Ancient Chinese silk has a very long history. The ancestors of Sichuan Bashu grew mulberry and raised silkworms very early, and the earliest monarch of ancient Shu was known as "cancong family". If the origin of "Shu" is studied from oracle bone inscriptions, there is a saying that it is also interpreted as silkworm, which means that it is one of the origins of handmade textile. Shu Brocade is a kind of high-grade brocade in ancient silk products. Today, many people know that Chengdu, Sichuan has the nickname of "Jinguan city" because of the famous sentence of Du Fu, the great poet of Tang Dynasty. However, when did Shu Brocade come into being, why Chengdu was called Jinguan City, and the historical evolution and function of Shu brocade are worth pondering and exploring.
Exquisite Sichuan brocade
1、 When will Sichuan brocade be produced in Chengdu?
Ancient silk has a very long history. Sichuan Bashu is one of the origins of ancient Chinese silk. In the field of academic research, the origin of Chinese silk has always been a controversial topic. Just as in ancient legends, the cancong family, who taught people to grow mulberry and raise silkworms, was an ancient Shu people. After all, it was a legend. Similarly, it is also a legend that Leizu, the wife of Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, taught the world how to weave, and there are different opinions about where Leizu's hometown, Xiling, is. However, there is a saying that today in Yanting County of Jiangyou City, she is also a native of ancient Shu.
Ancient legends can not be regarded as historical facts, but can explain the relationship between Sichuan and the origin of silk textile. Moreover, as early as the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, Chinese silk was exported through the Southern Silk Road with Sichuan and Yunnan as the important media. It is also an objective fact that the southern silk road came into being before the unification of the Qin and Han Dynasties.
As a high-grade silk variety, brocade was not unique to Sichuan. Zhu Qiqian, a famous architect and architect, said in his silk embroidery notes that "before Shu reached China at the end of the spring and Autumn period, Zheng, Wei, Qi and Lu all produced brocade." He also said: "since Shu was connected with the Central Plains, weaving began to spread to the west, and Shu brocade has flourished since the Wei and Jin Dynasties..." In the Western Han Dynasty, Shu Brocade had been sold in the Central Plains and overseas because of its variety and excellent quality. During the period of Shu and Han Dynasties in the Three Kingdoms, Qiao Zhou recorded in the Yizhou annals that "the brocade is well-established, and it is washed in the river, and its culture is clear, and it flourishes in the early days.". From the Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms, Shu brocade has been far ahead of the domestic high-grade silk products, becoming the spokesman of China's high-quality silk products, and also creating the highest honor in history.
Jinli in Chengdu today
During the Shu Han period of the Three Kingdoms, Prime Minister Zhuge Liang put the production of Shu Brocade in an important position. Shu Brocade was not only a commodity for foreign trade, but also a source of military expenditure. Taiping Yulan quoted Zhuge Liangji as saying, "today's people are poor and the country is empty, so the only way to defeat the enemy is to look up to Jiner.". According to the data, as many as 76000 brocade and satin weavers gathered in Chengdu, and up to 200000 brocade and satin were still in stock until the end of the Shu Han Dynasty. Although the three kingdoms were hostile to each other at that time, the trade of Shu Brocade between Shu Han and Cao Wei did not stop. Cao Rui and other monarchs and nobles advocated luxury, but they loved Shu Brocade very much. Although trade was interrupted during the northern expedition of the Shu Han Dynasty, many merchants of the Cao Wei Dynasty took the risk of smuggling a large number of Shu brocade. Sometimes the aristocrats had a large demand for Shu brocade, and the officials of the Cao Wei Dynasty would purchase Shu Brocade from the state of Wu, even if they could meet the demand of the eastern Wu and earn a price difference. After Liu Bei entered Sichuan, the two sides began to trade Shu brocade. Later, when Liu Bei attacked Wu, the two sides were hostile for a time, but after Zhuge Liang restored his friendship with Sun Quan, the trade had a continuous origin and became an important channel to support the economy of Shu Han.
Through the above, we can understand the main functions of Shu Brocade in ancient times. Most of them were used for trade, but in disguise, they were used for emperors and nobles to reward and reflect luxury. It is no doubt that the nobles who can wear Shu brocade are noble officials.
Seeing all kinds of praise of Shu Brocade and other high-grade silks and satins in ancient literature and their popularity in history does not mean that the popularity of these high-grade silks is very high. On the contrary, there is no circulation of ancient silks among the people. Although a large number of folk people have joined in silk production in many parts of the country, and textile technology is very popular, few folk people can afford to wear silk. The reason why a large number of people would produce various kinds of fabrics and satins was that they were mainly provided to the government as taxes. From the northern and Southern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the system of rent and mediocrity was implemented. One was to pay grain, the other was to pay cloth and silk.
From ancient times to the present, Shu brocade has been a major channel for official trade to other countries outside the Great Wall. As many historical materials mentioned, the Silk Road trade is the same whether it is the northern grassland road or the southern sea road. For example, Shu Brocade was popular in some western regions, such as Zhang Qian's visit to the western regions. For example, the well-known national treasure "five stars out of the East brocade shield" discovered in Jingjue kingdom is a first-class variety of Shu Brocade in Han Dynasty, which embodies the superb technique of "five colors and light silk".
The famous five stars coming out of the East is the demonstration of Shu Brocade craft in Han Dynasty
After the northern and Southern Dynasties, the technology of Shu Brocade in Tang Dynasty had a great development, which was still mainly used for Royal brocade and trade brocade. The spread of Shu Brocade was further exported to Japan, Korea, Silla and Persia. There are many kinds of Shu Brocade preserved in Tang Dynasty, such as tuanhua brocade, Red Lion Phoenix brocade. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Chengdu Fu brocade Academy was established again, and continued to export mainly. Especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, half of the country remained rich, which had something to do with the popularity of Shu brocade. Since Yuan and Ming Dynasties, varieties have been more widely used, which can be seen from Shu Brocade spectrum of Yuan Dynasty.
2、 When will Jinguan appear? Chengdu = Jinguan city?
Chengdu brocade production has a long history, which is not much controversial. However, there are two opinions about when there was a brocade official, but the two opinions are not completely separated. Sichuan Shu Brocade was well-known in the pre Qin period. The ancient people used the river water flowing through Chengdu to wash brocade. It was bright and colorful, and there were a large number of people. The river water was often colorful and gorgeous, so it was used to call the river water flowing through Chengdu Jinjiang.
In 316 BC, King Huiwen of Qin Dynasty sent Zhang Yi, Sima CuO and others to attack Bashu. Soon, Zhang Yi and Zhang ruoxiu built Chengdu with reference to Xianyang city. In view of the fact that ancient Shu is famous for its sericulture and textile, it is a rich place. Qin occupied Bashu and laid a foundation of strength that surpassed the six Central Plains countries. Therefore, Chengdu, built by Zhang Yi, was originally a city with outstanding commercial characteristics. It set up a brocade official in the south of Jinli bridge, and specialized in managing the weaving of Sichuan brocade in Chengdu, where Sichuan brocade was developed. Therefore, it is believed that Jin Guan appeared as early as the late Warring States period.
Although the truth of this statement can not be completely confirmed, it is a fact that Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty did see the spread of exquisite Shu Brocade in foreign countries when he was sent to the western regions. The objective demonstration of Shu Brocade spreading in the western regions is also an important basis for highlighting the popularity of the ancient Silk Road. For many years, Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty opened up his territory. Because Zhang Qian was sent as an envoy to meet the market demand, in order to enrich the national strength by trading silk, further increase the production and management of Shu brocade, he set up the Jinguan again. It may be more convincing to institutionalize the Jinguan in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty.
The Han tomb at laoguanshan, Tianhui Town, Chengdu provides evidence of textile machinery in the Qin and Han Dynasties
But another popular saying is that during the Three Kingdoms period, Shu Han set up brocade officials in Chengdu to manage the brocade craftsmen. From the Han Dynasty to the Shuhan Dynasty, Chengdu's Brocade handicraft industry was particularly developed, and both the north and the South silk roads were constantly exported to foreign countries, so Sichuan brocade was well-known. Shu Han was weak among the Three Kingdoms, and Shu Brocade was the main commodity for foreign trade and economic support. Therefore, "Jinguan" was specially set up to concentrate brocade craftsmen to produce Shu brocade on a large scale, and specially built a city to protect the production of Shu brocade. It was called "Jinguan City", and later referred to as "Jincheng".
In Yizhou Ji, Li Ying of Xiao Liang in the Southern Dynasty wrote: "Jincheng is in the south of Yizhou, and it flows to the south of the river in the west of Chiqiao. In the past, it was also a Jinguan in Shu. It's in Jinli, and Chengyong is still there. " Obviously, Chengdu has opened up a relatively closed place for the production of Shu brocade, specifically called Jinguan city. It is located in Jinli in the south of the city. In fact, it is not exactly the same as today's Jinli, but an area to the west of the old Nanmen bridge. The Jinguan official office vaguely said "the South Bank of Liujiang River". According to the textual research of the records of streets and alleys in Chengdu and other books, it is speculated that the area from the back of Jinli to Baihuatan today belongs to Jinguan City, and the Jinguan office is probably located somewhere to the south of Chengdu, and the specific location may be somewhere between Wuhou Temple and Baihuatan Park in the south of Chengdu.
According to the data, the brocade workshop in the south of "Jinguan city" was the largest official brocade workshop with the highest level of technology in China at that time. The southeast of Chengdu extends to Huayang, Shuangliu, and there are many folk handicraft brocade workshops. In short, the south of Chengdu is the most concentrated and prosperous area. Later, in order to facilitate the transportation of Shu Brocade between officials and merchants, Jinguan post was specially set up. It was one of the largest post stations in Chengdu in history. It was probably located in the famous Jiuyanqiao area. The nearby wharf was also the largest Jinjiang Wharf in Chengdu in ancient times. The famous ancient poem "Wangjun louchuan xiayizhou" started from the wharf in the southeast of Chengdu City.
Up to Tang Dynasty, the industrial and commercial industry in Bashu and Chengdu had been prosperous, known as "Yang Yi Er". Bashu is an important economic town supporting Chang'an and Luoyang, so Tang Xuanzong, Tang Dezong and Tang Xizong would flee to Sichuan when they were in danger. Du Fu's famous poem "flowers attach importance to Jinguan city" has been handed down for thousands of years because of his realism. He lived in Huanhua River in the west of Chengdu and could see the beautiful environment of Jinguan city at that time. The famous lotus flower of Chengdu in Tang Dynasty started from Jinguan city.
Du Fu was a flower lover. He asked people everywhere for seeds to plant the trees, flowers and plants around his cottage. So he wrote down how he saw the flowers of Jinguan city in the south of the city at that time. However, Jinguan city does not refer to the whole of Chengdu, just as Du Fu's another famous sentence "outside of Jinguan City, there are a lot of people living outside of Jinguan city". It is a memorial hall for Zhuge Liang outside of Jinguan city. It was not until Meng Yan, the late leader of Shu in the Five Dynasties, that hibiscus flowers were planted around the imperial city where the Imperial Palace was located, so Chengdu became known as the city of Chengdu.
Huanhua River in Chengdu is a place where ancient weaving girls washed brocade
In the Tang Dynasty, Shu Brocade was also very popular in Silla, Korea, Japan and other places. In particular, the unique name "Shu Jiang brocade" was spread in Japan. Many high-grade and exquisite Shu Brocade were collected in zhengcangyuan and Zhenglong temple in Kyoto. From the Zhenguan period, the "character brocade" of ancient calligraphy was popular, such as Wang Xizhi's preface to the Orchid Pavilion collection.
At that time, a number of Shu brocade patterns designed by Dou Shilun, the inspector of Yizhou dahangtai, were used as the standard pattern of inner library brocade by the Tang court. Dou Shilun, a first-class expert in Shu brocade weaving, was an official of Li Shimin's family in his early years. However, he was not from Sichuan, but a member of the Dou family of Guanzhong. It is said that his father Dou Kang was the cousin of the Dou family, Li Yuan's wife. Dou Shilun absorbed the pattern techniques of western regions and designed many exquisite styles based on symmetrical patterns, which were popular until the late Tang Dynasty. It is recorded in Zhang Yanyuan's notes on famous paintings of all dynasties in Tang Dynasty that "Dou Shilun The imperial edict and the inspection and construction of Yizhou dahangtai, where the creation of Rui jingongling, Zhang caiqili, Shu people have been known as Lingyang Gongyang. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, neikurui brocade was created from Shilun to treat pheasants, Douyang, Xiangfeng and Youlin, and has been handed down to this day. " Later, this kind of Sichuan brocade was unearthed in Turpan, Xinjiang, Dulan, Qinghai and other places. For example, the national treasures unearthed in Xinjiang, such as "five stars out of the East brocade shield" and "yellow Lianzhu longwenling", are all exquisite. For example, some time ago, five-star brocade was reconstructed with the Han Dynasty brocade machine from laoguanshan Han tomb in Tianhui Town, Chengdu. The words "Shuangliu County" (710), the first year of Jingyun, are clearly written on the back of Lianzhu Longwen, which can prove the popularity of Shu brocade. At that time, most of the noble women in the Tang Dynasty took possession of a "Lingyang Gong brocade" as the fashion.
After Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Sichuan was famous for its raw silk production in Guozhou (now Nanchong) and Baoning (now Langzhong). Chengdu mainly produced brocade, such as tribute colorful vests, which were worth 100 gold in Chang'an. In the late Tang Dynasty, Nanzhao repeatedly harassed Chengdu and forcibly took away many Shu Brocade craftsmen, which made Shu Brocade popular in Nanzhao area and objectively expanded the spread of Shu Brocade and textile technology in Yunnan ethnic areas.
Shu Brocade was still prosperous in Song Dynasty. In the middle of December every year, it was specially called "Brocade market" in April. Different brocades were produced according to different categories. There were patterns and standards in the production of tribute products, and there were differences in the patterns used to market horses. In the history of the Song Dynasty, there are different kinds of brocade used by officials at all levels. Such as: "zhongshumen, privy, imperial relatives, generals and above, the world music halo brocade; three secretary, bachelor, Zhongcheng There are four sets of brocade carved on the top of the envoys and the chief of the chamber. There are three sets of brocade carved on the top of the envoys and the chief of the chamber It's the seventh grade. " Shu Brocade is the most popular. The lantern brocade, which was popular in the Northern Song Dynasty for a period of time in the Shangyuan Festival, symbolizes a auspicious omen of abundant grain and is also a kind of Shu brocade. It is said that Renzong's Princess Zhang wore lantern brocade, which the emperor liked very much. The princess took the opportunity to tell Renzong that it was designed by famous Minister Wen Yanbo. Renzong was very happy, so she promoted Wen Yanbo further. This story is recorded in "blue clouds" written by Mei Yaochen, because Zhang Guifei's father was once a guest of Wen Yanbo's family. In order to help Wen Yanbo, he proposed to use Sichuan brocade to please the emperor.
The flowing water and falling flowers brocade began to spread in the Song Dynasty, reflecting the elegant taste of literati
The story of Wen Yanbo also marks the beginning of the aesthetic trend of many literati and bureaucrats in Shu brocade. Some styles of Shu Brocade in Song Dynasty began to change. The most famous one is "flowing water and falling flowers brocade". It seems that it comes from Li Yu's famous saying "flowing water and falling flowers and spring goes away". It is mainly composed of plum blossom and peach blossom patterns mixed with wavy patterns. This kind of Shu Brocade was very popular until Ming Dynasty, and it was also popular in other places There are a lot of imitations. It is also from the Song Dynasty, with Shu Brocade as the benchmark, brocade began to rise in other areas, such as Jiangnan area under the banner of song brocade, especially the textile industry in Hangzhou and Suzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, which fully used the technology of Shu Brocade for reference and rapidly promoted to become the representative of song brocade. But its aesthetic and technological basis is Shu brocade, just as Lu You, a great poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, once lamented in his poem "late DengZi city": "I don't know how many brocade machines and jade works there are, and I can hear the wind blowing in the poor lane at night.".
In the Qing Dynasty, Sichuan brocade and other textile production were important cities in China. Even though the Taiping army once occupied Jiangsu and Zhejiang for more than ten years, it also made profits by selling a large number of raw silk and silk products overseas. In the Qing Dynasty, "zhizaofu" (the famous Jiangnan weaving Bureau, Cao Xueqin's ancestor) was transferred to Chengdu. According to the records of the general textual research on the continued literature of the Qing Dynasty, during the reign of Guangxu, "Chengdu had 2000 machine rooms, more than 10000 looms, and 40000 weavers; silk products accounted for 70% of the total amount of Sichuan, and Chengdu mainly produced brocade." there were "Yuehua", "Yusi" and "Fangfang" brocade, which were the "three wonders of the late Qing Dynasty".
Sichuan's Handmade textile industry, after a large number of Western machine cloth entered, once set off a famous dispute over local cloth and foreign cloth, which was once greatly impacted, and then followed the historical trend to enter the machine age represented by sewing machine.
