In the Western Zhou Dynasty, Yan was a large country with the same surname and had a pivotal position in the dynasty, but there are few records of the Yan kingdom in literature, and even fewer records involving textiles. With the deepening of archaeological work, scholars have made important progress in the study of the Western Zhou and Yan Kingdoms, and at present, most of the scholars have discussed the original fiefdoms, tombs, inscriptions, etc., and less have investigated the economy, especially textiles. Based on archaeological data, we try to analyze the textile technology of the Western Zhou and Yan Kingdoms based on the heirloom literature.
Textile industry has been the main handicraft category in the mainland since ancient times, as early as the Neolithic period mainland ancestors have mastered simple textile technology, archaeological excavations of the earliest silk fabric in the mainland for Qianshan Yang unearthed silk sheets, silk threads, ribbons and other fabrics. By the Shang Dynasty, textile technology had been further developed, and the Western Zhou Dynasty inherited and developed the textile technology of the Shang Dynasty.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the royal family had a strong economy and developed textile technology, which was not only reflected in technology, but also in variety and quantity. In addition to documentary materials such as "The Book of Poetry, Feng and July", "The Book of Poetry, Xiaoya, and Dadong", there are also inscriptions to corroborate it. Bronze inscriptions are the most reliable primary source of our historical research.
According to the inscription, silk tows, bundles, clothing, banners and other textiles are important reward items, only clothing can be divided into weaving, Xuan clothes, Xuan clothes, etc., the number and variety of all reflect the development of the royal textile industry. In addition, archaeological excavations have also unearthed many fabrics wrapped in copper objects, barren drapery, jade decorations, etc. The textile technology of the Kinai Seal Kingdom represented the level of the royal family to a certain extent, and the filament of the twill structure was unearthed in the burial ground, and the diamond-shaped pattern on it should have been woven by a jacquard machine, and the embroidery product imprint is the earliest embroidery cultural relic known on the mainland.
The first prince of the Yan state "Zhao Gong" and the Duke of Zhou divided the royal power, and the "Shiji Yan Zhao Gong Family" recorded: "From the west of Shaanxi, summon the princess; From the east of Shaanxi, Princess Zhou. "The ruins of the Liuli River in Beijing's Fangshan are the original fiefdoms of the Yan Kingdom, which is more remote than the Jin and Wei countries.
The Yan people combined with the local reality to promote the economic development and become one of the seven heroes, which is inseparable from the development of handicrafts, textile industry is an important handicraft category in Yan country. The reproduction of the father Yi Zun inscription "Xihou rewarded the resumption of clothes, courtiers, concubines, shells" ("Integration"), indicating that textiles are also important reward items for Xihou, coupled with textiles and people's lives are closely related, a large number of textiles can meet the needs, which must have a matching textile scale and technology.
Textile raw materials and sericulture technology
Yanguo is an important source of textile raw materials in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which has laid the foundation for the development of its textile industry. Hemp habit likes warm and moist, seeds are edible, fiber can be used for weaving, is an important textile raw material in the pre-Qin period. Cannabis fibers have been found in Neolithic sites, which shows its long history. Hemp is also an important crop and fiber crop in the Western Zhou Yan Kingdom, and the northern frontier of the Yan Kingdom is mainly the western Liaoning region dominated by the Xiaoling River Basin, with high terrain in the west and low in the east, negative mountains facing the sea.
"According to hydrological data, the ancient Daling River Basin has abundant water, high vegetation coverage in low hills, and a natural environment suitable for agriculture and animal husbandry." From the perspective of natural conditions, the western Liaoning region is more suitable for hemp cultivation. This was also confirmed by archaeological excavations, when a remnant of yellow plain linen was found on the child's skeleton in the lower tomb of Xiajiadian in Beiqiao, Liaoning Province, with 10 longitude and latitude lines per square centimeter.
It proves that hemp had been cultivated in Liaoning before the Western Zhou Dynasty, and that hemp weaving technology had also been mastered. In addition, linen fabrics were also found in the Zhouyan National Cemetery in Liulihexi, Beijing, but "no formed ones were seen, mostly adhering to the surface of bronzes, and the warp and weft marks were clear". This shows that the Yan people in Beijing, like the people in western Liaoning, not only widely cultivate hemp crops, but also master hemp weaving technology. Most of Tianjin, northern Hebei and other places are in the northern temperate climate zone, which is more suitable for hemp cultivation, so we speculate that hemp was widely cultivated in the Yan Kingdom during the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Silk weaving is also a very important textile industry in the Western Zhou Yan Kingdom, its raw material is mainly silk, and sufficient silk supply needs to be supported by a developed sericulture industry. The mainland sericulture industry has a long history, and the word "silkworm, mulberry" is in the oracle bone text, and Mr. Hu Houxuan once cited the divination of sericulture and the prayer to the silkworm god in the Wuding period, such as "戊子bu, save the silkworm?" The silkworm sacrifice ceremony of the Yin Dynasty was very solemn, and it was also "praying for the year" to the silkworm god, which shows that the sericulture industry, like agriculture, is also an important harvest of the year.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the sericulture industry was further developed, and people had a deeper understanding of the habits of silkworms and mulberry, and there was a clear record in the "Book of Poetry, Feng and July". Sericulture must be planted first by mulberry, so the widespread planting of mulberry trees is a prerequisite. The root system of mulberry trees is developed, with strong germination power, fast growth and other characteristics, but also has the characteristics of drought resistance and cold resistance, and mulberry trees have a long lifespan, so mulberry trees are widely planted throughout the mainland.
According to scholars' research, there was a sericulture industry in Jinxi, Liaoning Province as early as the Neolithic period. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, mulberry cultivation was very common in the Yan Kingdom, and the "History of Goods and Colonies" recorded that "Yan and Daitian animals and silkworms" pointed out that the Yan Kingdom was an important area for the sericulture industry. Archaeological excavations also confirm that according to statistics, jade silkworms were unearthed in three tombs II.M205, II.M54 and II.M264 at the Liulihe site in Fangshan, Beijing, and they were all placed on the heads of male and female tomb owners, or regarded as hair ornaments.
Jade is a symbol of aristocratic status, jade silkworms are used in addition to headdresses, but also for necklaces, jade pendants, jade qi, mostly found in the Jin state, Yan country, and Yu state in the Western Zhou Dynasty, all of which are Yisang lands. This not only reflects people's attention to sericulture, but also shows the importance of sericulture to a certain extent. II.M264:23 jade silkworm unearthed in Liuli River, with a large head and small tail, eyes on the head, and a body of 4 segments.
M54: 47 is 2.5 cm long, has eyes on the head, and has a body of 9 segments. The agate silkworm is 3 centimeters long, carved with eyes and mouth, and has several knots. It can be seen that the Western Zhou Yan people have a very good understanding of the physical characteristics of silkworms, and are most likely familiar with the habits of silkworms. In addition, Yanguo is mostly in the temperate climate zone, which is more suitable for the growth of mulberry trees. As stated in the Book of Poetry, mulberry can be planted in mountains, slopes, wetlands, watersides, gardens, etc., and some places have even become mulberry forests.
from the "Book of Poetry Daya Zhanbiao" in "Women have no official business, rest their silkworm weaving"; "Zhongchun, Emperor Shuai Wai Nei ordered the silkworm in the northern suburbs" in "Zhou Li Tianguan Tsukazai"; "Ji Chun, Houfei fasted, pro-Dongxiang bowed to Sang" in "Liji Yueling"; According to the records of "Mrs. Silkworm Binding as Clothes" in "Mencius Teng Wen Gongxia", there was a "silkworm chamber" in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and raising silkworms in the "silkworm room" should not only pay attention to the quality and cleanliness of mulberry leaves, but also have high requirements for indoor hygiene, temperature, humidity, airflow, and light, and only in a suitable environment can silkworms thrive.
From the literature and archaeological data, it can be seen that the sericulture industry in the Western Zhou Dynasty was highly valued by the rulers in the society at that time, which is also a portrayal of the Yan Kingdom, a large country in the sericulture industry. The Yan people in the Western Zhou Dynasty have noticed the influence of the environment on silkworms, and the drainage, wetness and temperature, etc. in the "silkworm chamber" have been regulated, and the use of "silkworm chamber" has greatly promoted the development of the textile industry in Yan country.
Western Zhou Yanguo textile technology
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, textiles were mainly undertaken by women and were valued by the rulers, as was the case in the Yan Kingdom of Western Zhou. Hemp and silk weaving are the top priorities in the textile industry of the Yan Kingdom, and silk fabrics and linen fabrics from the Western Zhou and Yan Kingdoms have been found in many places, mostly found in tombs and carriage and horse pits, in addition to traces such as clothes, there are also fabrics that wrap bronzes, cover the top of the coffin or the bottom of the wooden rafters.
Traces of linen fabrics and silk-like remnants were found in the Zhouyan National Cemetery in Liulihexi, Beijing, and the specimens were identified by the Beijing Institute of Textile Science as silk in texture, plain weave in the tissue structure, and a density of 28×27 pieces per square centimeter. The Type I bronze Ge excavated from tomb M1193 has traces of fibers, and the M1193:89 round cake ornament also has traces of textile ware when it was unearthed.
The bronze Ge in the tomb of the Western Zhou Mu in Changping, Beijing, has mat pattern residues on the surface, and the armor bubble is made of leather or silk fabric but has decayed, and these textiles are mostly used to wrap bronzes. In 1981-1983, Liulihe Yanguo Cemetery was found to show that some textiles covered the top of the coffin, and some of the bones of some cemeteries had traces such as clothing. Some jade, agate and material ornaments, originally stranded with thread, appear to be fixed to textiles. More than 20 layers of silk fabrics such as silk cloth were also found at the bottom of the wooden rafters of the M7101 of Weiyingzi in Chaoyang, Liaoning.
Scholars analyzed the fabrics produced by Chaoyang, including plain silk, square-hole yarn, and warp double fabrics. Each yarn has 100 pairs of triangular pairs and about 100 cocoons. It has been identified that although the weaving method of the square hole yarn of the Western Zhou Yan Kingdom produced by Chaoyang is basically the same as that of the general plain weaving method, its warp and weft density needs to be specially controlled, which requires superb textile technology.
Some scholars compared the fabrics produced by Chaoyang with those produced by Baoji, and found that the warp and weft wires in the two places were untwisted straight lines, and were filament fabrics that had been reeled. The fabric structure of the two places is similar, and each has its own characteristics, from the perspective of technical formation and development, the maturity of silk reeling technology and the formation of silk weaving technology are imperative.
In particular, the warp double fabric unearthed in Chaoyang is made of two sets of warp yarns and a set of weft yarns, the arrangement ratio of the surface warp and the inner warp is 1:1, the organizational structure design is very ingenious, and the front and back sides are used three up and down warp heavy flat structure, forming a completely symmetrical appearance effect. The silk fabric warp in the Chaoyang area is a relatively complex organization, and its emergence marks a major breakthrough in the application of fabric organization in the mainland, from simple organization and change organization to the ranks of complex organization, laying the foundation for the development of ancient fabric organization in mainland China. This fully shows the advanced textile technology of the Western Zhou Yan Kingdom.
Previously, the Yan country fabrics unearthed by archaeology were often decayed and difficult to distinguish their color, such as the silk unearthed from the Yan State Tomb of Weiyingzi in Chaoyang, Liaoning Province was yellow-brown as a whole, and the color may have fallen off, so we can only combine archaeology and literature to make general speculations about the dyeing technology of Yan Kingdom textiles in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Dyeing appeared in the Neolithic period on the mainland, and there was great progress in the Zhou Dynasty.
The official positions related to dyeing are recorded in the "Rites of Zhou", and although they cannot be completely regarded as a history of letters, they also reflect the situation at that time to a certain extent. The dyeing raw materials are mainly mineral dyes and vegetable dyes. Mineral dyes are mainly cinnabar, stone yellow, etc., and plant dyes are mainly bluegrass, madder, comfrey and other plants, which mainly use immersion to color the fabric. In addition, the branches and leaves and mulberry skin of mulberry trees are good natural plant dyes, so we think that Western Zhou Yanguo is very likely to use this to color fabrics.
In addition, archaeological excavations have unearthed a large number of spinning wheels of the Western Zhou and Yan Kingdoms, including Beijing, Tianjin, northern Hebei, and western Liaoning, and according to statistics, more than 10 stone spinning wheels, more than 140 ceramic spinning wheels, and 2 bone spinning wheels have been unearthed, as many as 150 pieces, which is also one of the iron evidence of the relatively developed textile industry in Yanguo.
In general, the Western Zhou Yan Kingdom has rich textile raw materials, and the Yan people have a lot of experience in sericulture and advanced breeding technology. Yan people use looms, jacquard machines, etc. for weaving, and the fabrics include plain silk, square-hole yarn and warp duo with complex structure. The coloring technology is carried out by immersion, mainly mineral dyes and vegetable dyes. The Yan people's textile technology is high, comparable to the royal family.