The innovator of textile technology in the world: Zodiac

Huang Daobo, also known as Huang Po and Huang Mu, was born in the middle of the 13th century and died in the early 14th century, and is generally believed to be a native of Wunijing (present-day Huajing Town, Shanghai), Songjiang Province, a famous cotton weaver and technological reformer in the late Song and early Yuan dynasties.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, with the continuous development of social economy, the cotton textile industry gradually spread throughout the country. At that time, Hainan Island was the main cotton planting area in China, and the local Li people created a complete set of cotton textile production tools and production technologies such as rolling, bullet, spinning, weaving and dyeing in daily practice, and the "manu" and "Li mu" products produced were very exquisite and popular. According to legend, Huang Daobo was a child bride when she was a child, and because of the abuse, she was exiled to Yazhou (present-day Ya county, Hainan), where she lived for decades and learned from the Li women advanced cotton textile technology.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Daobo returned to his hometown, and at that time, the textile technology of Wunijing cotton in Songjiang was still relatively backward, and the efficiency of ginning, elastic cotton, spinning and weaving was low and the quality was poor. After Huang Daobo returned to his hometown, he transformed the production and use methods of cotton gins, slings cotton vertebral arches, spinning wheels, and looms learned in Yazhou in combination with local textile technology. For example, she transformed the Yazhou cotton gin, using a two-shaft hand-cranked "churning" ginned seed in the opposite direction, one of which was made of iron to increase the rolling force, which could "drop the seed inside and the cotton out of the outside", thus achieving "a hundred times the utilitarian". In addition, Huang Daobo also invented a four-foot-long "rope string bow" to replace the original small bamboo bow of about one foot to slam cotton, improve the syring cotton process, and improve the efficiency and quality of the slings. At the same time, she also transformed the "hand-cranked single spindle spinning wheel" used in songjiang into a "three-spindle pedal spinning wheel", saving time and effort, and greatly improving the spinning efficiency. Legend has it that the zodiac also revolutionized the pedal loom, including the plain weaver and the jacquard machine. Combined with her own practical experience, she summed up a set of "wrong yarn color matching, comprehensive thread and flower" process technology, and taught it to the women of Wunijing.

Under the impetus of Huang Daobo, the Songjiang cotton textile industry was revitalized. Exquisite Songjiang cloth is expensive, and merchants from all over the world are the first to be trafficked, and many become tributes. Among them, "WuNijing Quilt" is more famous throughout the country. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Songjiang area had become the center of the national cotton textile industry, with more than a thousand people living in the cotton textile industry, and won the reputation of "Song County Cotton Cloth, Clothing Quilt World".

Huang Daobo promoted cotton planting, innovated cotton textile tools, improved and taught textile skills, not only improved the lives of the people in Wunijing and neighboring areas, but also played a decisive role in the rapid development of the cotton textile industry in songjiang, and even promoted the development of the cotton textile industry in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which had a profound impact on the economic prosperity of rural areas and towns in Jiangnan in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

After the death of Huang Daobo, in order to commemorate her deeds, the locals worshipped her as the god of weaving and built a shrine for her, and the incense continued to burn. Since the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, there have also been poems and inscriptions that record the contributions of the Zodiac. Joseph Needham, an expert in the history of science and technology, praised Huang Daobo as an outstanding innovator of cotton textile technology in the thirteenth century, and highly recognized her revolutionary role in the history of cotton textile. In 1980, China issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of The Zodiac's outstanding contributions to the development of China's cotton textile industry. So far, there are more than ten ancestral halls, temples, and halls related to the Zodiac in Shanghai. It can be said that Huang Daobo can be regarded as the most widely known female scientific and technological figure in ancient China.

【Source: China Women's Daily】

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author, if there is an error in the source or infringement of your legitimate rights and interests, you can contact us through the mailbox, we will deal with it in a timely manner. Email address: [email protected]