Printing gold through the dynasties for the utilization of gold.

Gold is yellow, never change color, radiant, attractive charm, very precious. Gold is small in size, value, easy to carry and collection, its physical properties are particularly superior, such as not afraid of erosion, not weathering, ductility, hardness 2.5-3.0, easy to process. These advantages of gold, decided it from the beginning has been monopolized by the upper class.

In China, the starting point of the history of gold utilization is the Bronze Age, which began about 3800 years ago in the era of Kayo culture and the Yin Dynasty, and before that it had already been seen for the first time in the northern steppe and around the Central Plains. The results of quantitative compositional analysis and metallographic examination, surface qualitative compositional analysis, and surface localized descaling analysis of copper vessels excavated from the late Neolithic Siba culture burials in Yumen Huoyaogou, Gansu Province, show that there were already a variety of copper materials at that time, and in addition, there were magazines with diversified and high elemental contents. Although we have not confirmed whether these diversified copper materials and diversified impurities contain gold-like metal elements, it is certain that the utilization of diversified metal materials helped people discover gold and utilize it. In addition, the use of gold in the southwest region also had a brief and relatively independent development process, but eventually dissolved in the culture of the Central Plains and died out.

The technology of gold processing seems to have prepared the way from the beginning for the later textile gold printing. Textile gold printing is a general term, including gold paste, clay gold, etc., and one of the earliest and most common methods of gold printing is gold paste. The gold needs to be made into gold leaf, and China's gold processing is from the production of gold leaf to start. Although the thickness of the gold leaf is much thicker than the gold foil, but its overall development trend is flat. Such as our country so far seen the earliest gold and silver ware unearthed in qinghai karuo culture, gansu four dam culture, all with gold leaf and gold wire as its raw material. According to archaeological discoveries, Hebei gaocheng Shang dynasty site in the lacquer inlaid with gold foil decoration, Henan Anyang yin ruins Houjiazhuang northwest post unearthed gold bubbles and bridge shaped gold piece, Zhengzhou Shang dynasty site unearthed kui dragons patterned gold leaf decorations. These archaeological records prove that as early as the Shang Dynasty, people were already able to master and utilize the feature of the most ductile gold, and processed gold foils with a thickness of only one-hundredth of a millimeter, such as those found in the Anyang Yinxu Ruins. The manufacture of gold foil laid the technical foundation for the emergence of textile gold printing process.

But, the gold technology was not initially applied in the textile, the reason may come from two aspects, one from the application of the level has not yet entered the aesthetic pursuit of gold embellished with brocade; the second is in the technical level has not yet solved the formulation of adhesive, because the gold on the surface of textile and artifacts, the technical requirements of a great deal of difference in the textile printing of the gold of the adhesion of the fastness to the requirements of a high degree. The use of gold in the han dynasty is expanding. 1968 in hebei mancheng western han zhongshan jingwang liusheng couple tomb unearthed directly with gold wire as embellishment knot jade piece material of the gold wisp jade coat, this is so far to see the gold as the earliest record of the clothing material, the gold wisp jade coat, although from the textile printing gold is still a little far away, but it will be the use of gold to expand the scope to the clothing field, it should be said that compared to the production of a separate Small pieces of gold jewelry, and textile printing between the distance has been close to some. Stringing gold thread into clothing is probably a more popular clothing process during the Western Han period, such as "salt and iron theory" also mentioned "蘮 clothing gold strands", which indicates that the stringing of gold thread is not limited to the use of knotting jade pieces, and may be used for felt type of 蘮 clothing embroidery. The important connection between the stringing of gold threads into garments and the printing of gold on textiles should be the two pieces of printed yarns numbered 340-11 and 24 excavated from the Mawangdui Tomb, as well as the small fragments of the two bamboo containers numbered 337 and 346. These pieces of printed yarn in the original excavation report is written "mud gold and silver printed yarn, later identified as the use of mica powder and other pigments printed", corrected to "gold and silver printed yarn. Although the "gold and silver printing yarn" is not the true meaning of the printing of gold textiles, but from the appearance of gold textiles seems not far away.

The 1990s found with the site of Xinjiang Yingpan close to the lapel, the silk surface of the gold felt boots, etc., is a clear indication of clothing close to the print has become a popular decoration of the Western region at the time. Unearthed men's and women's clothing collar, skirt, lapel, socks back, can be seen to be cut into triangles, polka dots, square gold foil decorations, which have close to the gold lapel is a geometric pattern of qi robes fragments, close to the gold is located in the collar, lapel part of the **** there are two kinds of decorative edges. The middle straight, both sides of the oblique decorative edge for brocade tapestry and silk for the edge of the embroidered pomegranate flowers, the bottom of the horizontal edge for the yellowish, reddish-red purple, red, green and other colors of the triangular silk, silk composed of embroidered flowers, the edge of the adhesive interlocking triangular gold foil and continuous round gold foil, triangular gold foil height of about 0.5 centimeters, the circular gold foil diameter of about 0.4 centimeters. Xi'an Daming Palace north of the discovery of the Northern Zhou Anjia tomb stone couch carving figures dress, can also see a lot of gold decorated leather belt, bracelets, collars, reflecting the early into the Central Plains of the Sut people's clothing may be characterized.

Applied gold printing method in China before the Han and Jin dynasties have not found, after the opening of the Silk Road, suddenly appeared in the East-West cultural exchange channel in the town of Yingpan, indicating that in the study of ancient Chinese textile printing gold, there is a different from the aspect of silk, jade, which is to expand the horizon to the development of China's western neighboring regions of the history of the development of gold and silverware, and can not be confined to China's scope, that is, not only should be Concerned about the exchange of Chinese and Western gold and silverware and its technology, but also to see the production of foreign gold and silverware imported into China and its circulation of historical facts. With the dramatic increase in cultural exchanges between the East and the West in the era of the North and South Dynasties, luxury, debauchery life style prolonged, gold also seems to be regarded as the luxury of the external symbols of luxury, forming the status of nobility, property rich in the most intuitive form of sensibility, to become envied by the general public of the material enjoyment of life of the most direct can resort to the visual things and get advocated. According to the "Three Kingdoms - Wei Zhi - Xiahou Shang biography," said: "Jinke system, since the public listed below the marquis, the position to the general above, are allowed to serve damask, brocade, Luo, qi, lace, veil, gold and silver strands of decorative objects." And, "northern history - biography" contains: "Persia tasted offering gold thread brocade robe, organization is beautiful, on the order of thick for it. Thick brocade has been completed, more than those offered, on the very happy." Description of the Wei and Jin dynasties in the Central Plains, not only required to wear aya, and advocate the use of gold and silver strands of decorative objects, and even imitation of gold brocade robes from the Persian offerings. This can be seen, with gold fabrics to the six dynasties has been quite popular. The Han and Jin dynasties and the Sui Dynasty after the increase in the amount of textiles with gold, but also with the application of a wide range of Buddhist gold decorations, such as Dunhuang, Sui and Tang dynasty murals of Buddha and bodhisattva dress decoration is also partially used in the gold process, but most of the flaking, very few of them are well preserved. With the introduction of Buddhism, in the worship of the Buddha's winds of prosperity and people to the Buddha's mentality to guide, real-life clothing to gold decoration has become a more common phenomenon. Especially in the Tang and Song dynasties, the increase in production of gold and silverware and craftsmanship, showing the world style of luxury pursuit of rich and luxurious, textile printing gold is also under the influence of the above factors has been rapid development.

The Tang Dynasty economic development, cultural prosperity, technological progress, gold consumption also expanded, with gold methods are increasingly diverse. Yang Shen of the Ming Dynasty, citing the "six canons of the Tang Dynasty," said the Tang Dynasty, there are sixteen kinds of gold methods: pin gold, pat gold, gold-plated, woven gold, calendared gold, Phi gold, mud gold, gold, openwork, flick gold, bumping gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, visible methods of gold, the number of ways to see it.

Tang Dynasty textiles with gold in kind, in addition to the Fahmen Temple found in gold brocade and knit gold embroidered clothing is famous, gold silk also has a case, that is the 874 AD Tang Yi Zong, Xi Zong period of the Tantric monks in accordance with the emperor's will, according to the highest rituals of the Tantric Buddhism sealed in the secret of the Palace of an iron package of gold sarong. This parcel printed gold sarong although has been unable to peel off from the iron letter, but the above affixing printed phoenix and butterfly flower pattern gold foil is still clearly recognizable. In addition to the found in Famen Temple gold printing Luo, the Tang Dynasty, other textiles about the situation of gold printing, the literature also has a lot of records. Such as "the whole Tang Dynasty" Volume 44 "recovery of the two capitals amnesty text" said: "House, car, clothes, utensils, and should be quasi-style. Jewelry, precious tin, flat off, gold clay, woven, embroidery and so on, all prohibited." This means that Emperor Suzong had banned gold clay. Gold mud is mud gold, said to be very fine gold powder and adhesive mixing after printing or hand-painted on the fabric of a processing method. Tang Dynasty gold printing seems to be mostly seen in clothing, its decorative techniques to depict the main. Such as the tang dynasty poem "LuoYi hidden gold mud painting", "gold mud color is not precious, painted as a mandarin ducks began to be able to write", "the more Luo cold thin gold mud heavy" can be proved. Chinese textile printing gold name quite a few, such as paste gold, pin gold, chip gold, Ming Jin, mud gold, gold mud, depicting gold, sprinkle gold, sprinkle gold, etc.. However, the most basic gold printing process is no more than two kinds: one is the gold sticker process, the second is the mud gold process.

Applied gold is the gold foil glued to the top of the textile. To date, the earliest gold textiles unearthed in Xinjiang Yingpan Han Jin cemetery. The most technical aspects of the gold textile process is the gold foil production and the use of adhesive.

Golden foil using gold hammered into thin slices, modern folk traditional craft production of gold foil, with a gold content of 99.99% of the gold bar as the main raw material, after a thousand hammers, become an area of 2.5 square centimeters of the gold leaf, and then sandwiched between kerosene smoked into the ebony paper, and then 6 to 8 hours of manual hammering, so that the gold leaf foil, an area of the equivalent of the gold leaf of about forty times, and then cut into squares that is. Then it was cut into square shapes. In the volume of "Hardware - Gold" of "Tian Gong Kai Wu", it is recorded that: "Any color up to gold is beautiful and precious for the earth, so it is made into foil by hand and then applied to it. Where the gold foil every gold seven cents to create a square inch of gold a thousand pieces, sticky pavement surface, can cover the vertical and horizontal three feet. Where to make gold foil both into thin slices, wrapped into the ebony paper, and strive to wield vertebrae hit into (hit the gold vertebrae short handle, weighing about 8 pounds).

"In and modern folk gold foil production process is generally consistent. The traditional process of making gold foil is relatively complex, and is still subdivided into twelve processes in the folk craft, such as proportioning, striping, leaf patting, making twists, dropping open the child, dipping the twists, opening the child, making open the child, kangkeng, hitting the fine, making out of the utensils, cutting the foil, etc. Finally, the gold foil is made of golden color and lustre, and the color and lustre of gold foil is made of golden color and lustre. The final gold foil is golden in color, bright and soft, light as a feather, thin as a cicada's wing, and less than 0.12 microns thick.

The choice of adhesive, the generations may be used by different, different regions will also vary, so it is difficult to determine. However, by checking the literature and folk craft survey, roughly in ancient times was used as a gold sealing adhesive and doping agent to promote adhesive materials such as lacquer, tung oil, kozo pulp, peach tree sap, bone glue, fish glue, glutinous rice paste, garlic liquid, soybean paste mucus, icing sugar water, and so on. Lacquer, also known as natural lacquer, raw lacquer, earth lacquer. China's specialty, so it is generally known as Chinese lacquer. It is a kind of natural resin paint, which is made by cutting the bark of the lacquer tree and producing a white viscous emulsion from the bast, after processing. The use of lacquer began in the late Neolithic period, to the Shang Dynasty, the color lacquer is more abundant and appeared in the lacquer above the sticking of gold foil and inlaid turquoise craft. Through the Western Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Period, the lacquer production technology has been refined, in the Han, Tang, Song and Yuan have been greatly developed, and used to this day.

Historically, lacquer was used to decorate palaces, temples, ships, coffins and household items. Lacquered textiles include lacquer yarn. Tung oil, a dry vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the Chinese specialty tung tree, is mainly composed of tungoleic acid. Tung oil has the characteristics of quick drying, high and low temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. Therefore, it is widely used in the manufacturing industries such as lacquer, construction, printing, ink, shipbuilding, etc. For example, in the lacquer making, because of the high and low temperature resistance, it is widely used in the manufacturing industry. Such as in the production of paint, tung oil film brightness than paint, but less anti-aging properties than paint, paint production than tung oil is small, the cost is also high, so the tung oil infiltrated into the paint, not only can play a diluting role in the paint to improve the performance of the paint, but also to reduce costs.

Ancient construction with glutinous rice mixed with tung oil lime to bond bricks, the strength of this adhesive even more than modern cement mortar. In printing, blue printed cloth is used to determine the position of the pattern using oil paper cut-out plates, which are made of mulberry paper mounted with persimmon lacquer. The method of engraving is similar to that of paper-cutting, except that the lines should be firmly connected, emphasizing proportionality and preventing warping. Paper plate engraved and then coated with a layer of tung oil, one is to increase the fastness, the second is to make it less permeable to water. Wang? (xù) Han Dynasty weaving and embroidery products Zhuzha dyeing process as well as Mawangdui's Han Dynasty printing has done paint dyeing and printing experiments. In the experiment, Wang? used a color paste made by emulsifying a small amount of cooked tung oil with egg yolk and mixing it with pigments, because he thought that the binder in the color paste of Han Dynasty vermilion dyeing and weaving was very likely to use dry oils (e.g., cooked tung oil, etc.) in addition to various kinds of gums. Broussonetia pulp, both broussonetia sap. Broussonetia kasinoki, also known as Broussonetia kasinoki and Broussonetia kasinoki, belongs to the mulberry family, and is a deciduous tree, dioecious, with symmetrical leaves that are sometimes not split, and red, edible fruit. The latex of Broussonetia kozo contains phenolic compounds, which have excellent adhesive properties similar to lacquer phenol.

There are many common names for the kozo tree, which is known as "grain" in the Book of Songs, and its bark is rich in fiber that can be used to make paper, so it is known as the papermaking tree; kozo, the sap of which is like milk, so it is known as the milk tree, and the farmers feed its leaves to the deer, cows, goats, and other animals, so it is also known as the deer tree. TIANGONGKAIWU, Volume 8, "Hardware - Gold": "In order to make things, first use cooked lacquer to cloth the ground, and then stick it, and those who stick gold characters use kozo pulp." Peach gum, also known as peach tree gum, for the peach, plum, apricot, cherry and other trunk secretion of fatty gum, peach tree to mountain peach tree. Peach tree is native to China, "Poetry" that is, "the peach is premature, burning its splendor" of the best lines, is now widely cultivated around the world. Peach gum is a translucent polysaccharide substances, a wide range of uses, the textile industry in the north as an acidic printing paste, flower tube carving process used as a protective adhesive, the printing industry used as a gold dust adhesive, and the production of pigments, can be used, medicinal and paper adhesive, can be a substitute for imported gum arabic.

Gelatin, is a kind of connective tissue (skin and bone) from animals (cattle, horses, pigs) after a long multi-step degradation and extraction of a protein, the use of a long history. Gelatine is commonly used as a binder in the traditional ink production associated with the printing process as well as in the production of pigments. The gelatine used for pigment mixing is also called yellow gelatine and Guangjiao, mostly produced in Guangdong and Guangxi, which is made from the skin, tendon, bone and horn of cattle and horses, and is yellow and transparent, in the shape of a square strip, without odor. Add water to melt with a slight fire, only the upper layer of clear light into the color, the following turbidity is not used. Colla Corii Asini, also known as Fu Zhi Gum, also made from cattle and horses and other beasts of the skin, tendons, bones, horns, out of Yanggu County, Shandong Province, sixty miles northeast of the A well. There are three kinds of gum, thin and transparent, light yellow color, selected for the use of pigment; another clear and thick, or black as paint into the medicine; the rest of the turbid opaque, only can stick objects with. Painters use, also add water melted over a slight fire, only the top of the water. Glutinous rice paste, cooked with glutinous rice paste. Glutinous rice, also known as river rice, yuan rice, wine rice, glutinous rice for the Chinese cultivation of a variant of rice, rice grains milky white, endosperm containing more branched bond starch, easy to paste, viscous, bloating small. Ming Dynasty in the masonry wall, widely used lime mortar and glutinous rice juice stirred together as a cementing material.

Additionally, glutinous rice paste is also commonly used for making clothes paste and posting spring couplets under the eaves of marketplaces. According to folk artisans, the traditional paste gold decorative technique is the gold foil with bamboo pincers, pasted on a sticky base, the base of the paste gold, with fish bladder glue all over the brush layer, which is the ancient method of the Tang and Song dynasties; with the structure of the tree Jin liquid, is the method of Guanzhong area. Soybean paste mucus, garlic liquid, icing sugar water can be used, generally in the cloth with garlic liquid, in the wall and board, with "gold glue oil", in the line with "leaching powder". In addition, the traditional craft used for adhesive materials, such as insect glue, potato juice glue.

The gold foil used in gold stickers, mostly known as sheet gold, have a certain thickness and fastness, usually according to the pattern can then be cut and pasted under the conditions of no backing adhesive, by the whacking and patting attached to the textile. Later, may be out of economic considerations and the development of the technology itself, the gold foil made more and more thin, fragile to the situation of blowing wadding like Hong, can not be cut and paste adhesive, so, the use of the whole sheet of gold foil pavement foil adhesive to replace the main method of gold printing. In the Jin Dynasty, this method may have been used for architectural decoration.

"Jin Shi - the Chronicle" the fifth "Hailing": "the palace of the decorations, all Fu gold and then between the five cuisines, gold dust flying in the air such as falling snow", the record is probably laying foil adhesion of the gold sticker process. Although the pavement foil adhesion with a whole sheet of gold foil, but in fact only pre-printed adhesive pattern at the solid gold foil, the rest of the unglued broken gold foil are to be shaken off at the end of the duster, destruction, "pin gold" may be named, it is also known as the chip gold. Crumbs, crumbs also. However, the Jin people avoided, so change the pin gold in terms of "Ming Jin", the Song people just the opposite, like to pin gold harmonic elimination of the Golden State, so the name of the popular pin gold, often seen in the literature, the Yuan dynasty is inherited from the Song dynasty, more than with the name of the pin gold.

Mud gold is the gold powder and adhesive blend into mud after printing or painting on the silk surface processing method, mud gold method and the Chinese painting tradition is closely linked, so its history can be traced back to a long time. But the real sense of the clay gold textiles time is not too early, the Han and Jin dynasties is just a beginning, the real popularity is to the Tang Dynasty only began, because the clay gold craftsman to the production of gold powder as the technical premise.

There are two traditional methods of making gold powder: one is the grinding method and auxiliary grinding method. The grinding method of gold powder selection of jadeite chips gold, such as the "Materia Medica Compendium" listed gold medicine "gold chips" article, as well as the "Continued Museum Zhi" contains: "Things are different and phase system, jadeite chips gold ......" Jadeite Crumbs of gold that is the use of jadeite stone to make gold crushed into powder. Ouyang Xiu in the "return to the field record" also mentioned the emerald crumbs gold: "and emerald crumbs gold, popularity powder rhinoceros, these two things are unknown to the world. Yu family has a jade poppy, the shape is very ancient and exquisite, began to get the Mei Sheng Yu, thought jasper. When he was in Yingzhou, he tried to show it to his subordinates. Sitting in the military Inscription Deng Baoji, Zhenzong dynasty, the old ministers, know, said: this treasure is also known as emerald. Cloud forbidden treasures are hidden in the library, library has a jadeite marigold, so also know. Subsequently, I occasional gold ring in the poppy belly hand grinding, gold flakes have fallen, such as ink in the inkstone grinding, then I know that the emerald can chip gold also "additives grinding method is subdivided into two: one is the use of gold foil + putty powder + cow's milk, with a civilian fire frying to the end of the milk, the gold foil, such as mud, and then baked on the fire, research into the powder, which is used in Chinese traditional Chinese medicine to make the powdered gold method. The second is the fox Gangzi method, see Hu Gangzi book "out of the gold mine atlas", "five gold powder chart scripture", the process technology is as follows: "consume the new wild gold, silver cast wine, Chunyao, if (or) the real honey in the two hundred degrees, all to get the soft ...... er consume cast pig fat in two hundred times, become soft gold. Beat into a thin (foil), fine cut, cast non-toxic watermarks for the mud, rate of gold one or two, with six taels of mercury, the family wheat rice half a marble, combined with water. In the iron mortar pounded a thousand pestle, waiting for fine good, pouring into the basin, water (panning) to remove the stone, detailed examination of the intention, do not make the gold with the stone to go. After the study, sieve the coarse material, more research to make fine, do not put the earth kettle, covered with salt recommended to the end of the fly for half a day or so, fly away from the mercury after the sand (panned) to the salt, that is, naturally into a powder." Yellow and white division fox just son in its "out of the gold mine atlas", on the gold and silver ore types, distribution, taste, authenticity identification, smelting and other aspects have detailed discussion. In order to reduce the gold and silver poison, the first "refining gold and silver powder" method, and followed until the Ming Dynasty, and was eliminated due to medical prohibition. But as a non-medicinal gold powder in the folk or heritage.

Sprinkle gold, sprinkle gold name should be related to clay gold. Sprinkled gold, sprinkled gold and may refer to the same process. It is generally believed that the process of sprinkling gold is printed adhesive according to the pattern, and then sprinkled with gold powder on it, the adhesive where the adhesive adheres to the gold powder to form the pattern. Five-color large curtains sprinkled gold paper, printing gold five-color flower paper", but did not say sprinkled textiles. Ming Dynasty, there is a record of "sprinkled gold paper", did not see in fact, so it is difficult to explain its appearance, but the examination of the Qing Dynasty, Suzhou Weaving Bureau of a report on the document: "and five-color sprinkled gold silk, each one is one zhang six feet long and six feet wide, each foot with aggravated fine clean and pure bone power silk, need one or two silver, pigment dyeing workers silver three money, real gold foil one cent and four minutes and seven cents, and three minutes and one cent of silver for sprinkling the gold, and one tael and four cents and one minute and eight cents per foot, and twenty-three taels and six cents and four minutes and eight cents of silver per sheet." This one about the price list of materials for the manufacture of five-color waxed paper work in the eighth year of the Tongzhi period explains that the sprinkling of gold is not with gold powder, but with gold foil. So Shen Congwen in talking about the gold flower paper general plus gold technical processing summarized as three ways: "one, small pieces of dense paper like rain and snow, commonly known as 'pin gold', 'crumbs of gold' or 'rain gold ', that is, ordinary 'sprinkles'. Second, a large distribution of paper such as snow flakes, it is called 'large pieces of gold', also commonly known as 'pieces of gold', generally also known as 'sprinkled gold'. Third, all exhausted, known as 'cold gold' (silk is called 'muddy gold')."