Traditional Cotton Textile Craftsmanship

Ⅷ-100Traditional CraftsmanshipYuyao, ZhejiangBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Yuyao was once a major cotton base of the nation; Xu Guangqi's Ming-dynasty Complete Treatise on Agricultural Administration states that "Zhejiang cotton comes from Yuyao," and during the Republic of China period Zhejiang cotton was also called "Yaohua" (Yao cotton). Before the Southern Song, Yuyao homespun used hemp and kudzu as raw materials; the Book of the Later Han records that Yuyao homespun (Yue cloth) was a tribute item of the Eastern Han.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Since the Southern Song, Yuyao homespun has used cotton as its main raw material, and is renowned nationwide for its long history, fine craftsmanship, rich variety of patterns, practical beauty, and wide range of uses. Yuyao formerly belonged to the Yue region of Shaoxing (Kuaiji), so Yuyao homespun is also historically known as "Yue cloth." Yuyao has long had a homespun tradition; the Yuyao Liucang Gazetteer records that "in the late Ming and early Qing, plain cloth was favored in dress—commoners, rich or poor, all wore coarse cloth, and even the nobility did not adorn themselves lavishly." In the past, Yuyao farm girls learned weaving from childhood, and the quality of one's skill was an important measure of whether a girl was clever and deft. Yuyao homespun comes in a great variety of styles and types; its traditional making process is complex, divided into more than ten steps—cotton processing, spinning, yarn adjusting, dyeing, sizing, and warping—and over fifty process steps, requiring more than twenty kinds of tools. Until the Reform and Opening-up, in the northern-Yao countryside "every household spun yarn and wove cloth, and the sound of looms could be heard in every village." After the Reform and Opening-up, the traditional workshops gradually declined.

Archived Process-Step Records

Yuyao homespun comes in a great variety of styles and types; its traditional making process is complex, divided into more than ten steps—cotton processing, spinning, yarn adjusting, dyeing, sizing, and warping—and over fifty process steps, requiring more than twenty kinds of tools.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The production areas of Yuyao homespun are concentrated in the villages north and south of the Yao River; formerly part of the Yue region of Shaoxing, it is thus called Yue cloth. The northern-Yao area kept up "every household spinning and weaving, looms sounding in every village" right up until the Reform and Opening-up. The one who truly preserved this craft intact is the Wang Guifeng family homespun workshop in Langhai Village, Xiaocao'e Town. She learned weaving from her mother at age 15 and can make split-bamboo-braid cloth, square-raw cloth, twill cloth, four-corner cloth, and hollow-cross cloth, among others; on a single bolt she can weave more than twenty patterns from six color combinations, and she preserves the main implements—a wooden loom and a small rocking wheel—as well as more than forty kinds of homespun made over the decades. Starting in 2009 she has run training classes at the workshop, teaching nearly a thousand people, while the rest of the folk workshops in the area have all but disappeared.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present, very few folk workshops within the area still engage in traditional homespun production; only the "Wang Guifeng Family Homespun Workshop" can effectively carry on the tradition, and the endangered condition is severe. Wang Guifeng (from the official inheritor archive): Female, Han ethnicity, born in September 1936, from Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the traditional cotton-textile craft (Yuyao homespun-making technique) under the Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Yuyao homespun-making artisan. She began learning weaving from her mother at the age of 15 and is a locally famous skilled weaver. She can make split-bamboo-braid cloth, square-raw cloth, twill cloth, four-corner cloth, and hollow-cross cloth, and can weave more than twenty patterns from six color combinations on a single bolt. She preserves the main production implements—a wooden loom and a small rocking wheel—as well as more than forty kinds of homespun made over the decades. Starting in 2009, she has held homespun-making training classes every year at the Wang Guifeng Homespun Workshop, an inheritance base, training nearly a thousand people. In October 2008, she was named among the first batch of Outstanding Folk Literary and Artistic Talents of Zhejiang Province.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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