Wen l Zhang Fei
Editor l Zhang Fei
introduction
During the Tang and Song dynasties, paper quilts were important daily necessities, and they were the products of a specific historical stage.
Consult historical books and poetry materials, use the methods of literature collation and data analysis, and analyze the literary imagery, production process and practical use of paper quilts.
The research believes that paper quilts were abundant in the Tang and Song dynasties, and gradually withdrew from the historical stage due to the popularization of cotton planting.
The fabric of the paper quilt is rattan paper and lintel paper, which is made of wild rattan and lint bark, and the flocculent material of the paper quilt is catkins and reed flowers, and the flocculent can be placed in the paper quilt interlayer to enhance the warmth effect.
Paper quilt can be used to keep out the cold, but also the government relief and disaster relief materials, the ancients rely on the convenience of the natural environment, a large number of paper quilts, in order to make profits, so paper is become Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui, Jiangxi and other places of the famous product.
For the first time in ancient China, paper quilts appeared
Paper is recorded in historical books and poetic materials.
Consulting the history books found that paper first appeared in the late Tang Dynasty, and was produced and used in large quantities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The writing of paper quilt poems gradually increased in the Song Dynasty, and the descriptions in the poems were more inclined to the expression of the poet's feelings and the record of poor life.
The history books record the appearance time of paper quilts, the origin of raw materials, and interesting stories of literati.
According to the Tingzhou Chronicle, Xu Kun (864-928), a Jinshi of the late Tang Dynasty, lived in seclusion to escape the war, and then wrote the poem "Paper Quilt".
He was the first person to write paper into a poem, which describes the characteristics of paper as white and warm, and in the last sentence uses the word "how much is it worth" to point out that paper quilts are poor items.
This shows that paper first appeared in the late Tang Dynasty and was used by the poor. The raw materials required to make paper quilts are in Zhejiang, Fujian and other places.
"The Four Scores of the Study" is the earliest monograph on paper in China and even in the world.
It is written in the book: "Those who have seen words and writings have praised each other with paper." ”
Another example is the record of "Yanxi Manbi Xiaoshu": "There are many ancient vines in its land, and the natives take it to make paper, and the so-called Yanxi rattan is also." ”
Paper, that is, rattan paper, is the raw material for the production of paper quilts, the paper is uniform and smooth, white as jade. Rattan paper originated in Yanxi, which is the main river in Shengzhou, Zhejiang, and the production of rattan paper first began here, and later spread to Fujian.
It can be verified in the "Eight Fujian Tongzhi": "Paper quilts, all out of Shaowu County", which means that Fujian Shaowu makes paper quilts. The paper quilt written in the historical book Fang Zhi reflects more of the customs and customs of ancient times.
For example, the "Notes on the History of the Five Dynasties" writes that the officials of the five dynasties were afraid of the severe scrutiny of their superiors, so they "lay on the paper quilt" to show their simplicity, implying that the paper quilt was a cheap thing, and the ancients used the paper quilt to show their incorruptible conduct.
again
Looking through the "Jin History Supplement", it can be seen that when the Jin soldiers went south, the people panicked, and described that ordinary people "were taken like beggars with clothes and paper".
The person who covered the paper quilt was regarded as poor as a beggar, and it can be seen that paper was regarded as a poor thing in ancient times, and it was used by ordinary people.
According to ancient records, the paper quilt is made of rattan fiber or the bark of the tree tree, so the paper quilt is also called "paper quilt", "quilt" and "quilt".
Organize the poems according to chronological order and the title of the paper quilt,
According to the statistics of ancient paper quilts, there are about 90 poems written on paper quilts, and according to different titles, there are 32 poems of "paper quilt", 32 poems of "paper quilt", 23 poems of "楮衾", and 3 poems of "quilt".
According to the analysis, the increase in paper quilt poems in the Southern Song Dynasty was closely related to the social environment at that time. Because of the confrontation with the Mongol Yuan, the Southern Song Dynasty was in a wartime state for a long time, facing huge military and financial pressure, and the economy of the Southern Song Dynasty also experienced a comprehensive recession.
Due to the pressure of the war and excessive taxes, people had to reduce their daily expenses, and ordinary people also used paper to make paper quilts, paper tents and other daily necessities.
At this point, the paper quilt began to enter daily life, and writing paper quilt poems also became the literary orientation at that time, people used to write paper quilt poems for pleasure, and writing paper quilt poems was also to express personal feelings, so paper quilts and paper quilt poems were extremely popular in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Analysis of the production process of ancient Chinese paper quilts
The ancient Chinese paper quilt production process includes two aspects: fabric and storage.
The fabric of the paper quilt is a special kind of paper, mostly rattan paper and lintel paper, which is made of rattan fiber or bark. The storage material of the paper quilt is reed flowers, cattail flowers, and catkins.
Due to the limited number of cold protection items in ancient times, stuffing items such as reeds into the paper quilt interlayer can increase the warmth effect of the paper quilt.
The fabric of the paper quilt is made of rattan paper and 楮 paper, which are made of rattan fiber and 液楮 bark as raw materials.
Rattan paper is paper made from wild vine plants, such as green vines, kudzu vines, star fruit vines, and so on.
In the "Shengzhi", there is a method of making rattan paper: "The name of rattan paper is good in the world, the style is five, and the rattan is treated with a wooden vertebrae...... Make the use of winter water is good, knock the ice for it to knock the ice paper, and there is no one to pass on its skills.
Shengzhou was called Yan County in ancient times, and the green rattan on both sides of the Yan River grew vigorously, and it was an excellent papermaking raw material, so Jiangsu and Zhejiang produced rattan paper for a generation.
The rattan paper is mainly operated by hand, the rattan fibers are separated by beating with a wooden vertebrae, then rinsed with stream water, steamed and dried on the curtain net frame, and then made by manual scooping one by one.
Rattan paper is known for its toughness and whiteness, but because the production of rattan paper depends on the growth of vegetation, rattan wild plants grow slowly, and from the late Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, rattan paper is in short supply.
Shu Yuanyu, a minister of the Tang Dynasty, found that because of the high demand for rattan paper, people over-harvested, and the vine forests in the area of Yanxi, its main producing area, were almost cut down.
Later, the fabric used to make paper was replaced by paper, and during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties (220-589), the production of paper was already very developed. Tree paper is paper made from the bark of the tree tree.
"Mao Poems, Grass, Trees, Birds, Beasts, Insects, Fish, and Fish" is written with "pounding as paper, called the bark paper, several zhang long, white and bright", which shows that the paper made of bark is several zhang long, and the color is white and bright.
In addition, the poems of the Song Dynasty also record the fabrics used to make paper quilts, such as the "Three Songs of Paper Quilts" written: "Crush the anvil under the frost vine moon, and the clear spring pours out the pattern evenly." As "Jianchang Sending Paper Quilt" said: "Pounding the quilt is a quilt, and the river is far away." ”
These two poems highlight the verb "pound", which mashes the bark of the tree, and then beats and boils it hundreds of times, and the fibers are densely intertwined, making the paper thick and tough, which is conducive to long-term preservation.
"Heavenly Creations" also records the production method of the paper: "Where the bark of the tree is taken, it is peeled in late spring and early summer...... Sixty catties of bark, still into forty catties of tender bamboo and hemp, drifting and soaking in the same pond, coated with lime slurry, and boiling millet into the kettle.
It is concluded that there are five basic steps in the production of the paper: steaming, mashing, cutting, pulping, and papermaking.
In the process of processing and manufacturing, the leather is steamed, rinsed, pounded, and made into pulp, and the "paper spectrum" also describes the process of "fake Rong" paper: "Narrow and use white powder to paste the paper surface, and then calender, so that the paper is white, called false Rong." ”
It mentions the process of washing the paper with white powder, polishing the paper, and cleaning the pulp until it is white.
Ancient Chinese paper was analyzed for practical use
Paper quilt has a good warmth effect, is cheap and easy to obtain, and is easy to carry, which is a necessity for ordinary people to keep warm from the cold. It can be used for daily use, and it is also an important material for social assistance.
The literati and scholars respected paper quilts, and ordinary people would also make and buy them, produce them for their own consumption, and gradually evolved into a commodity circulating in the market.
It can be seen that the demand for paper quilt is large, and its production depends on the planting of raw materials wild rattan and tree trees, so Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places with rich vegetation resources are produced in large quantities, and paper quilt has become a local famous product. Paper quilts are the basic necessities of life for the poor people.
Especially in the case of the invasion of cold winds in winter, paper clothes are worn during the day and covered with paper quilts to sleep at night, and paper quilts are used by poor people, literati, doctors, Zen masters and Taoist priests.
According to the records of meteorological disasters recorded in the past dynasties, extreme weather is suspected of being a bad omen, such as "when it snows heavily, the pits and valleys are full, and the store freezes to death", in order to cope with the cold weather, it is common for paper to be used to save emergencies.
According to the poet Zhao Fan (1143-1229), he had no bedding when the cold winter came, so he had to "buy paper quilts to relieve his urgency".
In addition to ordinary people, monks practice to advocate pure heart and few desires, so they also use paper quilts.
For example, Penglai Yuan Zen Master once wrote: "The new sewing paper is baked to warm, and you can sleep peacefully until the fifth watch."
conclusion
This article aims at ancient paper quilts, and systematically analyzes the production and development, literary imagery, production process and practical use of paper quilts from historical books and poems, in order to promote the historical and cultural cognition of paper quilts and other home textile cultures.