Traditional indigo-dyed plants and dyeing methods and the craft history
"Indigo dyeing"originally referred to dying with bluegrass which is a traditional process with a long history and a wide range of applications.There are multiple names for bluegrass in China's ancient literature.Among them,some are the same kind of indigo under different names,while some,though bearing the same names,are actually not the same kind of bluegrass,so it is necessary to sort them out for further study.Studies have shown that the Wu indigo and Xian indigo recorded in the literature are actually the ovate sharp leaf Polygonum tinctorium Ait with red flowers and white flowers.The latter two species of Polygonum tinctorium Ait were transplanted from Indochina Peninsula to China after the Song Dynasty.Polygonum tinctorium Ait native to China is an oval broad-leaved plant.In addition to Polygonum tinctorium Ait,Indigofera tinctoria Linn,Isatis indigotica Fortune,and Baphicacanthus cusia(Nees)Bremek are also commonly used as bluegrass.Among them,Indigofera tinctoria Linn is divided into Indian one and South American one,and Isatis indigotica Fortune is divided into Chinese one and European one.Although the species and morphological characteristics of these bluegrass plants are different,the indirubin components contained in them can be used for dyeing.According to different blue dyeing processes,the dyeing methods can be divided into direct dyeing,boiling dyeing and fermentation reduction dyeing.Relatively speaking,the fermentation reduction dyeing method is more complicated,but it is the most suitable from the perspective of dyeing effect and mass production.From the point of view of the difficulty of blue dyeing,the direct dyeing method is the most primitive dyeing method and the earliest dyeing process,which has the possibility of origin from all over the world.The boiling dyeing method and fermentation reduction dyeing method may have been invented in response to the production constraints of direct dyeing,and they probably originated in India and then spread to the Mediterranean countries through Western Asia.For thousands of years,blue dyeing technology has been closely related to people's life and productive labor.As early as the Zhou and Qin Dynasties,China had set up a special post of"dyeing staff"to manage plant dyeing.The planting and dyeing process of Isatis indigotica Fortune in the Middle Ages of Europe had brought huge profits to the European landowners until the 18th century,when it declined due to the input of Indigofera tinctoria Linn dyes.With the advent of the era of great navigation,India's high-quality Indigofera tinctoria Linn varieties and outstanding fermentation reduction dyeing methods were also imported into American countries and rapidly popularized.In the long-term practice of indigo dyeing production,people all over the world have accumulated experience from local materials,to the development of indigo dyeing trade and technology,and even to the integration of indigo dyeing culture into social life,customs,politics and economy.In the extensive exchanges and cooperative development,they have gradually formed a indigo dyeing cultural circle characterized by planting and using different varieties of bluegrass to dye.
bluegrasstraditional dyeinghistory of dyeing and weaving technologydyeing methodindigo dying culture circle
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