Research On Women's Clothing, Food, Labor And Their Cultural Influence In Tang Dynasty

In ancient China,men dominated the discourse,so the daily material productive labor of ancient women was often ignored.But their lives were not meaningless.It is important for us to understand the development of human society to explore women’s labor in foods and clothing.As far as women in Tang Dynasty are concerned,they had made important contributions to three types of labor.The first was the cultivation and acquisition of food raw materials,food production and eating services.Women in the Tang Dynasty were deeply involved in the sowing,harvesting and processing of wheat,rice and other cereals,the picking of vegetables,fruits and herbs,the daily grazing of cattle,sheep and other livestock,and chickens,ducks and other poultry.They further participated in or completed the whole process of cooking.From a large number of burial objects such as stoves and mills,as well as the female figures in the figurines and murals,we can "see" the scene of women’s hard work.In addition,the middle ancient literati,such as Cui Hao of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Duan Wenchang of the late Tang Dynasty,wrote a Book of Food according to the actual experience of their family members separately.After the foods were made,housewives in the upper class would served their parents and in laws for the sake of filial piety.In addition,the maidservants at the bottom were forced to provide meal service in the host’s banquet,which were also part of women’s labor.The second category was the preparation and drinking service of tea,wine and other drinks.In this regard,women picking tea in Tang Dynasty were carried out in official tea garden,tribute tea organization and private tea garden.At the same time,they would also pick wild tea for their own families.In addition,most of the daily tea cooking works in families,government and monasteries were also undertaken by women and children.In terms of wine making,women’s participation in the Tang Dynasty was also very high.Among the women who specialized in wine making,some had even made the greatest contribution to the birth of brands such as"Apoqing"（阿婆清）.The labor of serving tea and drinking wine was also reflected in Tang poetry,murals and paintings handed down from generation to generation.Of course,it also included tea utensils and wine utensils of the Tang Dynasty,especially tea utensils unearthed from Famen Temple,wine pots in murals of the Tang Dynasty,and three-color figurines unearthed from tombs of the Tang Dynasty.The third type of labor was related to sericulture,textile,embroidery and clothing making.Women in the Tang Dynasty were also the main force in this respect.For example,in the works of literati and bureaucrats,the image of "mulberry picking girl"since the pre-Qin Dynasty had showed more of the hard work of lower class women,even in the Tang Dynasty.The same was true of sericulture.Lower class women had to learn sericulture from childhood.In the aspect of textile,women in Tang Dynasty worked in the official textile workshop or in folk textile.After that,there were still some ironing and sewing scenes,which could be reflected in the poems and paintings of the Tang Dynasty,and could reflect women’s resentment and sense of hard work.In addition,making clothes,embroidering Buddha statues or Avalokitesvara statues could also reflect women’s clever thinking in needlework and filial piety in praying for their families.The irons,scissors,rulers,needles,etc.in the unearthed cultural relics,as well as the embroidered beds displayed in the image materials all reflected the above aspects.The labor done by women in Tang Dynasty could also reflect their cultural contribution.Women in Tang Dynasty not only wrote tea poems such as Bao Junhui,Yu Xuanji and Lady Huarui,but also made indirect contributions to Lu Yu’s writing of the Book of Tea.In the aspect of tea culture communication,there was an example of tea introduced into Tibet under the name of Princess Wencheng because of celebrity effect.There were also stories about the old women selling tea to promote the Buddhist concept of retribution.As far as wine culture is concerned,women in Tang Dynasty not only drank alcohol,but also had poems about it.At the same time,their brewing techniques were recorded by men and became a part of the Book of Wine.Even the fact that the lower class women rose with the help of immortals in the process of drinking could reflect the hardship of the lower class women’s life.As for sericulture,the sacrifices of silkworm God were held in spring.The empress of the upper class offered sacrifices to the Xiancan.The lower class people had the worship to the folk silkworm gods such as Matouniang（马头娘）and Zigu（紫姑）.In addition,the compilation of silkworm books and the spread of sericulture technology in the Middle Ages also contributed by women.In the male literati’s works,the image of female textile could also reflect the hardship of mother’s education for children,the superb skill of needlework and the display of family tradition.Generally speaking,women’s work and related cultural phenomena in foods and clothing production in Tang Dynasty fully had reflected their important contribution to social development.However,it should be noted that women’s labor in the Tang Dynasty had showed obvious gender and class differences.As far as class differences were concerned,women in the middle and upper classes were more involved in the practice of etiquette and spirit,while women in the lower classes had done more physical work.