Historical origin, legend and present situation of plant dyes

The method of coloring textiles with natural plant dyes is called "plant dyeing". People in Neolithic age began to use natural plant dyes while painting mineral pigments. It has been found that the roots, stems, leaves and skins of flowers and fruits all over the mountain can be soaked in warm water to extract dye solution. After repeated practice, the ancients in China finally mastered a set of dyeing techniques using this dye. By the Zhou Dynasty, plant dyes had reached a certain scale in variety and quantity, and officials specializing in plant dyes were set up to collect dyed grass for soaking clothes. In Qin and Han dynasties, plant dyes were basically used for dyeing, which formed a unique style. There are 39 color names in Shuowen Jiezi in the Eastern Han Dynasty, while there are 57 color names in Tiangong Wu Kai and Tianshui Iceberg Record in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, Snow Ring Embroidery had 704 color names.

The main plant dyes used in ancient China are: madder, safflower and sufang; Yellow, such as geranium, gardenia, ginger and Sophora japonica; Green category of frozen green (also known as China green); Blue grass (indigo); Black soap bucket and tallow, etc. They can change endless colors through mordant dyeing, color matching and overprint dyeing.

Plant dyeing is also called plant dyeing. Because the molecular structure of natural dyes is different, the dyeing methods are also very different. For protein fiber and cellulose fiber, dyeing methods mainly include mordant dyeing, mordant dyeing, mordant dyeing and isomorphic dyeing. The optimum dyeing process should depend on the nature of the dye.

Jia Sixie, an agronomist in the Northern Wei Dynasty, recorded in detail in his book Qi Yao Min Shu that firstly "the green mowing was poured into the pit and then put into the water", and then the grass was pressed down with wood and stone to make it all immersed in the water. The soaking time was "one night in hot weather and two nights in cold weather", and the leaching solution was filtered, and lime water was added at the ratio of 1.5%. After precipitation, "clear water" and "as thick as porridge", then "indigo is finished" When it is used for dyeing, it is only necessary to add lime water to indigo mud to prepare dye solution and ferment indigo to turn indigo into indigo white. Indigo can be dissolved in alkaline solution, so the fabric can be colored. After air oxidation, the fabric can obtain bright blue. The production and dyeing technology of indigo is almost identical with the dyeing mechanism of modern synthetic indigo.

Today, simple chemical dyes are widely used, and the traditional "plant dyeing" method has not been forgotten. When it comes to plant dyes, it may remind us of dyeing techniques handed down from ancient times to the present.