Traditional Cotton Textile Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Nantong City in Jiangsu Province, lying by the river and the sea, with a humid climate and fertile soil, has been a famous cotton-growing region of China since the Ming dynasty. In the early 20th century, Nantong's yarn-dyed (colored-woven) homespun achieved unprecedented development.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
For centuries, local farmers followed the pattern of men tilling and women weaving, with "every household practicing it as a constant trade," and historical records describe it as "the cotton and cloth output ranking first among all prefectures." By the late 19th century, Nantong's yarn-dyed homespun had won renown at home and abroad for its exquisite hand weaving, distinctive craft dyeing, and the qualities of being thick, sturdy, wash-resistant, and hard-wearing, becoming a major local specialty. There were more than 100,000 specialized rural homespun-weaving households, with a workforce of one million, and annual total sales of homespun reaching 17 million bolts. Nantong became, in history, the famous "homespun homeland" of the nation after Songjiang. The Nantong yarn-dyed homespun technique uses a single-spindle hand-crank spinning wheel to make yarn and a foot-treadle hand-shuttle wooden loom for weaving; processes such as dyeing, bobbin winding, warping, weft winding, heddle threading, and reed mounting retain fairly primitive methods, inheriting China's ancient hand yarn-dyeing craft. Folk varieties of homespun number over six major categories and several hundred types; typical patterns include the "ant," "willow twig," "osmanthus," "gold-and-silver thread grid," and "reed" series, as well as double-happiness, colored grid, hydrangea-flower, and character-based jacquard brocade-blanket weaves. The Haimen area of Nantong still preserves to this day the extremely rare ancient multi-treadle multi-heddle jacquard weaving techniques of eight treadles with eight heddles and twelve treadles with twelve heddles, representing the quintessence of China's folk yarn-dyed homespun craft.
Archived Process-Step Records
The Nantong yarn-dyed homespun technique uses a single-spindle hand-crank spinning wheel to make yarn and a foot-treadle hand-shuttle wooden loom for weaving; processes such as dyeing, bobbin winding, warping, weft winding, heddle threading, and reed mounting retain fairly primitive methods, inheriting China's ancient hand yarn-dyeing craft.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Nantong yarn-dyed homespun weavers are found throughout the villages of the Jianghai Plain. Bordering the river and the sea, with a humid climate and fertile soil, this area has been a renowned cotton region since the Ming dynasty, where farming families had men tilling and women weaving, every household taking it as their trade. From the late Qing to the early Republic, specialized weaving households numbered over 100,000 with more than a million workers, and annual homespun sales were about 17 million bolts; thus Nantong took over the title of "homespun homeland" from Songjiang. The Haimen area still preserves the ancient multi-treadle multi-heddle jacquard techniques of eight treadles with eight heddles and twelve treadles with twelve heddles—the rarest such site among the nation's homespun crafts.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Every motif on the homespun is done by hand: yarn is spun on a single-spindle hand-crank wheel, and weaving is done on a foot-treadle hand-shuttle wooden loom; dyeing, bobbin winding, warping, weft winding, heddle threading, and reed mounting all keep ancient methods, and the patterns are formed by the interweaving of colored warp and weft threads—the "ant," "willow twig," "osmanthus," "gold-and-silver thread grid," and "reed" each form their own series, while double-happiness, colored grid, and hydrangea-flower are woven as jacquard brocade blankets. These thick, wash-durable cloths served both as farm-family clothing and as dowry and festival goods, and were even exported overseas in the late 19th century. The craft knowledge resides entirely in the weavers' hands; once mechanized looms entered the factories, every link in this chain had to be learned anew.
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
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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