown very much. Tao Zongyi's "Stop Genglu" mentioned about twenty different kinds of brown.The silver-brown "falling flowers and flowing water" Hualing in this episode can be said to be a work with ingenious conception and boldness.

The above types of brocades have their own importance in the history of the development of silk fabric patterns in my country.If we further pay attention to linking it with the colored paintings and sculptures of the Tang and Song Dynasties, Yufu Zhi in the historical books of the past dynasties, and other documents and objects, it will inevitably trigger many new problems, and such problems were impossible to deal with in the past, but now there are Abundant physical objects, and then corroborated by historical knowledge, are relatively easy to solve.As far as we know so far, there are at least a thousand different patterns of Jingmian brocade in China that exist in China.This precious heritage contains very rich content, which can be used as the basis for studying the patterns of silk fabrics in the Ming Dynasty, and it is also the gateway to further study the patterns of silk fabrics in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.It is necessary to understand, analyze and compare in a comprehensive and in-depth manner before we can expect to draw more correct conclusions.What is mentioned here is just a brief description of the works selected in this catalogue.

The most difficult thing to preserve in ancient arts and crafts is none other than silk fabrics.In the past, the research on ancient fine arts was mostly limited to bronze, porcelain, calligraphy and painting, and silk and satin were not considered as an important part of Chinese fine arts. Therefore, many relics of the past dynasties were mostly destroyed in frequent neglect.The brocades of the Han Dynasty were preserved because they were buried in the dry desert, and the brocades of the Tang Dynasty were also preserved accidentally in the desert and in the caves of Dunhuang.Fortunately, a small part of the brocades from the Song and Yuan dynasties can be preserved, which is the result of being cut into fragments and then used on calligraphy and painting bag headers and album covers.The content of the Ming brocade can only be seen from the cover of the remaining "Tripitaka" in its original appearance.The new production deviates from the excellent national art tradition, so it is naturally difficult to expect to develop.Especially in the past 50 years, due to the economic and cultural aggression of various countries on our country, the dumping of various inferior textiles and the dumping of rayon, China's general textile production has been severely damaged, and patterns have gradually formed a semi- The vulgar taste of colonialization has completely lost the original healthy and gorgeous national style.Only in recent years has this situation been substantially corrected.At present, in order to develop new production, restore the inherent fine traditions of our country’s dyeing and weaving technology, and eliminate the adverse effects of semi-colonialization left in the past, it is hoped that artists will design thousands of new works with bright colors and generous patterns to meet the people’s ever-growing cultural requirements. , the first thing encountered here is exactly how to improve the problem of dyeing and weaving patterns.The publication of such brocade references is therefore important to the applied arts community.These patterns from the hands of ancient weavers will certainly help artists and inspire their creative enthusiasm, resulting in many new products that are popular with the people.

The collection and compilation of materials in this book is the result of Mr. Li Xingnan's 20 years of enthusiastic service in the Palace Museum.Mr. Li noticed this issue in his spare time and showed his enthusiasm for protecting the national cultural heritage, which is worthy of respect and thanks. Written in Beijing History Museum in 1954 (Originally published in "Ming Brocade", People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1955)