Traditional Cotton Textile Craftsmanship

01 · Historical Records

China's traditional textile technique has a long history. After cotton was introduced from India in the 7th century, China's textile industry shifted from hemp spinning to cotton spinning. By the 1960s, with the development of the machine textile industry, the production of homespun cloth gradually declined. In the 19th century, the Uyghur traditional handmade textile technique of Jiashi County had specialized households in every village, and the cotton cloth produced was deeply popular among the people.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

By the Yuan dynasty, under the influence of Huang Daopo's reforms of textile technique, the textile industries of places such as Weixian and Feixiang County in Hebei gradually developed and flourished, and garments and bedding tailored from homespun cloth became necessities of daily life. The traditional textile technique of Weixian, Hebei Province, is relatively complex, comprising twelve process steps: twisting flower knots, spinning yarn, beating yarn, dyeing yarn, sizing yarn, winding yarn, warping, printing cloth, drawing the heddles (tao zeng), passing through the reed (chuang chu), mounting the loom, and weaving cloth. The key process steps that determine the stripes, checks, and patterns of the woven cloth are the designed arrangement of the colored warp and weft yarns and the setting of the heddles (zeng). The heddles (zeng) are of three kinds: two-page, three-page, and page. With a two-page zeng, a single shuttle can weave white cloth and striped cloth, while an ordered arrangement of the colored warp and weft yarns can weave a great variety of checked cloth. Through long production practice, the women of Weixian have created more than two hundred weaving designs for striped, checked, and patterned cloth. The character-woven homespun cloth of Feixiang County, Hebei Province, involves process steps including spinning yarn, twisting yarn (guai xian), sizing, winding, warping, brushing the yarn, printing the yarn, drawing the heddles, passing through the reed, mounting the loom, and applying character stencils; the technique is highly distinctive. In weaving, a calligraphy stencil is affixed beneath the cloth roller of the loom; seen through the warp threads, the character shapes of the stencil are visible, and by passing the shuttle in accordance with the characters the corresponding letterforms are woven into the cloth. Beyond calligraphy, the Feixiang character-woven homespun technique can also produce patterns such as pepper flowers, twill, fish eyes, Scholar Xu Paying Homage to the Pagoda, and butterflies. The Uyghur traditional handmade cotton textile technique of Jiashi County, Xinjiang, has a broad popular base; its ancient mode of production is still preserved today, and its process proceeds in sequence through cotton fluffing, spinning, twisting yarn, winding, warping, printing cloth, drawing the heddles, and weaving. After the 1990s, as industrialization accelerated, all manner of new garment fabrics poured into the market and modern textiles replaced handwoven cloth. This dealt a severe blow to the Uyghur traditional handmade textile technique: market demand for hand weaving shrank, hand-weaving artisans switched to other trades in numbers, and specialized hand-weaving households dropped sharply to the current dozen or so. The remaining elderly weavers average nearly sixty years of age and increasingly find weaving beyond their strength, while young people are unwilling to inherit the traditional handmade textile technique. The Uyghur traditional handmade textile technique is on the verge of extinction and urgently needs attention.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Feixiang branch's signature skill lies in characters: the stencil is pressed beneath the cloth roller, and the weaver, looking through the warp, passes the shuttle according to the character shapes, so letterforms grow directly onto the checked homespun cloth. Beyond characters, the locality can also weave patterns such as pepper flowers, fish eyes, twill, and butterflies. This craft has been passed down within the home by the women workers of each household; in recent years the Feixiang District Cultural Center of Handan has taken the lead in gathering the veteran craftsmen who know how to apply character stencils so that the skill can be transmitted anew.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present, elderly master weavers are passing away one after another, and young people are unwilling to learn this traditional craft, causing the character-woven homespun technique to be lost; protection and rescue cannot brook delay. As an important component of the traditional culture of the Xinjiang region, the traditional handmade textile technique reflects and expresses the shared habits of thought and living customs of the peoples of the northwest, regulates their way of life, and possesses important cultural and practical value.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Chang Zhangqin 03-1358
• Tuerxunmusha 03-1359
• Paretanmu Tuerdi 04-1878
• Chen Aiguo 05-2798
• Wang Guifeng 05-2799
• Li Conghui 05-2800
• Yu Yanping
• Liu Yune
• Zheng Yunxiang
• Su Jinfang

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Traditional Cotton Textile Craftsmanship (Feixiang, Hebei) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗