Changsha Traditional Handicraft: Brown Weaving Culture

Brown braids have a history of more than 200 years. Most of the early brown braids were woven from hemp fibers and hats. Later, the styles gradually increased, with animals and flowers, which attracted the love of most children. There are few people who can weave brown now, and this technology is about to disappear. Let's protect it. First of all, you have to understand it before you can fall in love with it. Let's walk into Changsha culture and learn about Changsha traditional handicraft: brown weaving culture.

Brown weaving is one of the traditional handicrafts of Han nationality, which is made of palm leaves. Brown grass products have existed since ancient times. Palm weaving in the Yangtze River valley is mainly produced in Hanzhong, southern Shaanxi. Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan and Jiangnan are the most famous places, with Sichuan Xinfan Brown Knitted Toys and Hunan Brown Knitted Toys. In addition, Guizhou Tangtou Brown Braided Basket and Zhejiang Wuyi Brown Stretching are also famous. Sichuan Xinfan Brown Weaving is a traditional product of Xinfan Town, Xindu County, with a history of more than 200 years. 2011/in June, Xindu Brown Weaving was listed in the "Third National Intangible Cultural Heritage List".

Brown weaving is a traditional handicraft of Han nationality made of brown silk, one of the main categories of weaving technology in China, and a wonderful flower of Han traditional art, which has a history of nearly a thousand years. Exquisite craft, simple and generous, brown knitting technology has a long history among Han people in China, which originated in the Three Kingdoms period and has a history of 1700 years. It was praised by the Ministry of Culture of China as "China's unique folk skills". There are many kinds of works, which can also be made on demand and preserved permanently in any shape.

Brown weaving technology in China

During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty (1796- 1820), newly bred peasant women knitted slippers and sandals with palm leaves, and by 1850, they gradually formed a special industry. In the early years of the Republic of China, brown cool hats were popular in Sichuan. From 1930s to 1940s, the brown knitting industry was very prosperous. There are all kinds of new brown braiding techniques, such as empty flowers and crow's mouth. Woven handbags are time-saving and material-saving, light and soft, with patterns _ light and snuff _ airtight, easy to weave, symmetrical front and back, very beautiful.

Brown history

The rain gear used by farmers in the south-hemp fiber, is made of palm leaf silk and palm rope. There is a sentence "He Li" in Poetry Without Sheep. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a famous sentence by Zhang Zhong, which sang the life scene of fishermen in the south of the Yangtze River: "Green bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo, bamboo and rain don't have to go home." South China tigers often appear in Kuocangshan area in southern Zhejiang. It is said that some people are chased by tigers. At the critical moment, they put on hemp fiber. The tiger was frightened and thought it was a monster, but he left anyway.

He also said that in ancient times, Yao Yu was born a farmer. When he ascended the throne, he had no clothes to wear, so he stripped his hair and brown into hemp fibers and put them on to accept the congratulations of the people. Later, hemp fiber became a sacred costume, which was worshipped and loved by the mountain people. People wear it when they go in and out to avoid wind and rain and guard against wild animals. According to legend, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty, grazed cattle and mowed grass when he was a child, and he also passed through "hemp fiber", which shows that people have used brown products for a long time.

Selection of Brown Weaving Materials

Fine workmanship, seasonal production, brown silk white and soft, exquisite and applicable, bright colors, load-bearing, not moisture-absorbing. People mostly produce bags in spring and autumn and shoes and hats in summer. The main varieties are shoes, fans, bags, hats, mats, boxes, toys and so on. At the beginning of April, artists began to collect tender palm leaves, cut them into tiny brown filaments with row needles, and then twisted them into brown ropes and grades. They are fumigated with sulfur, dried and soaked, and made into white and soft materials for use, or dyed into brown filaments for use.

The decoration method of brown braid varies from thing to thing. Pepper eye technique is commonly used in bags, that is, the warps arranged at equal intervals cross into a diamond, and then two wefts pass through the four corners of the diamond. Shoes and fans are tightly woven. Herringbone patterns are often used in hats and mats. Products such as bags made of wood, paper and mud models are woven with flowers, birds and animals. Articles woven from white plain silk are as gorgeous as silk. Objective To weave colorful decorative patterns with brown colored silk through the processes of pattern-picking, jacquard and weaving.

Hunan brown weaving

Using old palm leaves and palm leaf cores as raw materials, children's toys were made through processing. The method is as follows: firstly, the collected palm leaves are folded in half according to the grain, tied tightly, and boiled in a boiling water pot until they turn from green to yellow and mature. Then exposed to the sun at night, completely dry and white, so that it is not deformed after making and can be preserved for more than ten years.

This kind of brown braid often forms an image by knotting. The main themes are dragonflies, grasshoppers, frogs, shrimps, centipedes, turtles, snakes, goldfish, chickens, cranes, peacocks and phoenixes. There are "single belly" and "double belly". After editing, do some small embellishments with attachments, such as using Yuanyang beans (red beans) as eyes, which is called "finishing touch". Snake eyes use bean meat, dragonflies use bean shells, shrimps use whole beans, and small animals' bodies and claws use thin wire as skeletons.

According to Yi, a famous late brown weaving artist in Changsha, as early as War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's time, some people in Changsha used brown leaves to weave dragonflies, grasshoppers and other insects and sold them in the streets. This situation can still be seen on the streets of Chongqing, Hankou, Nanjing, Shanghai and other cities. Those birds and insects strung together with brown silk, yellow with green, fresh and simple, trembled slightly in the hands of artists, as if they were lifelike, which attracted children and passers-by to stop and watch.

Brown weaving technology has risen to a folk art with a short history. In 1930s, Hunan folk artists were easy to learn brown knitting skills, commodity production began to appear, and brown knitting varieties and skills were developed. Yi has a keen interest in brown knitting. According to legend, in addition to seriously learning other people's skills, he often crouches under the grass tree, observes the living habits of insects and animals, forages, fights and other activities, and studies hard. The varieties of grasshopper and mantis are sold in various markets and are quite popular, and are known as "Hunan Comprehensive Compilation Easy". This may be the "originator" of the written Brown braid.

Even now, there are very few people engaged in brown weaving. China artist 18, Xiang embroidery master 12, and Wang is the only one who is a comprehensive editor. Wang, a native of Hunan, 1952, the 5th master of arts and crafts in China. 1994 "comprehensive compilation" was selected as a special exhibition of China folk art sponsored by the Ministry of Culture.