Sichuan used to be an ancient Shu country, and "Shu" means sericulture. The history of producing colorful brocade can be traced back to ancient times. In the Western Han Dynasty, various colors of Shu brocade were sold in the Central Plains market. By the Tang Dynasty, Sichuan Railway had been exported to western countries through the Silk Road and to Japan by sea. Shu brocade is tight and tough, with bright colors. Patterns and ornamentation are rich in national characteristics and local styles, with rigorous structure, simplicity and elegance, and are deeply loved by people at home and abroad.
Shu Brocade, Nanjing Yunjin, Suzhou Jin Song and Guangxi Zhuang Brocade are also called the four famous brocade in China. Chengdu Shu brocade has a long history, and it formed an important industry as early as the fourth century BC. In the Han Dynasty, the official office was set up to manage Jin officials, so it was called "Jin official city". After more than 2,000 years of development, "Jincheng" has hundreds of brocade samples. Shu brocade is a kind of silk fabric with soft texture, bright color and durability.
Brocade styles include: Fangfang Brocade, Yuehua Brocade, Rain Silk Brocade, Hui Brocade, Louhua Brocade, Scattered Brocade and many other craft varieties. In addition, there are ethnic satin and other brocade varieties for ethnic minorities to make costumes and religious decorations. (Chengdu)
Shu brocade is a representative artistic treasure in Sichuan folk cultural heritage with a long history. There are many anecdotes about her in ancient books, which often reflect the glory of ancient brocade. Regarding Sichuan folk crafts, "Suohua" naturally starts from here.
"Look at the red and wet place, the flowers in Jinguan City are heavy", "Where is the Hall of Fame, in a deep pine forest near Silk City". Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, is the Jinguan City in Du Fu's poems, which was famous for its brocade as early as two thousand years ago in the Han and Tang Dynasties. Since ancient times, the climate here has been warm, the rainfall is abundant, the trees and wild mulberry trees are flourishing, and dye plants such as safflower and madder are also produced, so it is quite common to grow mulberry and raise silkworms, so fabrics made of silk naturally appear. According to historical records, the ancient brocade of "weaving for brocade, weaving for brocade" has begun to take shape in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In the Han dynasty. Shu brocade has reached a considerable artistic level. Here are the stories of two great writers in the Han Dynasty. One is Sima Xiangru. It is said that when I was down and out, I pawned a piece of "_ autumn" made of Sichuan brocade to buy wine. The celebrity's behavior immediately caused the dignitaries to follow suit. They all decorated Sichuan brocade clothes with patterns of parrots and geese, calling them "like brocade". In addition, Xijing Miscellanies also recorded that he vividly explained Fu's theme with brocade techniques: "Like friends, the word is long and smooth, _ Ke Ye. When asked about the method of fu, he said,' The combination group writes splendid scenery, and once it is latitude, the palace is business, and this fu is also a trace.' I'll do another' Li Combination' later. " Yang Xiong, another great poet in Chengdu, also directly described the grand occasion of making Shu brocade in Shu Du Fu: "You are a person, making wonderful brocade yourself, giving it to bandits, participating in it, sending official documents to celebrate the color, and it will last forever." "
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the three countries disputed, but the relatively stable Chengdu Shu brocade weaving reached an unprecedented level. The most interesting is the Biography of Wu Shu Gan Ning, which tells that General Gan Xingba of Wu Dong was originally from Zhongxian County, Sichuan Province (Linjiang County, eight counties). In his early years, he was a water thief in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. His thieves are all marked with Shu Jinfan, and they are called "Jinfan Thief". It is of course ingenious to flaunt one's special identity with Sichuan specialties, which also shows the prosperity and consumption of Shu brocade at that time. "Biography of the Japanese in the Book of Wei" said: "Wei Mingdi presented five brocade pieces of crimson dragon to the Japanese queen and three brocade pieces of Jian Di's sentence". It not only tells the story that Wei bought Shu brocade from Shu as a gift at that time, but also provides the weaving pattern characteristics of Shu brocade. This "icing on the cake" weaving method, which weaves a variety of patterns at the bottom, is an important difference between Shu brocade and ancient brocade in other places. According to Shu Shu, Liu Bei entered the city in 2 1 1 and gave Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Fa Zhengge 1000 horses. During Zhuge Liang's rule of Shu, he regarded sericulture brocade and salt and iron official camp as two rich economic policies, saying, "Today, the people are poor and the country is empty, and the enemy's capital has been set, but the brocade is praised." In order to carry out Zhuge Liang's policy, Jian Yong adopted two policies: unified camp and woven camp. Unified acquisition of cocoon, buy serfs to engage in brocade. In the south of the city, a civil engineering city will be built to build a brocade professional Jinguan city. In cities, women workers and serfs engage in cocoon cooking, silk reeling, wire drawing, machine pressing, brocade, rinsing, dyeing and spinning. Dozens of precious Shu Brocade, such as Dragon Brocade, Cao Rui Crane Brocade, Ruyi Peony Brocade and Gandhi Brocade, have exquisite designs, bright colors and dazzling brilliance.
As can be seen from the books quoted above, the name of Jinguancheng has a long history, at least from the Eastern Han Dynasty. So, where is the ancient Jinguan City? According to the records of Huayang National Records in Changqu, there is a city on the west side of the road, which is the Jinguan City in Han Dynasty. Mars in the Eastern Jin Dynasty also said in Yizhou Ji: "Jincheng is in the south of Yizhou, east of the bridge and flows to Jiang Nanan. In the past, when Shu was in Shu, the Jin government was also called Jinli, and there were still walls. " It can be speculated that it is located in Baihuatan area on the south bank today.
Tang Dynasty is another heyday of Shu brocade development. The poet Liu Yuxi said in a poem: "The flowers on both sides of Jinjiang River blow the spring breeze, and the waves wash the sand and stones. The girl cut the mandarin duck brocade and set the sunset red in the middle stream. " For Zhuo Jinjiang, there are also many records in ancient books. Zuo Si, a native of A Jin, said in Shu Du Fu that Chengdu is the hometown of geisha. A hundred rooms leave the room, and the machine means peace. North Golden Emerald City, colorful river waves. "Shu Brocade in the Yuan Dynasty said:" Shu is famous for its brocade, the old city is famous for its brocade officials, and the river is famous for its brocade. Qiao Zhou, a Shu native in the Three Kingdoms period, said in Yi Zhou Zhi: "Brocade has been completed, immersed in the river, and its handwriting is clear, which is better than its initial formation. "Chang Qu, a Jin Dynasty man, wrote in Huayang National Records:" The road to the west is the same as that of the official, but Jinjiang weavers are vivid in it, not as good as it is in the river. "In the process of dyeing and refining, ancient brocade needs to be washed by the South River in Chengdu, especially the Huanhuaxi area in the upper reaches. It is named Zhuojinjiang because of its excellent water quality and gorgeous fabrics.
The patterns of Shu brocade in Tang Dynasty are more colorful. The "Shujiang Brocade" produced at that time was not only vivid and harmonious in pattern color, but also used six-color "halo color", which was dignified, full and magnificent, and had the same effect as the painting "Three Colors of the Tang Dynasty" at the same time. The richness of Shu brocade patterns in Tang Dynasty is the contribution of designers. For example, the Yizhou official Dou mentioned in Zhang Yanyuan's Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties in the Tang Dynasty. He said, "Dou Chu consulted Taizong Qin Gong, joined the army as a state official, and made him a duke of Lingyang. Nature is ingenious, and whoever built the Ruijin Palace Mausoleum is wonderful in Zhang Cai. " His designs, such as Duihuan, Fighting Sheep, Xiangfeng and Lin You, greatly enriched the content of Shu Brocade, and their designs were later called "Lingyang Palace Lane".
Of course, it is difficult for us to see the true face of Shu brocade in Han and Tang dynasties today, but we can also get this information from some cultural relics unearthed all over the country. For example, the earlier unearthed "Changle Mingguang" brocade and the recent unearthed "Five Stars Out of the East" brocade in Xinjiang. Although these ancient tapestries have been excavated in different places, they have gone through thousands of years and their luster is still bright and dazzling. In addition to dragons, tigers, horses, birds, beasts and gods, there are also patterns of seal characters such as "Changle Bright Light" and "Five Stars Out of the East, Benefiting China". Experts' research shows that these are precious objects of Shu brocade in Han Dynasty. As for the Shu brocade in the Tang Dynasty, it is called the beauty of Zhang Caiqi in history. Although there are not many existing objects, we can still have a general understanding of Shu brocade from Lu Guimeng, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty. Li Jun of Zhaojun presented a Shu brocade skirt, which was four feet long, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and six inches wide. In front of it, there is a crane 20. It wants to fly away. It has a serrated shin and a royal flower net in its mouth. There are parrots on the right, shrugging their shoulders and loosening their tails, and the number is equal to that of cranes. Second, birds vary in size, but there are no flowers and no land, and there are four roads and five colors. The road is dotted with fine cymbals, which are slightly unlocked and linked to each other. If there is a terrible sunset, the smoke will disappear, the spring grass will be caught, and the distant mountains will be broken. " Its craft is almost magical.