What were the dyes used for dyeing in ancient China mostly based on

Most of the dyes used for dyeing in ancient China were based on vegetable dyes.

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Plant dyes

Plant dyes are compounds with coloring function extracted from plants, which have better coloring performance and good sustainability. In ancient times in China, plant dyes were the most commonly used types of dyes, mainly including indigo, cynomolgus, persimmon, yellow wood, walnut shells, and so on.

These plant dyes have different colors and dyeing effects, as well as different scope of application and limitations, and need to be selected and used according to specific dyeing needs.

Different plant dyes have different scope of application and limitations, indigo is suitable for dark blue and violet, need to pay attention to the use of its poor light resistance, easy to fade in the sun; cress is suitable for dark red and light purple, need to pay attention to the use of its sensitivity to alkaline substances, is not suitable for alkaline dyeing; persimmons are suitable for red, orange and yellow, need to pay attention to the use of its slow dyeing speed, need a longer time for dyeing. longer time for dyeing.

The bark of the yellow yellow and brown, need to pay attention to its poor light resistance, easy to fade in the sun; walnut shells are suitable for dark brown and black, need to pay attention to the use of its slower dyeing speed, need a longer time for dyeing. It should be noted that the color of different plant dyes will vary with the dye source and dyeing conditions, thus affecting the dyeing effect.

Ancient Dyes

Ancient Chinese dyeing and printing shifted from dyeing primary colors to overlaying colors. During the Shang and Zhou periods, dyeing techniques continued to improve. In the palace workshops, there was a full-time official "dyeing people", "in charge of dyeing grass", to manage the dyeing production. Dyeing colors continued to increase. The colors of fabrics mentioned in the Book of Songs include "green and yellow", "green and yellow dickey", and "yellow and yellow".

Dyeing technology in the Han Dynasty reached a fairly high level. Hunan Changsha Mawangdui, Xinjiang Minfeng and other Han tombs unearthed colorful silk fabrics, although buried in the ground for more than 2,000 years, but the colors are still bright, when the dyeing method there are two main: one is to weave and then dyeing, such as silk, rosa, wenqi and so on; one is to dye the yarn and then weaving, such as brocade.

With the continuous improvement and development of the dyeing process technology, China's ancient dyed textiles color is also constantly rich. Some people have been excavated in Turpan, Tang Dynasty silk fabrics for chromatographic analysis, *** there are twenty-four colors. This is in the mastery of the method of dyeing the original color, and then after sets of dyeing to get the different inter-colors.