Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum

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PATTERN-DYED FABRICS: CLAMP-RESIST
Although the author of Eryi shilu (A Veritable Account of the
Dual Forces) asserts that the technique of clamp-resist dyeing originated
from the Qin and Han periods, to date no evidence has been
discovered from archaeological finds datable to those times.1 Extant
artifacts preserved in several museums around the world point to
the fact that this textile-dyeing technique was already in full blossom
during the Tang dynasty.2 These artifacts indicate that the fabric
used was mainly silk embellished with mirror-image designs dyed in
several colours using engraved woodblocks. Clothing, furniture covers,
Buddhist banners, and screen panels were among things made
out of the beautiful fabric. Much visual and textual evidence, too,
help us gauge the extensiveness of its use. The murals in the caves
at Dunhuang, for instance, depicted many donors, people of high
social standing, wearing sumptuous garments with clamp-resist-dyed
patterns. Even clay sculptures of boddhisattvas were fashioned clad
in similarly adorned fabric.3
A miscellany by Wang Dang, entitled Tang yulin (A Collection
of Notes on the Tang Dynasty), tells us how even the imperial household
became enamoured with silks with clamp-resist-dyed patterns.4
It happened when Emperor Xuanzong (r. 713-755) saw a bolt of silk
sent to the empress as
a birthday present from
one of the imperial
concubines, Liu jieyu.5
Liu actually obtained
the silk from her sister
who lived in Luzhou
in Zhejiang province. It
was this sister who had
commissioned a set of
woodblocks engraved
with a special floral
design for dyeing the
silk. In any case, the emperor liked it so much that he immediately
gave order that the imperial dyeing workshop replicate the pattern
using the same production method. The technique, once mastered by
the imperial dyers, was at first kept secret.6 However, as time went by
and the novelty wore off, details of the technique became known well
beyond the palace walls. Even the poor were able to wear clothes
with clamp-resist-dyed patterns. By the ninth century, if not before,
knowledge of the technique reached even the southwestern part of
China. The city of Chengdu in Sichuan province became one of the
foremost production centres.7
During the Song dynasty constant defensive warfare conducted
against the unrelenting invasions of the northern barbarians and high
indemnities paid to them in exchange for temporary peace caused
China's economy to decline drastically. Beginning from the latter part
of the Northern Song period, around the last quarter of the eleventh
century, the government undertook actions to economize. One of the
many injunctions issued was that regimental flags and insignias of the
soldiers' uniforms be dyed by means of the clamp-resist dyeing technique.
At the same time it was also promulgated that the common
people were prohibited from producing and selling engraved woodblocks
required by the clamp-resist dyeing technique. The government
established this monopoly not only to save money, but also to
ensure that there was no chance for discontented people to disguise
themselves in facsimile military uniforms and cause social unrest.
Furthermore, the official historical record of the Song dynasty tells
us that when the political and economic situations became so bad
during the last two reigns of the Northern Song period, even at the
imperial court lavish brocade and embroidered clothes that members
of the royalty used to wear were replaced by garments made with
much less expensive fabrics having clamp-resist dyed patterns. While
the ban was never fully observed, it adversely affected development
of the craft. To date examples of textiles with clamp-resist-dyed patterns
from the Song dynasty have not been discovered.
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