Study On Low Pattern Draft Looms And Weaving Techniques Of Warp Brocade

Ancient Chinese traditional looms and weaving techniques, an important component ofancient Chinese science and technology, was created by our ancestors and survived as one of themost vivid evidences of the precious cultural heritage, which reflect the Chinese great wisdomand innovative spirit, and recognized by the world. According to a variety of previous archivesrecorded in words and graphics as well as the unearthed ancient textiles, we can found not onlythe excellent wisdom and extensive creativity from our ancestors but also some technologyachieving the advanced level around the world in those days. Nowadays, records and legendsabout Chinese traditional looms have widely spread in the world, however, the ancient patterninglooms mentioned in the literature have not been found among the excavations. Although someancient fabrics can be obtained, yet the corresponding looms are still undiscovered, instead,some rare loom’s parts are found. Therefore, the early pattern looms can hardly be fullyunderstood only based on the varieties of information from poetries, paintings, graphics as wellas documents, and different views on it are still in debate.Up to now，the pattern looms from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty hasattracted a long-term attention, unfortunately, views about it still failed to come to agreement.With the progress of the research on the history of textile technology，some scholars over theworld tend to believe that the low pattern draft loom play an essential and irreplaceable role inthe evolution of Chinese pattern loom. Therefore, based on the field investigation of low patterndraft loom and the analysis of warp brocade from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty,in this paper, we try to explore the links between them combining with the data of previousliteratures and pictures, in addition, the types of the pattern looms in the south China at thatperiods are also investigated in order to propose a reasonable reconstruction design project aboutit. In our early work, the survived low pattern draft looms from some of minority areas inchina were surveyed and classified in detail, the shapes, working principles along with operationmethods of which were also discussed; besides, the construction features, weaving preparationand weaving technology of the corresponding looms were summarized; meanwhile, the fabricstructures, pattern styles and color uses of the textiles were analyzed as well; based on the abovestudy, a progressive work was carried out combining with the historical depictions.In the next stage of the work, a few warp brocade samples from the Warring States Period tothe Han Dynasty were selected to conduct a detailed study from the density of warp and weft,style of yarns as well as the fabric structures and the number of warp yarns as well as the fabricwidth was inferred preliminarily. In addition, the artistic conception drawing was drafted and thecolor uses, pattern styles along with weaving technology were investigated respectively.In our later work, based on the previous field investigation on the looms combining with thewarp brocade samples selected in our study, the types of the pattern loom in the Warring StatesPeriod to the Han Dynasty were made a thorough inquiry. Here, a reasonable reconstructiondesign project about the pattern loom of the ancient China was proposed based on the previousresearch on the low pattern draft looms.The low pattern draft looms investigated in this paper distributed widely in the minorityareas of the southwest China and was frequently mentioned in the historical depictions. Besides,existing with the multi-heddle and treadle loom, it became one of the main loom types from theearly Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty. In our work, we believe that the weavingtechniques of warp brocade have a lot in common with the survived low pattern draft loomsaccording to the investigation of unearthed warp brocades and the reasonable reconstructiondesign project could be severed as a reference for the patterning looms of the ancient China.