Dyeing Information

As early as the Neolithic Age, 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, our ancestors were able to dye linen red with hematite powder. Primitive tribes living in the Nomuhong region of the ChaiDamu Basin in Qinghai were able to dye wool threads yellow, red, brown and blue and weave woolen cloth with colorful stripes.

Dyeing technology improved during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The palace workshops had a full-time official "dyeing people" to "take charge of dyeing grass", management of dyeing production. Dyeing color is also increasing. To the Han Dynasty, the dyeing technology has reached a fairly high level.

China's ancient dyeing dyes, mostly natural mineral or vegetable dyes. In ancient times, the primary colors of green, red, yellow, white and black were called the "five colors", and the primary colors could be mixed to obtain the "inter-colors (multi-colors)".

The color cyan was mainly dyed with indigo extracted from bluegrass. There are many different kinds of indigo grasses that can be used to make indigo, but in ancient times, horse blue was the first to be used.

Red color, China's ancient times will be the original color of red is called red, and called orange-red for red. China dyeing russet initially with hematite powder, and later with cinnabar (mercuric sulfide). Dyeing with them, the fastness is poor. Zhou dynasty began to use cress, its roots contain alizarin, alum as a mordant can be dyed red. Since the Han Dynasty, large-scale cultivation of cress.

Yellow, early mainly use gardenia. The gardenia fruit contains "the Tibetan flower acid" the yellow pigment, is a kind of direct dye, dyes into the yellow slightly reddish light. After the north and south dynasty, the yellow dye also has the ground yellow, the acacia flower, the phellodendron, the turmeric, the cudgel yellow and so on. Dyed with yellow fabric in the moonlight reddish ochre yellow, ochre red in the candlelight, the color is very dazzling, so since the Sui dynasty has become the emperor's clothing color. After the Song Dynasty, the emperor's special yellow robe, both evolved from this.

White, can be dyed with the natural mineral sericite, but mainly through the bleaching method. Previously, there is a method of bleaching with sulfur fumigation. Black, the ancient dyeing black plants mainly with Quercus serrata, acorns, five times, persimmon leaves, holly leaves, chestnut shells, lotus seed shells, sage leaves, ubiquitous leaves and so on. China has been used since the Zhou Dynasty until recent times, when it was replaced by dyes such as black sulfide. After mastering the method of dyeing primary colors, then after overdyeing you can get different intermediate colors.

With the continuous improvement and development of the dyeing process technology, China's ancient dyed textile colors are also constantly rich. Some people have been excavated in Turpan Tang Dynasty silk fabrics for chromatographic analysis, *** there are 24 kinds of colors, of which the red silver red, water red, scarlet, red-red, red-red, red-red violet; yellow goose yellow, chrysanthemum yellow, apricot yellow, yellow gold, yellow, tea brown; green, blue egg green, azure, blue, blue, blue, blue, red green, navy blue; green with green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green, green.

China's printing on the fabric than painting flowers, embellishments, embroidery are late. At present we see the earliest printed fabric is the Hunan Changsha warring states chu tomb unearthed printed silk quilt surface.

In the Central Plains, the revitalization of printing technology began with the val, val val, Ge val and clip val. The twisted val, Ge val is actually a kind of imitation dyeing and printing fabric.

The printing and dyeing industry in the Tang Dynasty was quite developed, in addition to the number of val, quality has improved, there are some new printing and dyeing process, especially in Gansu Dunhuang unearthed in the Tang Dynasty with letterpress topography of the group arena on the bird pattern of the silk, which is since the Eastern Han Dynasty since the disappearance of the letterpress printing technology to reappear. From the unearthed textiles of the Tang Dynasty also found a number of not recorded printing and dyeing process. To the Song Dynasty, China's printing and dyeing technology to be more comprehensive, the color spectrum is also more complete. Yang Shen in the Ming Dynasty, "Dan Lead General Records" recorded: "the Yuan Dynasty dyers have the road of val, not the Tan val, Shu val, water val, val, three sets of val, green silk spot val name. Although many names, but the printing and dyeing technology is still out of the above range.

To the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China's dye application technology has reached a considerable level, the dyeing workshop also has a great development. Qianlong, some people depicted the Shanghai dyeing workshop: "Dyeing workers have blue workshop, dyeing azure, light green, white under the moon; there are red workshop, dyeing red, dew peach red; there are bleaching workshop, dyeing yellow brown for white; there are miscellaneous colors workshop, dyeing yellow, green, black, purple, shrimp, green, Buddha face gold, etc.". In addition, the more complex printing technology has also developed. Until the invention of the French Perot printing machine in 1834, China has always had the world's most developed hand printing and dyeing technology.

China's ancient printing and dyeing is not only colorful, colorful, and good color fastness, not easy to fade. In ancient times, green (i.e., blue), red, yellow, white, black called five colors, but also the original color, the original color. The original color mixed to get many times color such as green, purple, pink and other colors, also known as inter-color. Dye sources are divided into two categories: mineral pigments and vegetable dyes. Mineral pigments for dyeing red include hematite and cinnabar. As early as in the period of the caveman that used hematite, but because it is dark red, so later used for prisoners to dress color. Cinnabar, also known as dansha, bright color, more than four thousand years ago in Qinghai Liuwan graveyard, a male body under a sprinkle of cinnabar. Yellow has stone yellow (arsenic sulfide) and yellow Dan (lead oxide), green for natural copper ore, white for lead powder and white mica, black for carbon black. Plant dyes in the red can be extracted from the cress, safflower, sufon wood, yellow from gardenia, turmeric, acacia flowers, green is made of indigo using bluegrass, so there is a "green from the blue and blue in the blue," the famous saying passed on. The black color is mainly obtained from walnut tree, persimmon tree, oak tree and so on. When dyed with a certain dye, people found: every time the fabric is dipped and dyed, the color will deepen a little. As a result, the dyeing process has developed from simple dip-dyeing to over-dyeing and mordanting. Xinjiang Turpan Tang tomb unearthed silk fabrics have twenty-four colors, of which only red has silver red, water red, scarlet, reddish red, reddish purple. There are also as many as six colors of yellow. On the basis of the original color overdyeing, the technique of overdyeing with different dyes also appeared, making the fabrics more colorful. To the Qing Dynasty, the chromatogram and color name of the dyeing, from the natural color of the vertical and horizontal coordination development to hundreds of kinds of. Mordanting appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, i.e. the use of mordant in dyeing. If you use vegetable dyes to dye black, add a little alum, you can improve color fastness. In the dyeing method, silk, yarn and cotton can be woven before dyeing. And brocade, embroidery, etc. need to dye the silk thread before weaving. China's ancient printed fabrics were commonly known as "val", so the printing and dyeing process is divided into several types of val, val and twisted val. ①Waxed val, also known as waxed val, is batik. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the southwestern ethnic minorities first mastered the technique of preventing dyeing with wax. It is to use melted wax to draw a pattern on the fabric, and then into the dyeing, cooking out the wax, showing the white flowers on the ground. Due to the wax condensation contraction or to be rubbed, resulting in many cracks, into the dye, the color material penetrates into the cracks, the finished product often appears on the pattern of a trace of irregular texture, forming a unique decorative effect, the method of batik, is still in use today. ② Clip Val. Qin and Han Dynasty has been, Sheng Tang extremely popular. It is the use of two carved and skeletonized the same pattern of the flower plate, the cloth and silk in the middle, in the openwork dyed, become a flower pattern. Its pattern is characterized by the symmetry of the pattern, with the beauty of balanced regularity. Sandwich val can be dyed in two or three colors. ③Twisted Val. It is a common folk printing and dyeing method. Usually can be divided into two kinds: one is to use the line to tie the cloth into a variety of patterns, nailed tightly into the dye, nailed part can not be dyed, the formation of color ground white flower pattern, with the effect of halo dyeing. The other is to tie the grain on the fabric, and then into the dyeing, forming a variety of patterns. In addition to the above main printing and dyeing methods, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States also appeared in the letterpress printing process. To 1834 before the invention of the French Perot printing machine, China has always had the world's most developed hand printing and dyeing technology.