The fifth part is dimethyl blue calico: national intangible cultural heritage.

-Traditional handicraft technology (Copyright: People's Republic of China (PRC) and Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Culture)

Printing and dyeing technology of Nantong blue printed cloth

Time: 2006 Category: Traditional Handicraft

Region: Jiangsu number: VIII-24

Application area or unit: The traditional printing and dyeing process of Nantong blue calico in Nantong, Jiangsu is spread all over Nantong counties, and the influential workshops are in Rugao Shizhuang, Tongzhou Hershigang, Haimen Sanyang, Qidong Huilong and Nantong urban areas.

In the past, every household in rural areas of Zhejiang and Jiangsu would weave and dye cloth. The clothes worn by the older generation, their daily luggage and even their daughters' dowry are all blue calico woven and printed by themselves. Curtains, headscarves, aprons, bags, curtains and so on can all be made of it. Blue calico seems to be a special cloth for working people.

The main producing area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang blue calico is Nantong, Jiangsu. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Nantong, Jiangsu Province has always been the cotton textile base in China, and printed blue calico has always been the world's clothing. The printing and dyeing technology of Nantong blue calico has continued to this day, and daily necessities are made by hand spinning, hand weaving and hand dyeing. Printing and dyeing patterns are mainly plants, flowers and animals, and there are also simple geometric figures. It is deeply loved by the masses because of its dirt resistance, wear resistance, firmness, practicality and auspicious patterns. It is famous for its harmonious blue and white beauty, full of strong local flavor and natural freshness. Nantong is the key area of research, development and production of folk blue calico in China, and is known as the hometown of blue calico in China. The folk use of blue grass pigment dyeing can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Xunzi, a great thinker at the end of the Warring States Period, witnessed with his own eyes the process of pigment transformation from yellow to green, from green to blue, and then to blue. He lamented that shine on you was the best choice, and shine on you was better than blue, which became the eternal famous saying "Shine on You" surpassing predecessors and better than blue.

Indigo has developed into blue dyeing technology for more than 1000 years. Qi Shu O Planting Blue, written by the Northern Wei Dynasty, specifically describes the method of pinching blue lagoon with blue grass: in mid-July, make a pit, make a hundred bundles, make a grass mud, make it five inches deep, and cover the walls with a straw. Cut the blue in the pit upside down, put it into the water, and suppress the order with wood and stone. Leave it overnight when it's hot and overnight when it's cold, filter it out, put the juice in an urn, put five liters of lime in a bucket and drop it by hand. Clear the water, don't make a small pit, and store it in the blue lagoon. Waiting like porridge, also out of the urn, blue lake into the yi. This is the world's earliest operating record of blue lagoon's production process.

Nantong has simple folk customs and warm and humid seashore since ancient times, which is especially suitable for cotton growth. Cotton planting is very common in local rural areas, and local folk textile technology is very developed. Especially in the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Daopo returned to his hometown of Songjiang, Jiangsu Province after learning Li nationality's textile technology, introduced and improved Li nationality's textile tools, and promoted the development of cotton textile industry in Songjiang and Nantong. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, every family had wooden spinning wheels and looms, and every family could hear the sound of looms, and every family had weavers. Nantong has become a famous textile town. Cotton has become very popular among people.

With the development of cotton spinning handicraft industry, blue grass is planted in large quantities, and dyeing houses are increased one after another. Nantong is warm and humid, especially suitable for the growth of bluegrass. Blue calico is mainly composed of bluegrass, which can be divided into four kinds according to the characteristics of its family and genus and its growing environment, namely Polygonum, Indigofera, Indigofera and Isatis. Jiangsu is famous for its rich Polygonum cymosum. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the dyeing and weaving workshop of Nantong blue calico has developed into a large-scale market. According to the records of Nantong County in Ming Dynasty, there were as many as 19 manual dyehouses registered with the Dyeing and Weaving Bureau.

People's requirements for daily necessities are constantly improving, and the original simple and rough graphics can no longer meet people's aesthetic and life needs. Folk artists boldly absorb traditional art patterns such as paper-cutting, embroidery and wood carving, and constantly enrich the patterns of dyed blue calico. At the same time, with the development of oil umbrella industry, tung oil paper is used to carve pattern plates, which saves labor and time. The oiled diamond plate has strong water resistance and scratch resistance, long service life, richer pattern performance and more mature technology. The wide application of folk blue printed cloth has promoted the rapid development of printing team. The printing team is also called flower girl. They only print, including pulp and non-dyeing, and provide farmers with various forms of flower trays. This kind of printed bear is also called bald print in Jiangnan. They walked the streets, carrying soybeans and lime powder at one end and scraping tools and patterns at the other. Customers can choose patterns for processing, and they constantly change patterns to achieve prosperous business. At the end of Qing Dynasty, there were still nearly 100 people in Nantong. Farmers send the scraped grey cloth to a nearby dyehouse, or do their own indigo dyeing. Due to the increasing demand for blue printed cloth, the popularization of blue grass planting has also promoted the development of indigo industry.

The local raw materials for dyeing cloth and convenient self-spinning and self-weaving technology have made the dyeing and weaving industry in Jianghai area develop rapidly and gradually become a well-known specialty in China. The technology of blue calico spread from Jiangnan to Jiangbei, and from Suzhou and Nantong to all parts of Jiangsu, forming a main producing area centered on Jiangsu. The products are not only supplied locally, but also sold well all over the country. Printing spread and influenced the whole country. The most typical blue printed cotton cloth is the pattern of white flowers on a blue background and blue flowers on a white background. White flowers on a blue background only need one disk, and the patterns formed are not connected with each other. Generally, two flower plates are overprinted with blue flowers on a white background. The first flower plate is called the cover, and the second flower plate is printed after a little drying, which is called the cover. The cover plate covers the connection part of the first pattern board to make the pattern connection natural. Blue flowers on a white background are difficult to carve, usually from the hands of masters of folk artists. This traditional craft with blue and white background has complicated manufacturing process.

Nantong folk blue calico is made by hand spinning, hand weaving and hand dyeing. Its patterns are all carved by hand, and each carved paper tray is like paper-cutting art, with simple, rough and lively style, and its artistic image is often highly generalized and exaggerated, with strong local characteristics. Folk blue printing technology has basically maintained the traditional craft for hundreds of years, and its specific production process is as follows:

1, select the grey cloth.

Farmers generally choose fine cotton cloth and dyed blue printed cloth; Ordinary grey cloth is mainly dyed with pure blue.

2, degreasing

Soak the selected cloth in water containing additives such as Taikoo Oil at 50-60℃, then put the cloth in clean water, take it out and dry it in the sun after 2-3 days.

3. Paper mounting

Paper trays for engraving are usually made of 3-5 layers of paper. The paper is 2-3 layers of Guiyang paper or mulberry paper and 1-2 layers of Korean paper. Brush the homemade batter, dry it, brush it with a layer of cooked tung oil, and then flatten it for later use.

4. Draw samples and change versions.

First make a brush with wool (4-5 cm in diameter), wrap one end tightly, and then dip a little pigment powder in the brush to replace the original sample or redesign a new sample.

5. Engraving

Generally, two or three layers of oil paper (kraft paper) are bound together, and a general pattern is drawn on the kraft paper. Use a self-made carving knife instead of a knife to carve, and the knife should be vertical at all times, so as to make the flower shapes of the upper and lower layers consistent. After cutting the inclined plane with iron sheet, clamp the meat cutter and wrap it with bamboo pieces. Carving knives can be divided into oblique single knife, double knife and iron round knife (commonly known as chisel). Single-knife faceted, double-knife carved lines have the same width, and the chisel is divided into several sizes, mainly to chisel out the points needed to make the flower board.

There are facets, lines and dots in lettering. The surface mainly uses the knife-breaking method to express large patterns, which is also the most typical knife method in blue calico. The lines in the blue calico pattern should be carved smoothly, and the lines are divided into negative lines and positive lines. Generally, homemade tools are used to carve dots, which generally play a decorative role in the pattern. In addition to lettering, there are substitutes. The pages used in the early days were colored to keep the pattern, and then carved for reuse.

6. Tung oil

First, smooth the reverse side of the engraved pattern with pebbles, then brush tung oil to reinforce it, dry it, brush the front and back sides with oil for 2-3 times, finally dry it and flatten it, classify and save it, and print and dye it directly if necessary.

7, scraping pulp

Before scraping the pulp, the grey cloth is sprinkled with water and then rolled up. The purpose of wetting is to make the white cloth absorb the dyeing pulp better. Corn flour, wheat flour, glutinous rice flour, etc. It has been used as a dye-proof size for folk blue cloth. After several generations of exploration and practice, soybean powder with moderate viscosity was finally selected. However, simple soybean powder is easy to deteriorate in summer, and the cost is high. After adding lime powder, it is easy to scrape off not only the sizing, but also the mortar after dyeing. Therefore, people always use soybean flour and lime as dye-proof pulp, and the ratio is 1:0.7, plus water stirring. Sometimes glutinous rice flour and lime are used as dye-proof pulp according to the requirements of pattern. When sizing, the consistency (viscosity) should be moderate. The finer the soybean flour, the more thoroughly the slurry is mixed, and the better the viscosity is.

Put the engraved pattern on the white cloth and you can scrape the pulp. Force should be even when scraping pulp. Scrapers are generally forged with iron in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and handles are made of logs. In Hunan and Hubei, they are also made of horns and boards. It is more important to pick up the plate when scraping. When the pattern is complex, the layout should be accurate and the typesetting should be free. Then dry the grey cloth in the shade for two days with anti-dye pulp, and put it into the cylinder for dyeing after the mortar is dry.

8.dye ...

Pour indigo into a small jar, mix 5kg indigo with 8kg lime10kg rice wine, and add a proper amount of water to stir, so that indigo water turns yellow and indigo foam appears on the water surface, which is commonly known as indigo flower, and then pour it into a large jar for dyeing. Before dyeing, put the bamboo basket in the middle of the cylinder to prevent the dyed cloth from sinking into the bottom of the cylinder and raising the foot of the cylinder, which will affect the dyeing. Then, open the scraped cloth and soak it in water until the cloth is soaked to a soft size, and then it can be dyed in the dye vat. After putting the cloth into the cylinder for 20 minutes, take it out for oxidation and ventilation for 30 minutes, and constantly rotate the cloth surface to make it evenly oxidized. According to different fabrics and climate changes, the time for placing rollers and oxidizing can be adjusted.

The reason why the blue calico is pure is that the plant dye-blue grass is used. According to "Guangxu Tongzhou annals", planting blue into the boundary, cutting head blue in May, cutting second blue in July, soaking in a pool of water, soaking in lime, stirring for thousands of times, and removing water is indigo. Used to dye cloth, it is called Xiaogang Qing. A person from Rugao is particularly good at being famous. Spring sowing and autumn harvest, leaves are soaked in stone ponds, and rotten branches are removed in a few days, and lime or clam powder is added to precipitate them. The dye after precipitation looks like soil, commonly known as indigo.

On May 7th every year, Nantong people harvest the local blue grass and process it into the dyeing pigment of blue printed cloth. In the Ming Dynasty, indigo was a tribute of the imperial court, which gave the blue calico a pure and dignified charm. Vegetable dye is a reducing water specially prepared for printing and dyeing blue printed cloth. Each vat is more than one person high, and it is filled with living water that will not die for thousands of years. Put the printed white cloth and the cloth coated with mortar into the tank water, and the microorganisms move constantly in the tank water, dyeing the part without mortar blue, and keeping the original white for the part stained with gray.

Careful maintenance of the dye vat is a unique skill at home and is not passed on to outsiders. In order to keep secret, the dyer always adjusts the formula in time after carefully checking the dyer water every night. Every morning, before dyeing the cloth, the master will check whether the dyeing water in the jar is mature, scoop up the seedling water in the jar with a bowl, first gently wipe it on his head with his index finger, and then put it on the seedling water beside the bowl to see the color. If the water in the bowl is pushed away quickly, the indigo water in the jar will have a great color. On the contrary, the water in the dye vat must be mixed with grey wine before dyeing. Dye vat water is the life source of blue calico, and dye vat people are also respected artists in dye houses.

9, scraping the ash

Dry the dyed cloth and scrape it off, and scrape off the dye-proof pulp. After drying, the grey alkali of the cloth out of the cylinder is too heavy, so it is necessary to eat acid to fix the color. After cleaning, stretch the cloth on the bracket, and scrape off the mortar with a customized double-headed circular ash scraper or household kitchen knife at a 45 angle with moderate force. Pay special attention not to scratch the cotton cloth when scraping pulp. Remove the light floating mortar from the dyed cloth to expose the seal. Where the mortar block is large, the ash layer naturally cracks in the rolling of dyeing, and indigo penetrates into the gray cloth with the cracks, leaving a natural texture that can not be described manually. Natural texture is the soul of blue calico art.

10, cleaning and drying

After the cloth is scraped, it needs to be cleaned for 2-3 times, and the residual mortar and floating color on the surface of the cloth should be cleaned and dried. Due to the influence of technological factors such as scratching, dyeing and drying, the length of blue printed fabric is generally limited to less than12m. The dyeing master picked wet cloth with a long bamboo pole on a 7-meter-high clothes rack, and the scene when drying was spectacular. Finally, roll the cloth flat with kicking stones.

The dyed cloth is dark blue. After drying in the sun, people feel that Magnolia officinalis is thick and solid, so some people call it the old blue cloth. After dyeing, scrape off the superficial mortar, and the place sealed by the mortar will show its true colors. Where the mortar block surface is large, the ash layer naturally cracks in the dyeing rolling, and indigo penetrates into the gray cloth with the gap, leaving natural ice lines that can not be described manually. Even for the same artist, the printed patterns are varied and varied. Folk artists are highly praised for their exquisite skills and unique artistic style. 95% rural families in Nantong area use self-spun and self-woven white cloth to print blue printed cloth to make various daily necessities. In the past hundred years, the only calico that people get along with day and night is blue calico. This kind of blue-and-white cloth, rooted in folk customs, embodies the national psychological characteristics and becomes the medium for farmers to convey and exchange their inner feelings.

Due to the limitation of technology, the pattern composition of blue calico is affected by the broken knife. Folk artists should not only consider the durability of patterns, but also consider the image characteristics of carved patterns. Artists skillfully use bold and exaggerated techniques to describe the auspicious and wishful artistic conception that the public likes, create many simple and naive and colorful images of flowers, trees, birds and animals, and interpret many folk fairy tales.

In pattern modeling, the dots and lines in white flowers with blue background are the main ones, and sometimes the pattern is composed of pure dots. In the blue flowers with white background, the dots, lines and surfaces are generally staggered, and the patterns are mostly rough and powerful, and their shapes are full of fantasy. Many of them still retain traces of primitive art, and their pattern combinations are rough but not dull, but not cumbersome, giving people the enjoyment of blue and white beauty. The dots of the blue calico pattern not only have the meaning of auspiciousness, many children and grandchildren, but also can be regarded as dotted lines and imaginary faces when they are dense. Its lines and pens are disconnected, with a sense of direction and a strong expressive force for change and movement. In the long-term practice, artists use its straightness, thickness, length and other changes, combined with different image characteristics, flexible use, and properly show the texture and structure of the image. Whether it is scenery, people, animals and plants, etc. We can use points, lines and surfaces to describe image features and carve them into various shapes, such as chrysanthemum petals, peony petals and plum petals. It highly refines and generalizes nature, regularizes natural images, and makes patterns reflect nature through processing, but they are not bound by nature.

Folk blue calico has a strong local flavor, so far it is especially loved by cities and white-collar groups. Suitable for folk daily decoration, can be used as clothing, head cloth, quilt cover, cloth bag, bag, door curtain and so on.

In recent years, with the improvement of people's aesthetic concept of folk printing and dyeing crafts, blue calico has developed from single-sided printing to double-sided printing, from monochrome to multicolor, from printed small cloth to wide cloth, from pure cotton to printed silk, cotton silk and other varieties of calico. Blue calico, dark blue and pure static white, forms a color pattern symbolizing ancient images on ordinary cotton cloth. Simple and elegant, subtle and beautiful, full of rich local conditions and customs.

The printing and dyeing technology of blue calico has been widely spread for a long time, with far-reaching influence and high cultural value. Nantong Blue Calico Museum * * * has collected more than 1000 pieces of blue calico materials and pictures since Ming and Qing Dynasties, designed and developed more than 100 kinds of blue calico series products, and compiled and published China Blue Calico Collection Album and Pattern Album, showing the elegance and charm of Nantong printing and dyeing technology.

However, at present, the number of people engaged in the printing and dyeing of blue calico is decreasing, and the professionals are unqualified. Some blue calico has been changed to automatic or semi-automatic production, and the traditional technology has gradually changed. It needs to attract the attention of relevant parties, and the protection of printing and dyeing process of blue calico has reached a critical moment. Printed methylene blue: September 9, 2008 20: 39: 20 Author: Wang Shimin

The blue calico in Tongzhou Town is a folk printing and dyeing handicraft with a long history. From plate making, printing to dyeing, it is all manual operation, which is the crystallization of the wisdom of our people.

According to legend, the blue printed cloth was created by a man named Gui in Jiading, Songjiang, which was "the best cloth in the world" in the Song Dynasty, and was called "medicinal patch". "Medicinal patch" was called "flower watering cloth" in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because indigo (a dye extracted from indigo) is used as a dye, the printed fabric is blue and white, and the color is calm, so it is also called "blue printed fabric". Nantong's blue printed cloth is made of pure cotton and white cloth woven by local mobile phones, with indigo as dye, lime and soybean powder as anti-corrosion, persimmon lacquer paper or tung oil paper as engraving, and processed through more than ten processes. The antioxidant is made of lime, and indigo is also a Chinese herbal medicine, which is not afraid of being eaten by insects and has disinfection effect. Clothing made of this fabric is breathable, cool, thick, economical, anti-evil and moth-proof, and is very popular.

Nantong is located at the intersection of rivers and seas, with flat terrain and pleasant climate. It is one of the important cotton areas in Jiangsu. With the development of cotton planting, cotton textile handicraft industry is becoming more and more prosperous, and many farmers have spinning wheels and looms, and they are busy spinning. As a characteristic variety of cotton cloth, blue calico has developed greatly with the prosperity of home textile industry. Erzhen, on the other hand, has become a leader in the blue calico manufacturing industry with its exquisite processing technology. During the Republic of China, there were more than 20 dyehouses in Dimethyl. In these dyehouses, there are many experienced "tank-watching" masters and plate-making and engraving artists. Some have been handed down from generation to generation for five generations, and the production process has inherited the tradition of folk manual printing and dyeing, so that the output of old blue calico is higher and the quality is better year by year. Bedding, bed sheets, mosquito nets, bags, pillowcases and other daily necessities made of blue calico are spread all over urban and rural households.

1954, dyehouses merged and dimethyl printing and dyeing factory was established. On the basis of the original production technology, double-sided printing, multiple printing and color printing have been developed. The main products are not only blue printed cloth, but also tie-dyed blue printed cloth, handmade screen printed cloth, as well as practical items, decorations and handicrafts such as clothing, shoes, hats, wall decorations, craft bags, cushions, tablecloths and door curtains. All kinds of products feel plump and thick, the colors are elegant and natural, the patterns are simple and generous, and they are rich in decorative interest. Especially after the bleaching color is washed away, the pattern becomes clearer and clearer. Although it is old, the color does not fade.

The printed patterns of dimethyl blue calico are rich and colorful, including flowers and trees, birds and animals, insects and fish, landscapes, ladies, fairy tales and so on. The theme is wide, vivid and unique, and the paintings are exquisite. There are auspicious "mouthfuls" such as "good luck", "peace in the four seasons", "abundance every year" and "happiness in life", which show the simple feelings and happiness of the working people. Blue calico also skillfully uses rough ideas, lines with different widths and changeable blocks, and uses bold and exaggerated expressions to describe the real life that the broad masses are familiar with and love. The composition is full, interspersed and changeable, with strong local flavor and distinctive local characteristics, showing the unique features of China folk art.

With the deepening of reform and opening up and the development of foreign trade, dimethyl blue printed fabric has won the praise of customers in Hong Kong and foreign businessmen in Japan, Europe and America. Dimethyl printing and dyeing factory has become one of the main designated factories for exporting blue printed cloth in China. The "blueprint" blooming in the jianghai plain proudly goes to the world. 1980, 255 blue printed fabric won the certificate and quality award of high-quality brand-name products in Jiangsu province, and the brand "Blue Kirin" was rated as "famous trademark". 1986 won the National Arts and Crafts Hundred Flowers Award.

In recent years, the factory has maintained a good development momentum, with an annual output of blue calico10.2 million meters and tie-dyed blue calico of 60,000 meters, which has always been in a leading position in the same industry. Designers went deep into the folk to collect and sort out the patterns, so that the traditional patterns such as "The Magpie Boasts Plums", "The Kirin Delivers the Seeds", "The Phoenix Peony", "The Dragon and the Phoenix Appear Auspiciously", "The Five Blessingg Celebrates Longevity", "The Lion Roll Embroiders the Ball" and "The Carp yue longmen" and the plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum reappeared. Also designed a variety of vivid ancient and modern theme patterns, many products have become popular and popular. In order to expand exports and meet the needs of customers at home and abroad, the factory has set up a window in Shanghai and provided exhibits for Nantong Lanyin Art Museum and Shen Shou Art Museum. It was also the shooting place of film and television dramas, and famous actors such as Xiang Mei have taken pictures here.

Dimethyl blue calico, a masterpiece of oriental craftsmanship, has become a "famous brand" in Nantong, Jiangsu and even China. The success of blue calico shows the world that the more national it is, the more cosmopolitan it is. "Our school has developed a local course" Blue Calico "around the blue calico, combining the cultural characteristics of Erjia Town, a thousand-year-old town, to let students know about the local culture of their hometown, which has aroused great repercussions. On June 65438+1October 3 1 day, 2007, a large-scale teaching and research activity of "Blue Printed Cloth" in Jiangsu Province was successfully held in our school, which was well received by more than 200 students in the province.