In the struggle to conquer nature, the laboring people of our country have made great contributions to human material civilization, and the textile industry is also one aspect of it.
The textile artifacts discovered by Chinese archaeologists are the best witnesses to the civilized history of the hardworking and brave Chinese nation. As early as 50000 years ago, the mountaintop cave people had already used bone needles to thread and sew animal skin clothing to resist the cold; For example, according to the earliest unearthed fragments of kudzu cloth, our ancestors began weaving kudzu cloth with kudzu fiber for clothing during the Neolithic period five or six thousand years ago; For example, the discovery of half cut silkworm cocoons at Neolithic sites, as well as silk fabrics from 4700 years ago, indicates that our ancestors were able to use silkworm silk for weaving at that time and reached a considerable level (with a warp and weft density of 480 per 10cm); In this Neolithic era, our ancestors also began to use wool fibers to make blankets and blankets for clothing and warmth. From the above examples alone, it can be seen that China's textile industry has a long history, both in terms of weaving materials and weaving techniques.
With the development of society, in the practice of human struggle against nature, textile production technology and product quality have been continuously improved and developed.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties of the slave society, the use of ramie textile was widespread. The Book of Songs records such as "the pond at the East Gate can be used for spinning ramie", "the pond at the East Gate can be used for spinning ramie", and "it is used for cutting and weaving, and for spinning and weaving". It can be inferred from the diamond patterns and silk fabric remnants on the bronze spears and bronze axes unearthed from the Yin Ruins that the Shang Dynasty already had jacquard techniques.
By the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the technique of weaving brocade with warp threads and flowers had become widely popular. The cultural relics unearthed from the Chu tombs of the Warring States period have complex patterns of dragon to phoenix brocade.
Velvet loop brocade fabric (predecessor of Zhangrong and Velvet in China) was also found in the No. 1 tomb of Mawangdui, which dates back over 2100 years. This fabric was woven using a jacquard machine to control tens of thousands of warp yarns. In addition, a plain yarn single garment weighing only 49g was found in the tomb, with a unit area weight of only over 10 grams. All of these indicate that China's weaving technology has reached a high level early on.
In terms of weaving tools, the Shang Dynasty widely used the squat loom (where the operator sat on the ground or bamboo couch to weave). During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, foot looms emerged. In the late years of Emperor Zhao of the Western Han Dynasty, there were significant improvements in weaving tools. The wife of the laboring people, Chen Baoguang, improved the jacquard method, improved the quality of silk weaving, and saved working hours. During the Huangchu period of Emperor Wen of Wei (220-226 AD), Ma Jun further innovated and simplified the flower tower jacquard machine into twelve ensembles and twelve tips, making contributions to silk weaving technology.
In the Tang and Song dynasties, not only did they innovate the colorful and tough velvet, but the satin brocade also reached a relatively high level. During the Qingming period, the reformer Huang Daopo made great contributions to the improvement and promotion of cotton textile technology, making the Songjiang region the largest cotton textile center at that time. The cultural relics unearthed from Dingling in Beijing indicate that during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, the fabric was exquisitely woven and the patterns were diverse, with brocade and double-sided velvet being particularly exquisite.
China's textiles, especially silk fabrics, have always enjoyed a high reputation in the world. As early as the 5th and 6th centuries BC, China's textiles were introduced to West Asia and Eastern Europe. During the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, someone crossed the Yellow Sea to Japan to teach weaving techniques. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (119 BC), Zhang Qian carried a large amount of silk fabrics on his second mission to the Western Regions, promoting the exchange of silk weaving technology between China and foreign countries, reopening the Silk Road, and exporting the source of silk fabrics from China to the West. The export of textiles reached its peak during the Sui and Tang dynasties, exporting many high-quality silk fabrics with different weaving structures such as brocade, silk, and silk fabrics, as well as various beautifully printed and dyed textiles such as silk and cotton fabrics. In the 24th year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1819 AD), China exported over 3.3 million pieces of Nanjing cloth (Songjiang cotton cloth and purple flower cloth from Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions) from Guangzhou to Europe and America.
In the 1840s, China's textile industry began to adopt machine production, but due to the decay and decline of the Qing Dynasty and the invasion of imperialist economy, its development was extremely slow. At that time, although enterprises such as "Gansu Weaving Bureau" and "Shanghai Mechanical Weaving Layout" were built, their scale was not large and they were all controlled by feudal bureaucrats. After the First Sino Japanese War (1895), imperialist countries such as Britain, the United States, Germany, and Japan successively opened textile factories in China. According to statistics, before the First World War, foreign capital in the textile industry exceeded domestic capital by a lot. This shows that China's modern machine textile industry was initially controlled and monopolized by feudal bureaucrats and imperialism.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan (1945), all the textile printing and dyeing factories of Japanese imperialism in China were taken over by the four major families, and the China Textile Construction Company was established. As a bureaucratic capital monopoly organization controlled by the reactionary government of the Kuomintang, China's textile industry fell into new difficulties. In terms of the cotton textile industry, on the eve of liberation, there were only 5 million spindles and less than 70000 fabric machines in China.
