Text: Jiang Wei
Abstract:
The emergence of "cloth" is a difference between humans and animals, which is the embodiment of human innovation and development and the pursuit of fashion, and it is also the most important symbol of human shame and beautification towards civilization. And "cloth" is not born to exist, it must have its source. The earliest discovery of textiles in China is three pieces of caraway fiber carbonized textile fragments excavated from the Caoshan site in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, about 7,000 years ago. "Kudzu" belongs to the vine plant, also known as "Kudzu vine". It shows that the ancients applied plants, especially to the early plants represented by vines, and in the middle period, soft and easy-to-plastic plants such as vines were woven by longitude and weft methods, and in the later period, they could be made of cloth with the skin of plants such as "kudzu vine". This development process clearly shows the role of plant weaving represented by "rattan" in early human beings on cloth weaving.
keyword:
Vines Weave Textiles For a role
The emergence of "cloth" is the best embodiment of human innovation and development and the pursuit of fashion, and it is also the most important symbol of human shame and beautification towards the stage of true civilization. And when and where did the cloth start happening? It is the question that every earthling wants to know about how human textiles originated.
To understand the origin of "cloth", we must first know the most important component of "cloth". "Cloth" is a soft blocky material woven by hand using the warp and weft method of using a filament thread, and it is seen that the thread and the warp and weft methods make up the most basic part of the cloth. The warp and weft is the process of process technology, the thread is the most important basic material that determines the "cloth", and the thread is the smallest unit of the rope, and the rope becomes the source of the thread. As if to give us such a hint, find the source of the rope and know the true origin of the cloth.
However, in ancient times, there was no rope, let alone cloth, and the Yandi, The Yellow Emperor and the Changzu Masang spinning was already the late stage of the original textile development, and it was already a complete mastery of the rope finishing. The most primitive rope becomes the source of the cloth, and knowing where the rope comes from and how to start using it is to unlock the origin of the cloth. Let us unveil the mystery of the true origin of the "cloth" in reality and archaeology, as well as in the Messenger material.
One. Image data reveals the role of rattan on rope
My understanding of plant weaving has touched me with more primitive traces of rattan weaving, and my memory is particularly deep. These unforgettable images are deeply imprinted in the mind and become a powerful clue to unlock the source of the "cloth".
Let's start by focusing on a picture that's still happening.
In the cliff village of Daliangshan, which has been broadcast by major newspapers and CCTV, local villagers go out, and when children go to school, they use rattan ladders to go out. When the villagers think that buying ropes feels extremely expensive and that repair and replacement costs will be a big problem, the mountain of rattan is the best material for building ladders.
Picture 1. Daliangshan Cliff Village students help cane down the mountain
Let's focus on such an image again.
In the first friendly encounter between modern humans and primitive tribal people in 1998, the only difference between primitive people and modern people seems to be seen in the picture is the difference in clothing, from the leaves on the head of the primitive and the rattan necklace on the neck and the rope that binds the leaf skirt, as if to hint at the intrinsic connection between plant weaving and cloth weaving, revealing the interaction between rattan leaves and cloth. In the ancient Chinese story, Nuwa used rattan and leaves to cover herself (the earliest cloth) and used green vines to stir mud to create men and women, finding the best provenance.
Picture 2: The application of rattan and leaves by African primitives
Let's watch this picture again.
CCTV documentary channel broadcast "Life 1" in the story content to present us with such a picture, plant fruit has a hard peel, black hat hanging monkey wants to eat the fruit inside to figure out a way, it first plucked the fruit, and then placed the fruit in the sun for ten days, let its water evaporate to form a more crisp effect, and then remove the peel and place the fruit on the stone nest (stone nest like a bowl) fixed, then the black hat hanging monkey will use its forelimbs to lift the stone to smash the crisp fruit, share the food inside.
Picture 3: Black hat hanging monkey with a stone to smash nuts
The picture reflects why only apes with black hats have evolved into adults, while black hat apes are still apes. Perhaps there is an answer, that is, mastering the weaving technology ignites the super wisdom of people. The thought of these distant and still happening things should give us some enlightenment, and it also shows that primitive human beings must have been the only choice to use the existing materials of nature to serve themselves in the early days.
Rattan, flexible and firm for a long time and easy to weave have become the first choice for their materials.
Two. Archaeological finds speak of rattan and rope
Archaeology has found that the earliest remains of ancient human activities in China are the Ruins of the Wushan people in Chongqing, which dates back about 2 million years, and this period has entered the homo erectus stage, and began to use scrapers, sharpeners, choppers and stone chips to serve life. We can imagine that when there was no rope at that time, the ancient ape man may have used the most convenient soft and solid rattan at that time to tie and carry the prey after hunting.
Picture 4. Homo erectus period humans with rattan
This is clearly shown in the sculptures used in the Langzhong Feng Shui Museum in Sichuan to show ancient people tying trees with rattan, building nests and pole-railed houses, and carrying prey. The opening chapter of the Langzhong Feng Shui Museum in Sichuan tells the evolution of early ancient humans from cave dwelling to nest dwelling to pole railing, and these changes in living styles in the era when ropes did not appear, that is, using rattan to tie trees, build nesting and pole railing houses, and carrying prey. Meditating on these distant scenes should show us valuable traces of how some early civilizations originated, proving the conclusion that "vine" is the most primitive prototype of the application of rope.
Picture 5.Sculpture of the Langzhong Feng Shui Museum carrying prey with rattan ties
In Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, China has found carbon chips in human settlements about 1.7 million years ago, which may be the result of the carbonization of plants used in life, or it may be the embers of plant combustion. These discoveries may indicate that ancient humans at that time had begun to use plants for life, and the weaving service and life of plants may have begun to appear during this period.
Picture 6.The cave at the top of the mountain found bone needles used by primitive people
In 1993, excavations in the Zhoukoudian Mountaintop Cave in Beijing unearthed a bone needle with a sharp tip, a sleek needle body and a perforated tail. The needle is 82 mm long and 3.1-3.3 mm in diameter, and the needle eye part has been broken. The discovery of this bone needle is of great significance in the history of China's textiles. It shows that about 17,000-18,000 years ago, ancient humans have begun to use bone needles to sew animal skins and coarse fiber cloth clothes. It shows that twenty thousand years ago, our ancestors had created primitive sewing tools, mastered the application of threads, and could sew simple fabrics. The appearance of bone needles marks the proficiency of early human opponents in craft manufacturing techniques.
Picture 7: Fragments of textile fabric made of kudzu plant skin
The earliest fiber found in China is three pieces of caraway fiber carbonized textile fragments excavated from the Caoshan site in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, about 7,000 years ago. "Kudzu" belongs to the vine plant, which shows that the ancient human use and utilization of "vine" by plants earlier than the conclusion of textile fabrics, confirming the close development and evolutionary relationship from "vine" to "cloth".
"Xiabu" is known as the world's textile living fossil, and one of the most typical traditional fabric handicrafts still in use today is to peel the skin from the plant "ramie" and make it into the most primitive primary fabric through 12 processes. At present, in Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Fujian and other regions in China, the use of local plants for processing and processing, through traditional handicraft technology to produce wonderful plant fabrics of realistic scenes, reflecting the great wisdom and craftsman spirit of human beings and nature living in harmony and innovating and developing and constantly pursuing a fashionable and beautiful life.
Picture 8: Ramie peeling and silk treatment is used to make a summer cloth with traditional handicrafts
Three. Literature speaks of rattan and cloth
The Yellow Emperor is the ancestor of the Chinese nation, between 6500 --- 6000 years ago, and legend has it that he invented clothes (that is, cloth) to teach people to cover their bodies from the cold. During the Yellow Emperor's period, it reached widespread use in sewing. The "Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic" also contains: In ancient times, the ancestors used kudzu vines to build kudzu tents to live, weave kudzu beds to sleep, weave cloth with kudzu fibers, weave kudzu shoes; use kudzu roots to fill hunger and heal diseases; kudzu made great contributions to the reproduction of Chinese human beings. It is also associated with the earliest fabric fragments of the Kudzu plant. The "General History of China" records that about 5,000 years ago, with the development of agriculture and the improvement of hand-knitting and manufacturing technology, cloth textile technology could appear and gradually develop. The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic and huainanzi record that "hand meridian finger hanging" refers to connecting one yarn to the same wooden stick in turn, and the other end is also connected to another wooden stick in turn. And the yarn that is tightened by two wooden sticks is tightened, and the taut longitudinal yarn becomes a warp yarn, and the yarn woven into a horizontal line becomes a weft yarn.
Conclusion
Through the above reality, archaeology and literature, it seems to confirm the relationship between the evolution and development of "vine for cloth source, cloth for cloth beginning, and clothing for the warm world", showing the path of development and evolution of "rattan-rope-silk-cloth", revealing valuable clues about where "cloth" comes from, and opening a window in exploring the origin of textile fabrics. Root-seeking is the manifestation of the progress of advanced species with memories and thoughts, and the humanistic feelings that have always existed innately.
When the dawn of civilization is not known when it really lights up, perhaps from the faint shadows projected from different historical materials and realistic pictures, it gives a logical explanation and annotation. It tells the effect of weaving "vine" as a plant on human civilization, and interprets that it is an important source of textile "cloth".
The creative "light of longitude and latitude" of rattan and cloth elements expresses the glorious historical process of the nation
Reference Essay Dedicated
ZHANG Chunguang. Exploring the Roots of Chinese Humanities[M]. Shandong People's Publishing House, 2014.
Lü Simian. General History of China[M]. Democracy and Construction Press, 2015.
Tian Changwu. Origin of Chinese civilization[M]. China International Broadcasting Press, 2010.
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