The flexible rainbow 18 | chu country's exquisite skills to win one "China first" after another!
Text/Zhang Weiping
At that time, the cleaning room of the silk fabrics unearthed from the Mashan No. 1 Chu Tomb was set up in a hall of three or four hundred square meters on the third floor of the Jingzhou Museum, and before the unearthed silk fabrics were transported, the staff first laid layers of wooden planks on the ground, then laid a large white solid cloth, and closed all the doors and windows and thoroughly disinfected them.
But why should these newly unearthed silk fabrics be unfolded and hung on a truly good white cloth?
Wu Shunqing explained: "Before that, we had done a special experiment to place the fragments of ancient silk that had just been unearthed on pure cotton, silk and really good cloth, but after a few days, those cotton and silk had mildew spots. The test shows that only by drying the unearthed silk fabric in a solid cloth with relatively low water absorption performance can the problem of moldy interlining be prevented. "Archaeologists have carried out preliminary collation and research on the newly excavated silk fabrics, and there have been many new discoveries.
Silk is the most used in Warring States silk. The Warring States silk unearthed this time, the largest density of longitude and latitude reached 158×70 per square centimeter, which is more delicate than the silk of the Spring and Autumn Period, the color is very gorgeous, and the dyeing varieties of silk have increased a lot compared with before.
According to literature, brocade is one of the most distinctive types of silk in the Chu kingdom. There are many kinds of brocade excavated from the Mashan No. 1 Chu Tomb, including 6 kinds of two-color brocade such as tower-shaped brocade, and 3 kinds of three-color brocade, such as dancers, animals, and brocade. Dancers, animals, and brocade patterns run through the whole width, and 143 jacquard rounds are used in weaving, which fully reflects the already advanced jacquard looms and skilled weaving techniques at that time.
During the highly creative Warring States period, the Chu state produced new varieties such as tassels, groups, tassels, and silks. The number of Tassels excavated from the Tomb of Chu No. 1 in Mashan is relatively large. Weft tapestry and knitting is an important innovation in the silk weaving technology of the Warring States, the structure of the knitting tape is complex, in addition to the horizontal connection organization, but also the application of jacquard technology, weaving methods are ingenious, the origin of the origin of continental knitting technology advanced to about the 3rd century BC. What is particularly shocking and incredible is the fineness of the tapestry of this batch of unearthed knitted tassel ornaments. We can't see the knitted ornaments with the naked eye, and can only be seen clearly when magnified by microscopy. Those ingenious ornaments, like the braids on a girl's head, are woven from a combination of thousands of strands of silk.
So, how did the Chu people weave filaments that appeared in filaments that could only be seen with microscopes and magnifying glasses more than 2,000 years ago?
CCTV's "Into Science" column once did a program, specifically about the production of Nanjing Yunjin, which is included in the Representative List of The World Intangible Cultural Heritage, from which we can guess a rough idea. In the program, Nanjing Yunjin is woven with a traditional large flower building wood loom with a length of 5.6 meters, a width of 1.4 meters and a height of 4 meters. This loom, composed of 1924 mechanical parts, is operated by two people, the drager and the weaver cooperate with each other to operate manually, when weaving, the "drager" sits on the upper level of the loom and is responsible for lifting the warp thread, and the "weaver" sits under the machine responsible for weaving weft and applying makeup and gold. The output of two people in a busy day is only 5 centimeters, which shows the meticulousness of weaving.
The embroidery of the Chu kingdom is brilliant and colorful. Historians have concluded based on ancient documents and archaeological data that embroidery represents the highest level of silk in the Chu state, indicating that the Chu state has been at the forefront of the Eastern Zhou countries in silk weaving and embroidery. Generally speaking, Chu embroidery uses silk as the ground, and those who take Luo as the ground occasionally see it. The 21 pieces of embroidery excavated from the Mashan No. 1 Chu Tomb have different patterns. Although the stitching method is relatively single, the lock is very uniform, neat, and the lines are smooth, and more use of the method of changing the direction of the line, the arrangement, and the sparse density to express the details of various animals, breaking through the monotonous and dull tradition, giving people a vivid and changeable feeling. The composition of the embroidery pattern of the Chu kingdom pays attention to symmetry and balance, the combination of dynamic and static, and the color matching is appropriate. The content of the pattern is full of mythological colors, which clearly reflects the romantic characteristics of Chu culture and has a profound impact on the development of embroidery in later generations.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was a period of great socio-economic and political changes, as well as a period of great ideological emancipation in which a hundred flowers blossomed and a hundred schools of thought contended. It is through the great prosperity and development of culture that the Chu state has brought about great economic and social development. As a result, in the "hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending", the humanistic trend of thought was high, and the yearning for life and freedom was fully reflected in various art forms. This new atmosphere is very vividly expressed in the animal and human ornaments in the silk fabric weaving ornaments. The jacquard fabrics in the embroidery and silk of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period are no longer dominated by simple geometric patterns, but complex and changeable patterns of birds, beasts, dragons and phoenixes and characters have emerged, showing the vibrant style of the times.
In the early days of the Chu Kingdom, located in the mountains, forests and lakes, in order to survive, the Chu people not only martial but also developed the custom of hunting.
In the past, archaeologists only found vivid hunting maps on the lacquer paintings of the Chu state. This time, it was the first time that a field hunting pattern had been found in silk fabrics, especially on a tassel that was not wide.
The pattern on this field hunting ribbon depicts the scene of the nobles carrying out field hunting activities, which is very similar to the scene of Sima Xiangru's hunting in Yunmengtian described by Sima Xiangru in "Zi Xuan Fu".
Ribbon, although it is a square inch, but from its vivid and lively patterns, we seem to see the thrilling field hunting scene of animals desperately running in the rain of arrows, and samurai driving a carriage to chase closely. It can be seen from this that the aesthetic taste of the Chu people is biased towards those moving images that are enough to reflect the breath of life.
At that time, when cleaning up the unearthed field hunting pattern polyester belt, Mr. Hu Jigao, an expert in cultural protection and painter, was very happy to see such vivid pictures and scenes and said to everyone: "As early as the painted pottery excavated in the Neolithic age, there were dancing figures and field hunting activities, but the scenes of human figures and character activities were woven into silk patterns, which was found for the first time in the pre-Qin silk weaving items. ”
Yes, among the silk fabrics unearthed in the Tomb of Chu No. 1 in Mashan, Jingzhou, there are too many firsts. For example, in the Chu tomb, the clips of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were first found, the only single skirts, hakama, and brocade mounds were found...
So, how did the chu people's near-endless innovation come about?