When was cloth first invented

The earliest cloth used was hemp cloth, the origins of which are unreliable but date back to the late Neogene period. The earliest method of degumming hemp was natural maceration. In the late Neolithic period, the Yangtze River valley has used this method. It was also prevalent in the Yellow River basin during the Shang and Zhou eras. The traces of degumming can be recognized in the hemp cloth excavated from the Neolithic site of Qanshanyang in Zhejiang Province, Artemisia City in Hebei Province, the Shang tombs in Pinggu, Beijing, the Western Zhou tombs in Baoji, Shaanxi Province, the Eastern Zhou tombs in Liuhe, Jiangsu Province, and the Chu tombs of the Warring States period in Changsha, Hunan Province.

Anciently, there were rubbing method and performance method of hemp spinning. The primitive hemp spinning was started by hand rubbing, and only later utilized spinning special spinning. 6,900 years ago, Zhejiang Yuyao Hemudu site unearthed a section of three strands of hemp rope and a section of two strands of twine, but also unearthed the most primitive spinning tool spinning wheel. Hemp fiber is short and weak, more spinning special processing into a unified body flick of hemp yarn.

Modern Sichuan Wenjiang area hemp spinning still follow this method. Ramie fiber long and strong, more performance method into yarn. First fingers will be degumming the fibers after the sticky piece of split into long thin hemp silk (strand), and then one by one to pick up. As the hemp silk on a thin layer of gelatinous paste coupled with the joints of the joint parts of the flick together to make the joints firm, so that the hemp silk renewed into a long and thin hemp yarn. This process is called performance hemp. This kind of hemp yarn is called hemp strand or hemp in ancient literature.

Expanded Information:

The ancient Chinese method of dyeing cloth, "San Val", i.e., stranded val (tie-dyeing), waxed val (batik), and sandwiched val, has continued to the present day, and handmade cloths dyed in these three ways are still very popular. The handmade cloth dyed by these three methods is still very popular today.

Yunnan stranded val

According to historical records, the stranded val method of dyeing cloth was introduced in the Dali region during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was called pimple-flower cloth or pimple-flower by the Dali people. Before dyeing, the cloth is folded and tied, and then dipped into color paste for dyeing. Since the color paste is made from plants such as Panax quinquefolium, it does not harm the skin in any way.

This traditional technique is still preserved in Zhoucheng Village in Dali City, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, and in Dacang and Temple Street in Weishan Yi Hui Autonomous County. Walking along the streets and alleys of Dali, you can see colorful tie-dye decorations of all kinds, as well as clothing, shoes and hats and other products, adding some beautiful colors to the picturesque plateau town.

Guizhou Wax Val

Wax val began in the Han Dynasty and flourished in the Tang Dynasty. This method of dyeing cloth requires that the pattern be drawn on the cloth with liquid wax, and then the wax is removed after dyeing.

The anti-dyeing agent of wax val is yellow wax (i.e. beeswax), which is the secretion of the wax glands in the abdomen of bees and is insoluble in water, but can be melted when warmed. The dye used is bluegrass, which is abundant in Guizhou. Bluegrass leaves are put in a pit and fermented to become indigo, which can be used for dyeing.

The traditional wax valerian craft has been preserved in the minority areas of Guizhou and has become an indispensable ornament in the lives of minority women. Miao women in the area of Huangping, Chong'anjiang and Danzhai County, their clothes, umbrella covers, pillowcases, etc. are made of batik; Miao women in the area of Anshun and Puding decorate their sleeves, lapels, etc. with batik patterns, and the batik straps of the children on their backs are dyed with red, yellow and green, making it a bright, bright and colorful multicolor batik.

The colors and patterns of Cangnan's jian val

The colors and patterns of the jian val cloth are printed using a carved plate: the cloth is fixed between two hollowed-out plates, color paste is injected into the hollowed-out areas, and the patterns appear on the cloth when the hollowed-out plates are unlocked.

Compared with tie-dye and batik, the process of clamping val is more complex, so after a brief boom in the Tang Dynasty, the dyeing process gradually disappeared during the Song Dynasty until it was rediscovered in Cangnan, Zhejiang Province, in a dyeing method known as a "living fossil".

Badai Village in Yishan Town, Cangnan, produces a lot of valerian cloth. Tang Dynasty court with silk, silk, brocade-based, Cangnan clip val can not be compared with the exquisite Tang Dynasty court clip val, but in the printing and dyeing process still retains the characteristics of traditional clip val printing and dyeing. In the early years, Cangnan region used the cloth as a necessity for the marriage of daughters and daughters-in-law. Cangnan's several clip val inheritors are over 100 years old, the traditional dyeing process is in danger of being lost.

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