In other words, in the eyes of the ancients, Shu brocade woven from "mulberry silk" has become a business card of Sichuan.
Shu brocade is the first of the four famous brocade in ancient China. The origin of Chengdu's nickname "Jincheng" originated from the establishment of a "Jin Guan" in Chengdu after the Qin Dynasty destroyed Bashu.
"Huayang National Records": Zhang Yi, who lives in Chengdu, returns to Shili every week, and even sets up a Jin official in the south of Yili Bridge. Senior officials are the pearl officials of Hepu. Now, the famous Jinguancheng in the south of the city and the famous Guancheng in the west of the city have built military camps on all sides of the old city.
Today, starting from the economic, political and cultural values of Shu Brocade, we talk about the glorious past of Sichuan specialty Shu Brocade.
Shu brocade: Jiuzhai scenery
First, Shu brocade
1, the origin of Shu brocade
Shu brocade has two meanings, one is colorful brocade woven with silk in Chengdu, and the other is silk brocade produced in Sichuan.
Bashu is one of the earliest areas to show sericulture, silk management and brocade technology. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the fabrics produced by Shu had enjoyed a high reputation among princes.
In 3 16 BC, after Qin sent troops to destroy Shu, officials of the State of Jin were specially set up in Shu County to provide silk goods for Qin, thus, Shu Brocade also opened the first step to the world.
Notes on Silk Embroidery: "At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Shu did not arrive in China, and Zheng, Wei, Qi and Lu all produced brocade." "Since Shu Tong was in the Central Plains, weaving has gradually spread to the west, and Shu brocade has flourished since Wei and Jin Dynasties ..."
During the Western Han Dynasty, with the opening of the North-South Silk Road, Shu brocade appeared in Central Asia, West Asia and the Mediterranean through trade. This exquisite design of Shu brocade has successfully gained a large number of foreign fans.
Koi fish, Jin Shu
2. The characteristics of Shu brocade
Shu brocade is a colorful brocade woven from silk.
Shu brocade attaches importance to the collocation of warp and weft. According to the difference of multi-warp and multi-color weft, Shu brocade can be divided into warp brocade and weft brocade.
Shu brocade is famous for its prosperous patterns, fine weaving patterns and elegant color matching. Weaving a piece of Sichuan brocade requires four steps: selecting materials, designing weave patterns and techniques, processing raw materials (dyeing, winding, drawing/winding) and weaving on a loom.
It can be said that each piece of Shu brocade contains the craftsman's pursuit of beauty and love for the world, so as to weave such a colorful brocade.
The key to the popularity of Shu brocade in the long history is innovation.
This kind of innovation includes both technology and style. Based on the integration of national and local characteristics, craftsmen constantly inject new ideas, which is the key to its longevity. For example, the common images in Shu brocade in Tang Dynasty are lotus, tortoise shell flower and lotus bead. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Shu brocade was dominated by birds, clouds, cranes, flowers and animals.
Flowers and Birds in Shu Brocade
Shu brocade bears the initiative, innovation, hard work and kindness of Sichuan people to some extent.
Second, the value of Shu brocade to Sichuan
1, the cultural value of Shu brocade
Walking on the streets of Chengdu, the cultural imprint left by Shu brocade can still be seen everywhere.
The nickname of the city is "Jincheng", and there is a "Jinjiang District" in the central city of Chengdu. "Jinjiang" refers to the "South River" in the south of Chengdu, where ancient weaver girls are covered in brocade.
This strange experience, which reflects history and reality, makes me seem to have returned to Chengdu thousands of years ago. At that time, brocade was the most lively industry in Chengdu, "the work of women workers covered the world", "the home of a clever woman and geisha, with hundreds of compartments, harmonious machines, perfect brocade and colorful rivers".
It's just that with the development of science and technology, hand-made brocade is becoming less and less common. Today, only with the help of this sporadic trace can we have the honor to get a glimpse of the brilliant face of Shu brocade from a corner of reality.
Through Shu brocade, we can learn about ancient customs, myths and legends and historical stories. In the form of patterns, it shows us all kinds of great changes that Sichuan has experienced in the past two thousand years.
Jinjiang District, Chengdu
At the same time, Shu brocade is also an emotional bond between Sichuanese. This emotional fetter stems from Sichuan people's recognition and sense of belonging to their hometown and people's expectation for a better life.
2. The economic value of Shu brocade.
Shu brocade has a high economic value, and its price is described as higher than gold in Ming Shi: brocade and gold are also hardworking, and their prices are as high as gold.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge, the prime minister, was able to complete several northern expeditions by relying on one state, largely because Shu brocade was very popular at that time, which brought huge financial income to Shu.
"Danyang Ji": In the past dynasties, there was no brocade in Jiangdong, and Chengdu was unique, so Wei was in Shu and Wu was in Xishu.
"Collection of Zhuge Liang" Volume II "Teaching": Today, the people are poor and the country is empty, and the enemy's capital is only praised.
Cao Pi, Wei Wendi, was very sad to see that ministers spent huge sums of money to provide "economic support" for Shu to attack themselves. He specially wrote a book about Shu brocade with ministers, warning them that although Shu brocade is good, all the goods sold to us by Shu are inferior, so don't buy Shu brocade any more. Every time I get Shu brocade, it's very different. I can be surprised, but Xianbei still loves it. I wove the wishful tiger head with brocade and thin gold on the wall. Shu Bo came to Luoyi, all doing evil, all in name for work.
At that time, the most famous silk producing area of Cao Wei regime was Xiangyi in Yuzhou, but this situation changed after Cao Wei regime brought the regime into the management scope: since Wei and Jin Dynasties, Shu brocade flourished and tried to seize the seat of Xiangyi, so Xiangyi was transformed and woven, so brocade was specially made for Shu. (Notes on Silk Embroidery)
Shu brocade occupied the top three positions in domestic silk sales for a long time from Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty. Even Yangzhou, known as "Yang Yier", was slightly inferior in the silk weaving industry at that time: now it is a famous town in the world, and it is increasingly beneficial ... the beauty of Jiangshan and Luo Jin ... Yang is not enough. (Preface to Chengdu in the Whole Tang Dynasty)
Jin Shu loom
3. The political value of Shu brocade.
1995 10, the Sino-Japanese academic investigation team of Niya Site found a Han Shu brocade woven with eight Chinese characters "Five Stars Go East, Benefit China" in a male and female burial tomb of Niya Site in Minfeng County, Hotan District, Xinjiang.
This piece of Shu brocade is the hand guard tied to the forearm when the tomb owner shoots an arrow. It uses five colors of warp in Huang Honglan, on which are woven the patterns of sun, moon, clouds, peacocks, cranes, evil spirits and tigers.
In the Han Dynasty, the interpretation of astronomical calendar was the exclusive right of the royal family, and the "five stars out of the East Gate" predicted that the Han Dynasty would win the military war overseas, so this Shu brocade witnessed the historical process that the Han Dynasty gradually extended its influence to Xinjiang.
"Historical Records of the Heavenly Palace": "The five stars are divided into the sky, accumulated in the east, and beneficial to China; Western accumulation benefits foreign users. The five stars are all gathered in one room from the stars, and the country that gives up can pass through the world. "
Because of its high economic and artistic value, Shu brocade has been used by feudal kings to reward courtiers and foreign friends:
(1) Shu brocade is a treasure given by the king to officials, which reflects your kindness;
(2) Shu brocade is a gift from the king to the vassal countries to defeat other countries;
Hanshu: Small towns near Yelang are greedy for the silks and silks of the Han people, thinking that the Han way is dangerous and can't be owned in the end.
③ Shu brocade is an extremely important tribute from Sichuan to the royal family;
④ Shu Brocade is an important material related to whether the national finance is substantial or not.
At the same time, Shu brocade is often used to make royal costumes and official uniforms to show the luxury of imperial power.
Imperial robe
Three, Shu brocade is an important foreign trade commodity on the Silk Road.
Chengdu is the cultural starting point of the Southern Silk Road.
Note: The western route of the Southern Silk Road starts from Chengdu, passes through Yunnan to Myanmar, India, and then to Central Asia, West Asia and the Mediterranean.
Hanshu: In the first year of Yuanshou, Zhang Qian, king of Wang Bo, went to Daxia (present-day North), met with Shu Mi and Qiong Zhuzhang, and asked him where he came from. He said: "From the southeast (now India) to the Shujia People's Market, it takes thousands of miles."
Zhang Qian saw Shu Brocade all over Afghanistan, which shows that Shu Brocade is a very valuable commodity in the eyes of foreign businessmen.
At that time, the Greeks and Romans called China "the country of silk", which shows that "silk" has become the image label of Chinese civilization in the eyes of foreigners on the Silk Road.
Sichuan brocade
On this Silk Road, Shu brocade spread not only commodities, but also brocade technology and aesthetic standards.
After Shu brocade spread to Japan, it greatly inspired the progress of Japanese silk weaving, bleaching and dyeing technology.
"History of Japanese Art" records: "Shu brocade is the most famous representative of China brocade in Japan since ancient times".
Therefore, from the perspective of cultural exchange, the spread of Shu Brocade has promoted the recognition and understanding of China culture in the West.
abstract
Since the Western Han Dynasty, Shu Brocade has won a large number of loyal fans with exquisite patterns, elegant color matching and unique creativity, and has made a great splash on the Silk Road.
After thousands of years of inheritance, Sichuan people have created a glorious history of Shu brocade, and Shu brocade has also witnessed the development of Sichuan.
Nowadays, the weaving technology of Shu brocade has been listed in the intangible cultural heritage list by UNESCO, and it is believed that this beautiful work of art will continue to create new legends in the future.
References:
1 Wang Bin, Wang Junping. Study on Traditional Craft of Shu Brocade [J]. Progress in Textile Science and Technology (IV): 1-30.
Wang Junping, Wang Bin. The Pattern Style of Shu Brocade and Its Development (Continued) [J]. Textile Science and Technology Progress (4):45-47.
Wu Min [1]. Study on Shu Brocade Unearthed in Turpan —— Also on the historical position of Shu Brocade and its relationship with Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jin Ling [J]. Textile Science and Technology Progress, 2007(s 1).
4 "Silk Embroidery Notes"
5 "Dian Lun, Qunchen on Shu Brocade"