Did the ancients dye cloth with green persimmons

The ancients used green persimmons to dye cloth.

The ancients would crush green persimmons and squeeze out the juice. The juice contained a large amount of natural pigments and substances such as pectin, which played a vital role in the dyeing process. Next, they strain the juice to remove the dregs and get clear persimmon juice.

When dyeing cloth, the ancients would soak the fabric to be dyed in persimmon juice, so that the pigments in the juice could fully penetrate into the fibers of the cloth. Then they removed the fabric and hung it in the sunlight for natural exposure. Under the sunlight, the pigments in the persimmon juice will gradually darken, eventually creating a light brown or coffee-colored dye effect.

If they need to get a darker color, they can repeatedly soak the fabric in persimmon juice and dry it many times. This method of dyeing is very eco-friendly as the materials used are natural and do not cause any harm to the environment.

Ancient Methods of Dyeing Fabrics

The materials used for coloring in ancient China can be divided into mineral pigments and vegetable dyes, with the latter being the main dyes in ancient times. Ancient Chinese mastered the properties of many kinds of plant dyes, and invented many kinds of dyeing techniques and anti-dyeing and printing techniques called "val".

Mineral pigment coloring is through the adhesive to make it adhere to the surface of the fabric, but the color is easy to come off in water. Vegetable dyes are not, dyeing its pigment molecules are through the fabric fiber affinity and change the color of the fiber, with the color of the sunshine and washing, are not easy to fall off.

There are countless mineral and vegetable dyes commonly used in ancient times, and the dyeing process created by the ancients according to the characteristics of different dyes include: direct dyeing, mordant dyeing, reduction dyeing, anti-dyeing, and color-coding dyeing, etc. The dyeing process is based on the characteristics of different dyes.

The diversity of dyestuff varieties and process methods made the chromatography of the ancient printing and dyeing industry very rich, and there are several hundred kinds of them in the ancient books, especially in a kind of hue clearly divided into dozens of similar colors, which need to skillfully master the combination of various dyestuffs, formulas, and change the conditions of the process to be able to achieve.

Mordanting is the process of attaching pigments to fabrics with the help of a mordant. Ancient China used mordant mostly iron and aluminum, iron to green alum-based, aluminum to alum-based. Some vegetable dyes, such as sappan, have different colors depending on the mordant used.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - Green Persimmon