Over 2,000-Year-Old Chinese Silk Fabric and Garment

It is a consensus that silk fabric was invented by the Chinese, but opinions are divided as to when the Chinese started to produce it.

Some researchers believe it began in the age of Fuxi (伏羲), during the Paleolithic Era, while others contend it must have started during the reign of the Yellow Emperor, in the Neolithic Period.

The tangible evidence discovered so far includes weaving tools and cups engraved with images of silkworms, unearthed in the 1970s from Zhejiang’s Hemudu cultural site dating back 7,000 years.

In an earlier excavation in 1958 at Wuxing Qianshanyang archaeological site, also in Zhejiang, silk fabric and silk threads made more than 5,000 years ago were excavated.

According to the Book of Documents (尚书), one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature, as early as 2,700 BC, it was mandated by law that specific garments worn for particular occasions be made of embroidered silk (衣画而裳绣).

In 1972, during the Cultural Revolution, a golden age of Chinese archaeological discovery and research, a Han Dynasty tomb known as Mawangdui in Hunan Province was discovered. Among the cultural relics unearthed, there are embroidered silk clothes and fabrics.

This is a piece of silk fabric unearthed from Mawangdui embroidered with images of swallows (a common migratory bird in China) and flowering plants. Since these indicate the promised return of spring, the embroidery design is named “Promise Message” (信期绣).

This is a 2,000-year-old Chinese perfume bag made of silk fabric, embroidered with a Message of Promise, recovered from the Mawangdui tomb.

This is a piece of silk fabric unearthed from Mawangdui embroidered with a design called Longevity, which uses coloured silk threads to illustrate the profiles of dragons among the rolling clouds.

In Chinese mythology, the Chinese dragon (Looog) is the guardian on the path to immortality.

A close look at the Longevity embroidery design.

This is a piece of silk fabric called Cloud Rider, which uses coloured silk threads to illustrate the profile of phoenixes and images of clouds.

The rhombus-shaped patterns with a black round dot in the middle represent the phoenix’s eyes. In Chinese mythology, phoenixes only appear when peace is about to grace the land.

A close look at the Cloud Rider embroidery design.

While most embroidery works discovered in Mawangdui employ classic Chain Stitches, this one utilises running stitches to create a sharp end of the plants. The Running Stitch is more commonly used today.

This is a piece of embroidered silk fabric featuring a Single Chain Stitch in a chessboard pattern. Also unearthed from Mawangdui.

A 2,300-year-old woven silk garment, unearthed from a Warring States Period burial site.

A 3,000-year-old Chinese silk-woven garment was unearthed from a West Zhou burial site.