China is a silk powerhouse with a long history of textile technology and culture. From the primitive hand-spinning period before the Xia Dynasty to the hand-operated machine spinning period from the Xia Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, China has developed many important textile technologies such as silkworm breeding, oscillating opening, water spinning wheel, shrinking and twisting, and combined drafting.
In the continuous iterative development of the textile industry, China has produced many leading textile technologies in the world at that time, making ancient textile technology an important part of Chinese civilization. Recently, reporters from Science and Technology Daily visited the National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk at Soochow University, inviting relevant experts to explore the development and transformation of ancient Chinese textile technology from the origins of textiles, advances in textile processes, and the impact of textiles on world technology and culture.
Silkworm breeding has a long history. During the 20-day larval stage, silkworms consume about 20 grams of mulberry leaves, molt four times, spin silk cocoons, and produce about 1700 meters of silk from a single cocoon, weighing only about 0.5 grams. Equally astonishing is that as early as the primitive hand-spinning period, our ancestors in China began to raise silkworms, reel silk, and weave silk, marking the beginning of the world's silk history.
Professor Guan Jinping, Vice Dean of the School of Textile and Clothing Engineering at Soochow University and the National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, told reporters that half a silkworm cocoon excavated from the Yangshao cultural site in Xiyin Village, Xia County, Shanxi Province, and the record in the "Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government" mentioning the wife of the Yellow Emperor, Leizu, "taught the people to raise silkworms and treat silk cocoons for clothing," are evidence of China's long and splendid history and culture of silkworms, mulberry trees, and silk of more than 5,000 years.
Guan Jinping believes that silkworm breeding has played an important role in the dissemination of Chinese civilization and the development of our economy, guiding humanity into a new world of manufacturing various fibers using chemical methods, leaving a significant mark in the history of world technology and culture. Silk is known as the "Queen of Fibers" due to its excellent properties such as luster, softness, and skin-friendliness.
In recent years, scientists have further improved the quality of silk using breeding techniques. For example, through genetic modification and protein recombination of domesticated silkworms, high-performance silks have been developed to meet the needs of biomedicine, aerospace, national defense, military industry, and special environmental requirements. Sericulture technology is also moving towards informatization, with research and promotion of factory sericulture, artificial feed sericulture, and intelligent sericulture.
From the water spinning wheel to the jacquard loom
After obtaining textile fibers, the challenge is how to turn them into the required fabric, leading to the emergence of textile machinery. Professor Chen Ting, Vice Dean of the School of Textile and Clothing Engineering at Soochow University and the National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, explained that in the early days of hand-operated machine spinning, China had primitive spinning wheels. The earliest was the hand-operated spinning wheel, followed by the foot-operated spinning wheel. The spinning wheel's pulley moves in a circular motion, requiring a transmission mechanism, namely the connecting rod-crank. It is worth noting that, according to existing data, the earliest connecting rod-crank mechanism in Chinese history originated from the foot-operated spinning wheel.
During the Eastern Han to Eastern Jin period, in order to improve production efficiency, laborers invented the double-spindle spinning wheel based on the single-spindle spinning wheel, which was leading in the world at that time. By the time of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, economic development demanded higher production efficiency, leading to the birth of the large spinning wheel. A large spinning wheel could have up to seventy to eighty spindles, and ancient laborers also created a water spinning wheel driven by water power. It was not until 1769 that the Britishman Arkwright manufactured a water-powered spinning machine, which was more than 400 years later than China.
Chen Ting said, "The water spinning wheel played an irreplaceable role in the history of textile production tools, serving as a prototype of modern spinning machinery with multiple spindles and adapting to large-scale production." Weaving is the technology of interweaving two sets of yarns (warp and weft) arranged vertically to form a fabric. For a warp (or weft) yarn, the warp (or weft) is divided into two parts, one above it and the other below it. The different relative positions of the warp and weft yarns form a variety of colorful fabric textures. Whether ancient or modern weaving machines, they adjust the relative positions of the warp and weft yarns by controlling the movement of the warp yarn.
The discovery of the Han Dynasty brocade "Five Stars Rising in the East to Benefit China" unearthed in Xinjiang in 1995 aroused great interest among archaeologists. The pattern on this fabric was not painted but woven, with multiple colors of warp and weft yarns interwoven to form the desired pattern.
This is a task that ordinary weaving machines cannot handle, requiring a jacquard loom to achieve. The jacquard loom appeared in the Han Dynasty and produced exquisite silk products.
In the 19th century, the Frenchman Jacquard discovered that regardless of the pattern being woven, there were only two modes for the warp yarn on the jacquard loom—raised and not raised. He used hooks in conjunction with the pattern card to control the warp yarn. On the pattern card, holes where the warp yarn was raised were marked as "1," while those where the warp yarn was not raised had no holes and were marked as "0." This was essentially a binary program.
Inspired by this, later generations developed perforated card-type computers and electronic computers, with their information processing and storage principles originating from ancient Chinese jacquard looms. "Therefore, the jacquard technology invented by the ancient Chinese laborers has contributed to electronic information technology and even human development," Chen Ting said.
Plant dyeing provides a basis for synthetic dyes
Plant dyeing is an ancient hand-dyeing technique, also known as "plant dyeing," which typically uses plant flowers, fruits, roots, stems, seeds, etc., as raw materials, and then prepares dye liquor through grinding and water extraction methods.
According to records, our ancestors in China used plant dyes such as madder and indigo to dye fabrics as early as 3000 BC. Plant dyeing was widely used in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, with a special position established in the court to manage plant resources that could be used as dyes in spring and autumn. Today, minority areas such as Yunnan and Guizhou still use plant indigo as the main material for hand-dyeing clothing.
Guan Jinping told reporters that plant dyeing provides a basic basis and clues for the development of modern synthetic dyes. In the 19th century, with the popularization of industrial production, people began to analyze the pigment structure of plant dyes and conduct artificial synthesis. In 1868, Graebe and Liebermann synthesized artificial alizarin by analyzing the red pigment component in madder roots, the first artificially synthesized natural dye, which was industrialized in 1871. Later, the German chemist Baeyer synthesized artificial indigo by analyzing the components of plant indigo. Synthetic dyes avoided the problem of natural dyes being affected by the seasons, could be mass-produced, had good dyeing reproducibility, and quickly became the mainstream colorant for textiles.
In the 21st century, plant dyeing has regained people's attention and love due to its environmental characteristics and unique artistic effects. To avoid competition with food and medicine resources, most plant dyes are now derived from waste plant resources such as pomegranate peels, chestnut shells, walnut shells, etc. Technological development has also effectively addressed the problem of low light fastness in plant-dyed textiles.
Ancient Chinese textile technology reflects the wisdom of the Chinese laboring people and has had a profound impact on the development of human economy, society, and culture. Studying the history and development of ancient Chinese textile industry not only helps us deepen our understanding of ancient Chinese culture and economy but also provides valuable insights and references for the development of contemporary Chinese textile industry.
(Reporter: Zhang Ye) Source: Science and Technology Daily.
