Chapter 8 Section 3 Linen Textile Techniques

The bast fiber of hemp plants is the oldest spinning raw material in the history of our country. Traces of cloth patterns have been found on pottery unearthed from Quanhu Village, Hua County, Shaanxi Province, and Miaodigou Neolithic Site, Sanmenxia, ​​Henan Province. Traces of cloth patterns have also been found in the Neolithic tombs of Dahezhuang and Qinweijia in Linxian County, Gansu Province.Gebu and ramie cloth were also unearthed from the Caoxieshan and Qianshanyang sites in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province at the same time.After analysis, these physical cloth pattern remnants have 10-11 warp and weft threads per square centimeter; The ply yarns are twisted together, and the diameter projection width is 0.45-0.5 mm; the ramie cloth is a plain weave fabric, and there are two kinds of warp and weft yarn densities of 24 and 16 per centimeter, and 30 and 20 per centimeter.These objects fully show that my country already had a certain level of hemp textile technology as early as the Neolithic Age.

Hemp and Ge were the most important textile raw materials in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.There are dozens of places where hemp and geese are mentioned in the book, such as "There is hemp in the hills", "What is hemp like in the house? Heng Congqimu", "He picks Gexi", "Mianmian 藟 [lei base] 藟, "In the Hu of the River", "Ge Zhiqin Xi, Shi Yu Zhonggu, Weiye Momo, It's Mow or Yi", "Sackcloth is like Snow" and so on are all about the planting and processing of Gema, which shows that hemp textile was common at that time. .The level of linen textile technology in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties is also fully demonstrated in the unearthed cultural relics. For example, among the linen cloth unearthed from the Shang Dynasty site in Yongjing, Gansu, there is a piece of cloth whose fineness is almost comparable to modern fine linen.The most astonishing thing is the Shang Dynasty linen unearthed from the Shang Dynasty ruins in Taixi Village, Gaocheng, Hebei. The projected width of the warp is only 0.8-1.0 mm, and the weft is only 0.41 mm.The discovery of these hemp fabrics not only made up for the lack of written records, but also showed that our ancestors had a high degree of skill in spinning hemp fibers during the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, many ramie fabrics were very delicately woven, and some were even comparable to silk.The dignitaries at that time often used exquisite linen fabrics as precious gifts for each other.According to "Zuo Zhuan", in the twenty-ninth year of Duke Xiang (549 BC), Qi Xiangzi Yan Ying personally presented Zheng Xiangzi with 10 pieces of white and declination silk woven silk made in China, and Zichan took a large amount of snow-white silk made in Zheng. The ramie clothes were given back to Yan Ying as a gift.In Changsha Wuxing Pai No. 406 Warring States tomb, several pieces of sackcloth made of plain weave were unearthed. After identification, the warp yarns reached 280 per 10 centimeters, and the weft yarns reached 240 per 10 centimeters. 254 threads and 248 weft yarns of faucet muslin will be tighter by 3.4%.We know that the density of the cloth is closely related to the fineness of the yarn. The greater the density, the finer the yarn, and the corresponding increase in the labor of the spinner. This is one of the reasons why fine linen can be equivalent to silk.

The thickness of linen in ancient times is described by "sheng" or "ji [zongzong]", which is expressed by the number of warp yarns, and 80 warp yarns are called one liter.The standard width of the cloth in the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han Dynasties was two feet and two inches (the Han ruler, which is 44 centimeters today). If you observe the number of rises within this fixed width, you can know the exquisiteness of the cloth.According to this calculation, 80 pieces are one liter, 160 pieces are two liters, and so on, the higher the number of liters, the finer the cloth.Referring to this data, the Warring States linen unearthed in Changsha is actually 15 liters of cloth used as auspicious clothes at that time, but it is not the thinnest. The liters of the thinnest linen can often reach 30 liters. poplin.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, with the advancement of hemp textile technology and the improvement of textile tools, the production capacity of hemp textile became stronger and larger, and the production volume also increased.According to historical records, women in the Han Dynasty often gathered together to weave linen continuously from morning to midnight, sometimes working for 45 days a month, so the amount of cloth weaved increased accordingly.The Tang Dynasty divided the world into 10 roads. According to "New Book of Tang Geography": Jiannan Road (now Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan) and Shannan Road (now Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei, and Henan) in Tang Dynasty. Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Jianzhou and Huainan Road (now Henan, Hubei, Anhui) in Jiangnan Road and many other areas produce hemp or Ge cloth.For a period of time, the total amount of linen and ramie tributes from each Daozhou reached more than 1 million pieces each year.The most was in the fifth year of Tianbao (746 A.D.), reaching more than 10.35 million pieces.One horse at both ends, about 5.2 million horses.The names of some hemp fabrics produced in the Han and Tang dynasties are not difficult to find out now.Only found in the book "Shuowen", there are cyan, 缌 [si private], 緆 [xixi], 緰 [tou cast], (纟慧) [HUI Hui], 纻, 絟 [QUAN circle], 絺, network , Crepe 10 kinds.Some were still used until the Tang Dynasty.緆, 缌, 緰, (纟慧) are all made of hemp.缌 is the fine linen that is woven first (linen yarn) and then weaved, and 緆 is the fine linen that is woven (woven into cloth first) and then woven. White fine linen from Shu.Rice paddies and rice paddies are made of ramie.絟 can also be written as tsuen, which is fine silk cloth, and 纻 is thin and white ramie cloth.絺, 绤, and crepe are woven with kudzu, 絺 is fine Gebu, 绤 is coarse Gebu, and crepe is crepe fine Gebu (woven with two kinds of Ge yarns with different twists arranged alternately).The most famous ones are the "Huangrun cloth" (hemp weaving) woven in Anhan and Shu in the Han Dynasty, the "Langan cloth" (hemp weaving) woven in Ailao, Yunnan, and the "hemp cloth" (hemp weaving) woven in Chu and Mianzhou in the Tang Dynasty. 〕" (linen weaving), "纻赀" (纻絀) weaving in Huangzhou, "Baifu" (纻weaving) weaving in Ying, Chu, Shu, Xuan, Yuan and other states, "women's cloth" weaving in Yongzhou ( hemp weaving).Huangrun cloth, also known as "women's cloth in a tube", is famous for its lightness and thinness. The yarn count is so fine that it is said that the whole cloth can be rolled into a bamboo tube.Langan cloth is a cloth with patterns, not only the yarn count is fine, but also the patterns are very gorgeous. At that time, someone described it as "weaving articles like silk brocade", which means that its beauty can be compared with silk brocade. "Article" means That is, patterns.Maji, 纻赀 are roughly the same as 緰赀, and they are all particularly fine cloths that are first ash-treated and then woven.Baifu is named after Bai, so it must have the characteristics of Bai.During the Han and Tang dynasties, people often used white rice balls as props and held them for dancing, which was called dancing white balls, and its words were also commonly found in ancient Yuefu poems.Because of its freshness, Baifu has been described as "the quality is like light clouds and the color is like silver", and "It looks like the bright moon and the Milky Way". You can imagine the Baifu in the Tang Dynasty, as the poem says.All of these can be used as a reflection of the weaving level of mage fabrics in the Han and Tang dynasties. Although it is impossible to see it concretely, it is still not difficult to infer.

After the Song Dynasty, the production of linen textiles has been further developed, and a multi-spindle large spinning wheel with simultaneous twisting and winding appeared, which greatly improved the spinning efficiency. .In the Song Dynasty, the production areas of linen fabrics were concentrated in the south, especially in Guangxi. It is said that "(Guangxi) is rich in ramie and good at weaving cloth", and "the merchants moved and heard about it".The ramie cloth produced near Guilin has always enjoyed a high reputation for its durability. Zhou Qufei summarized the production process and the reasons for its firmness in "Ling Wai Dai Answer": "The folk weaving cloth is woven with a shaft tied around the waist. In other words, if he wants to dry it, he will move on the axis, (or) he will be sparse and uneven, and it will be very slow. It is very good to buy it for daily use. It is considered that other cloth is the most durable, but its width is narrow. The original reason is that it is covered with rice scorpion heart, burnt ashes and boiled cloth, and then anointed with talcum powder, so that the shuttle is smooth and the cloth is tight." Another ramie fabric produced in Yong (Yongyong) Prefecture, Guangxi——綀 [shu book] son, is also very good.According to the records of Zhou Shu, zizi is made of selected thin and long ramie fiber, which is extremely fine, and has the same weaving effect as the weaving effect of Huangrun cloth in Han Dynasty. (One to two hundred grams in weight), rolled into a small bamboo tube, there is still room for it", used to make summer clothes, very light and cool.Dai Goku of the Southern Song Dynasty once praised it: "Snow is the weft, jade is the warp, one weaves three hands, and weaves a piece of ice." He not only praised its lightness, but also praised it for its good air permeability and hygroscopicity. wear.In addition, Sango cloth and jinjin produced in the Jiangnan area are also very famous.The "mountain back cloth" produced in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province is also called "wrinkle cloth". When weaving, several warp yarns with different twist directions are arranged alternately, and then weft is inserted. Silk woven from silk.Before using it as clothes, "wash it with water", because the warp yarn has a large twist, it swells when it meets water, making the cloth surface shrink, showing a beautiful grain-like pattern ("Jiatai Kuaiji Zhi"), which is similar to the aforementioned The crepe woven with kudzu is similar, so it is also called crepe, and its quality is not inferior to the gauze woven with silk.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, although the production scale of hemp textile was not as good as that of silk and cotton, there were still production of hemp cloth, ramie cloth, Ge cloth, and banana cloth in the Central Plains, Southeast, Southwest and other places, and some local famous products appeared, such as Zhejiang Anji County "When the hemp garden is in full bloom, the shade of the tree [weng Wengshang] is lovely. Weaving it into linen is better than looking elsewhere. Linen is woven by women from home-grown plants."In Quanzhou, Fujian, "the seven counties under the prefecture all produce... ramie cloth, Ge cloth, green linen cloth, jute cloth, banana cloth, etc."There are many kinds of hemp in Rongchang County, Sichuan Province, "every household has a record, and the sound of loom is full of ears".The ramie cloth produced in Taicang, Jiangsu Province is "famous all over the world. Merchants at the age of one year loaned it to the two capitals, and the counties and towns used it for profit."Hubei Huangpi Gebu is extremely exquisite. Tao Yunyi praised it in the poem "Huangpo Ge": "Chu people grow Gebu not hemp, and men and women compete to get it. It is as bright as white and light as yarn, and it is passed down in the inner palace. "During this period, ramie cloth was often interwoven with two or more different fiber warps in large quantities, and many varieties with good performance and quality emerged, such as the interweaving of ramie and silk in Dongguan County, Guangdong Province." The fish jelly cloth with white color like fish jelly is compatible with the characteristics of silk and ramie, the fabric is soft and smooth, and because the ramie yarn in the cloth has some glue that has not been removed, it will gradually degumming during washing, making it "healer" The characteristic of "the whiter the whiter".Another example is the interweaving of ramie and cotton silk in Zhangzhou, Fujian. Due to the difference in thickness of the two yarns, the whole body has obvious horizontal stripes. Plain structure, but has a special visual effect.