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"Ge Zhi Qin Xi, Shi Yu Zhonggu, Wei Ye Momo." It is a sword is a water, a silk is a silk, and there is no service. The green leaves of the thick and lush kudzu vine grow all over the mountains, harvested and steamed, made into clothes, and worn on the body is really comfortable. This is a poem sung by the married daughter who is about to return home to visit her parents in the poem "Zhou Nan Ge Qin". It describes both the growth state of Kudzu and the role of Kudzu, and the joy is overflowing. There are more than ten articles in the book of poetry that mention "ge", involving its form, use, etc., which shows that in agricultural civilization, ge is closely related to people's lives and occupies an important position in social development.
Pueraria montana (Loureiro) Merrill is a perennial deciduous vine of the legume kudzu genus, the vine can be up to eight meters long, native to the north and south of China, except for Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet, the distribution is almost all over the country. There are about 20 species of kudzu plants in the world, and there are 11 species in China, except for the powder kudzu, which is mainly cultivated by artificial cultivation, and the rest are mainly wild. Among them, wild kudzu is the most widely distributed, highest yield and most resource variety in China.
The stems of kudzu vine are covered with long yellow hairs, the base is woody; its heels are thick and lumpy; the pinnate compound leaves have three triforated leaflets with sparse hairs on the leaves; a bunch of inflorescences are densely covered with flower buds, 2-3 are groups of nodes clustered on the inflorescence axis, and when they bloom in autumn, the purple-red flowers are like butterflies that spread their wings, which are very beautiful; the fruit is a pod oval, and when it matures in winter, it is flattened, and the whole body is brown and long hard hairs.
Ge's flower (Image source: China Plant Image Library)
Kudzu leaves
Kudzu's fruit (Source: China Plant Image Library)
The use of kudzu by the ancient ancestors of our country has a very long history, and from the archaeological objects that have been excavated, the earliest can be traced back to the Neolithic period. In the ruins of Grass Shoe Mountain in Wu County, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, which is more than 6,000 years old, three pieces of carbonized gebu ribbed fabric were excavated in 1972, which is by far the oldest hand-woven kudzu cloth in China and the earliest textile object in China.
Carbonized kudzu ribbed fabric (image from the Internet)
Kudzu vines are rich in fibers, and the most core use of it by smart and industrious ancients is to weave cloth as a textile raw material to cover the body from the cold. Later, after continuous exploration and practice, it was gradually discovered that its coarse lumpy roots were eaten and other functions. Judging from the ancient texts, Kudzu played an important role in social production and penetrated into all aspects of people's lives.
Ge was widely used in the Western Zhou Dynasty, reached its peak in the Spring and Autumn Period, began to decline in the Han Dynasty, and was gradually replaced by hemp and cotton. During the Zhou Dynasty, Ge was an important type of taxation, and during this period, there was a special official position called "Palm Ge". The Zhou Li Zhangge mentions that "the palm is the material of the time". It refers to the cloth woven from kudzu, which means that the palm is responsible for collecting kudzu from the peasants as a source of state finances. In addition to being a tax, Gebu is also a very important tribute. It is recorded in the Book of Yue Zhi: "Ge Shan, who practiced Wu, planted Ge, and made the Yue women weave Ge Bu and dedicate them to Wu Wang Fuchai." In order to paralyze Wu Wangfuchai, the Yue king let the Yue women plant kudzu weaving cloth as a tribute.
China's traditional kudzu textile technology can be summarized and summarized, which can be divided into six major steps: picking kudzu, dipping kudzu, boiling kudzu, sunbathing kudzu, performance kudzu, and weaving kudzu. Kudzu is cut in May and June, when the kudzu vine is not ripe, and the degree of breakage of kudzu fibers is low at this time. Kudzu is the cutting of kudzu vine into two petals, soaking in water, allowing it to slowly decay, and then cutting into small pieces to dry and bundle. Kudzu is to put the kudzu vine in a pot and let it soften, resulting in a delicate and soft kudzu wisp. Kudzu is a process of natural decolorization of the fibers, and after exposure, the kudzu will change from yellow-brown to snow-white. The craftsmanship is tedious and is a very delicate task that requires the hand twisting of kudzu into a very fine yarn. The final process is kudzu weaving, which is to weave the yarn into kudzu cloth.
In the process of making kudzu, according to the thickness of the kudzu yarn, the woven clothes also have advantages and disadvantages, the thick kudzu cloth is called "silk", the thin kudzu cloth is called "silk", and the fine quality of the fine kudzu cloth is called "crepe". Fine kudzu cloth is particularly bright white, woven katsu is light and breathable, moisture and sweat, comfortable and beautiful to wear, very popular with the aristocratic ruling class, is a royal tribute and aristocratic supplies. Ordinary people, due to their limited economic ability, often wear clothes made of coarse kudzu. It can be seen that wearing fine kudzu cloth is a symbol of the status of the ruling class. The Book of Rites and the Order of the Moon records: "Meng Xia: It is the moon, and the son of heaven serves the silk.". "The palace clothes are also famous, and the Dragon Boat Festival is enronged. Fine kudzu contains wind and soft, and the snow is light. Wet from the heavens, when the heat comes to clear. The meaning is called long and short, and the lifelong lotus is sacred. Du Fu recorded in the poem "Giving Clothes on the Dragon Boat Festival" that the Son of Heaven rewarded the fine Ge yi at the Dragon Boat Festival.
The kudzu made of Kudzu fiber yarn is white in color and light in texture, and Emperor Wendi of Wei's "Saying All Things" records: "Jiangdong Ge is ke, rather than the total silk of the ancestors, its white as snow, lightly referred to as cicada wings." "It's about gebu in the Gangdong region that is as white as snow and as light as the wings of a cicada. Such delicate clothes are also very exquisite when washing in ancient times. The "Erru Ting Qunfang Spectrum" has the following description: "Kneading plum leaves with clean water, not brittle through summer, or using plum leaves to mash the soup into a magnetic basin to wash it, avoid using wood to be black." "The light kudzu should be soaked in plum leaves in a clay pot, and after using the acidity of the plum leaves to decontaminate, gently rub and wash and then dry in the shade to keep it white and gentle.
Gebu is light and thin, and is mostly used to make summer clothes. In addition to being used as weaving clothes, kudzu cloth is also used to make kudzu towels, kudzu hats, kudzu belts, kudzu shoes, kudzu mats, kudzu ropes and other woven products.
Kudzu is one of the earliest textile fibers used in China. However, after the Han Dynasty, due to the large-scale cultivation of hemp and the wide application of animal power, kudzu as a textile raw material was slowly replaced by hemp. During the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, the large-scale cultivation of cotton and the garment effect of cotton cloth were better, and the use of kudzu was further hindered. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, mechanization appeared, and it was difficult for the single-fiber short Kudzu to carry out industrial textiles, and gradually withdrew from the stage of the textile industry. After the golden age of the Zhou Dynasty, the Geyi was less and less valued, coupled with the fact that natural fiber textiles were not easy to preserve, the "Ming Dynasty True Color Ge robe" now in the Confucius Cultural Relics Archives is the only ancient Kudzu robe that remains today.
Confucius Old Tibetan Ming Dynasty True Color Ge Robe (Picture from the Internet)
After passing through the highlight moment of spinning and clothing, Kudzu gradually faded its dazzling light, but its medicinal and edible value has always been there. Under the application of modern science and technology, people have found that kudzu root is rich in starch, dietary fiber, a variety of amino acids necessary for the human body, a variety of minerals and trace elements and a variety of active ingredients, with good edible and other functions.
Kudzu's edible parts are mainly lumpy roots, which can be directly used as vegetables to cook fresh food and boil porridge soup; can also be processed into kudzu powder, made into instant kudzu powder, kudzu jelly, kudzu fudge, kudzu noodles and other foods.
Kudzu powder (image from the Internet)
In addition, kudzu is also a very good ecological resource, which can be used as a raw material such as ethanol fuel and high-yield feed. Kudzu has a high starch content, which can not only be used for winemaking, but also for the production of fuel ethanol, which is safe and environmentally friendly. At the same time, kudzu residue can also be used to improve the soil and organically cultivate edible mushrooms. As a raw material for biofuels, the kudzu industry has a new development space.
Kudzu leaves and kudzu vines are rich in crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, amino acids and other nutrients. When kudzu vines grow, the leaves are luxuriant and are very good livestock feed. It can be grazed directly, and it can be ground and stored and fed.
Kudzu has strong reproductive ability, fast growth rate, can effectively conserve water sources, and the flowers are colorful and colorful, with strong ornamentality, and are very good landscaping plants.
Ge Panyuan on a trellis
From the ancient "clothes of the son of heaven" to the current "Asian ginseng", Ge has gone a long way, and the functional value has also undergone a huge change, and it is expected that this vine with bunches of purple flowers in early autumn can once again enter people's lives in a high profile and bloom.
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Source: Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences