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The textile industry in China is the largest in the world in both overall production and exports. [ 1 ] China exported $274 billion in textiles in 2013, a volume that was nearly seven times that of Bangladesh, the second largest exporter with $40 billion in exports. [ 2 ] This accounted for 43.1% of global clothing exports. [ 3 ]
- Silk and Diplomacy
- The Manila Galleon
- Historical and Archaeological Evidence
- Qin (221–206 B.C.E.) and Han (206 B.C.E. –220 C.E.) Dynasties
- Six Dynasties Period
- Song Dynasty
- Jin (1115–1234) and Yuan (1279–1368) Dynasties
- Ming Dynasty
- Qing Dynasty
- Collecting and Study of Textile
The value of silks for diplomatic gifts was recognized early. Confucian texts of the third century b.c.e. mention the practice. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), some diplomatic gifts to border peoples included 200,000 bolts of silk. In the first century c.e., Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History (Book XII, translation by H. Rackham, 1952...
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 disrupted trade and led Europeans to find their own sea routes to Asia. Chinese silk textiles were included in the earliest voyages of the Manila galleon in 1573. According to the inventory by Antonio de Morga, president of the audiencia at Manila, Spanish traders bought:
Needles have been found in some of China's earliest inhabited sites. Abundant evidence of the making of fabrics from hemp and ramie has been found in sites of the fifth millennium b.c.e. Spindle whorls of stone or pottery found in these sites confirm the spinning of hemp or ramie fibers into threads for weaving and sewing. Components of what may ha...
Having built the first empire of China, Qin Shi Huangdi (best known in the early 2000s for the 1974 discovery of his "terra-cotta army") built a great palace. Among its remains have been found silks, including brocade, damask, plain silk, and embroidered silk. After the reconsolidation of the empire under Han imperial rule, silk production became a...
Political disunity during the third to sixth centuries brought close interaction with Central Asia, leading to new styles and techniques relating to textile production. Tang silks reflect these closer contacts established during the previous centuries. The Tang maintained an open capital with foreigners among its merchants and varied ethnic and rel...
Song weavers brought refinement to textile technology, especially the weaving of satin and of kesitapestries. Generally the use of gold and silver increased both in embroidery and in woven brocades. Needle-loop embroidery, a detached looping stitch sometimes combined with appliqué of gilt paper, came into use. In Song times as in the Tang, embroide...
Silk played a major role in trade, diplomacy, and court life under the Jin dynasty, founded by the Jurchen, a Tatar people, and the Yuan, founded by the Mongols, both non-Chinese ruling houses. Jin and Yuan brocades, notable for rich patterning with gilt wefts of leather or paper substrate, have been a focus of recent exhibitions. Due to the open t...
By Ming times, weavers employed elaborate drawlooms using up to forty different colored wefts and incorporating flat gold (gilt paper) strips, gold-wrapped threads as well as iridescent peacock feathers to produce their brocades. The Yongle reign (1403–1424) saw a tremendous dedication of resources to the production of diplomatic gifts including te...
Study of Qing textiles has focused on the court collections, now in Beijing's Palace Museum and in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, including wall decorations, curtains, desk frontals and upholstery fabrics, ceremonial and informal costumes, and works of art. When the Qianlong emperor, inspired by scholar-collectors of the late Ming as well as b...
Until recently, the study of Chinese textiles revolved around Beijing's imperial palaces, a focal point for interest in Chinese culture after the end of Qing dynasty rule in 1911. In the years before the formal establishment of the Palace Museum within the former Forbidden City in 1925, many court costumes and other textiles were dispersed into col...
[23] [24] The Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, India, Ancient Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Ancient Rome. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the " Black Death "), also traveled along the silk routes.
May 7, 2020 · The first development was of the ancient system during the Han dynasty in China (second century BCE–second century CE) consisting of sericulture in northern China, hand silk reeling, Chinese dyes, multiheddle patterning loom, and warp-faced pattern structure.
1. Cultivation of Silkworms: The first step in making silk in ancient China was the cultivation of silkworms. Silkworms are actually the larvae of the silk moth, Bombyx mori. The silkworms were raised on mulberry leaves, which provided them with the necessary nutrients to spin their cocoons.
Silk Production. Silk worm caterpillars. Watching silk worms eat and live and spin their cocoons is one of the things tourists enjoy doing during a silk factory tour. Silk is a delicately woven product made from the protein fibers of the silkworm cocoon. Silk production is a lengthy process that requires close monitoring.
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The first evidence for weaving silk appears 5,000 to 7,000 years ago in China. Any evidence of silk outside China proper at this time would strongly suggest that the non-Chinese traded with the Chinese for this much sought-after textile. Chinese silks were prized in ancient Rome, which led to the forging of a trade route between the East and West.
