Research On Ornamentation Of Tang Dynasty Silk And Fabrics Collected By Gansu Provincial Museum In 2015 To 2017

Since 2015,Gansu Provincial Museum has collected a batch of Tang Dynasty silk fabrics from the whole society.Among them,the most numerous pattern is linked-pearl and nest mission pattern.The frames are filled with animals of various forms such as twinned birds,starlings,winged horses,and twinned deers.Most of these frames and ornaments have the characteristics of Sogdia in Central Asia.But in this batch of silk fabrics,there are also many local patterns transformed and created in the Central China,such as the lotus flower pattern and the Lingyanggong pattern.The lotus flower pattern was prevalent and fashionable during the Wu Zetian period.In the Dunhuang Mogao Caves,there are plenty of exquisite lotus flower patterns that are similar to it.By the end of the Sui Dynasty,Lingyanggong pattern had already appeared,and it is a type of pattern where the lotus flowers are filled with the auspicious beasts in the traditional culture of Central China.The two types of patterns follow the frame of Central Asia,and inside the frames are the Chinese traditional patterns of lotus flowers,tree peony,and auspicious beasts,which are typical representatives of the combination of Chinese and Western civilization.It is worth mentioning that a piece of ‘birds with belts in their mouths' brocade in this batch of cultural relics is very similar to the one unearthed in Dulan,Qinghai province,which is also importantly instructive and valuable for enriching the unearthed information of this batch of silk fabrics.Brocade has the largest variety of textures in this batch of silk fabrics,and the twill weave weft brocade is the main type.The emergence of the weft brocade is of great significance in the history of Chinese textiles.The earliest brocade in China is the plain weave warp brocade.After its introduction into the West and Central Asia,local artisans turned it by 90° and it became the plain weave weft brocade.Then this kind of brocade was introduced back into the Central China,and finally the twill weave weft brocade appeared.The appearance of the twill weave weft brocade also reflects the characteristics of Chinese and Western cultures influencing each other on silk fabrics.In terms of dyes used in silk fabrics,the dyes used in this batch of cultural relics are plant dyes,and their origins are in Central Asia and the West.These are the embodiment of silk fabrics weaving and dyeing technology innovation in the Tang Dynasty.