She Followed Shen Congwen On The Road Of Textile Archaeology. The Great Power'S Rainy Clothes Writes About The Beauty Of China

In July this year, Wang Yarong, an assistant of Mr. Shen Congwen and a famous textile archaeologist, published the work "Big Country Nishang: Shen Congwen and Our Textile Archaeological Road" by the People's Literature Publishing House. On the evening of August 9, the new book press conference with the theme of "Glory in China's Splendid Prosperity" was held at the Confucian Temple in Beijing and the Yilun Hall of the Imperial College Museum.

Big Country Nishang: Shen Congwen and Our Road to Textile Archaeology tells about the brilliant achievements of textile archaeology in the past half century as an important part of China's century long archaeology; This paper reviews the hard archaeological journey of Shen Congwen, Wang Gui, Wang Yarong and others; It shows the struggling course of the first generation of textile archaeologists who worked hard to explore, protect and inherit the Chinese clothing culture.

Zang Yongqing, executive director (president) of People's Literature Publishing House, introduced that the book has both academic rationality and storytelling, and also pays attention to the combination of tradition and modernity. It combed the evolution and development of China's textile cultural relics over 3000 years since the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and new discoveries in textile archaeological research, and vividly explained the stories of archaeologists and on-site archaeological practice.

In 1964, Premier Zhou visited Europe and Southeast Asia for many times, often led by leaders of these countries to visit the clothing museum. As a result, he believed that China, with a 5000 year history of civilization, could also compile a clothing book as a national gift. At the age of 62, Shen Congwen took over the task and began to immerse himself in the study of China's ancient costume culture. After more than ten years, after many twists and turns, the Study of China's Ancient Costume was finally published in 1981. As soon as the book was published, the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs purchased a batch of luxury copies to present to foreign guests as a national gift.

There is a saying in the textile archaeology circle that "a thousand tombs are hard to find a garment", especially silk fabrics, as organic protein cultural relics, are easy to decay and extremely difficult to preserve. Therefore, when the Mashan Chu Tomb was opened and a large number of textiles were found, the archaeologists were so excited that they could not help themselves. Wang Yarong said that the excavation completely rewrote the past academic understanding that brocades and patterns of the Warring States Period were mainly small geometric patterns, and their textile technology was also far lower than that of the Han Dynasty.

(Source: China Youth Daily client)
At the press conference, Wang Yarong explained one of the brocades in detail. This is a piece of fabric at the collar. The Chu people showed the scene of the ancient nobles hunting tigers and leopards in Shanglin Garden in a 6.8cm wide and 17cm long pattern unit. The design of the pattern is magnificent, magnificent and unrestrained, and it takes more than 7 months to finish the embroidery. Shen Congwen said that this is the real "luxury". Wilson, a British sinologist who studies clothing culture, sighed: "This is a Picasso design in China more than 2000 years ago."

Over the past half century, under the guidance of Shen Congwen, Wang Xuan and Wang Yarong have gone to various archaeological sites to excavate, protect, study and repair one piece of textiles after another, such as the Han Tomb in Mancheng, Hebei, the Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan, the Tomb of Fu Hao in Yin Ruins, Anyang, Henan, the Tomb of Chu No.1 in Mashan, Jiangling, Hubei, the Tomb of Nanyue, Guangzhou, the Underground Palace of Tang Tower in Famen Temple, Fufeng, Shaanxi The Eastern Zhou Tomb in Jing'an, Jiangxi Province, the Han Tomb in Laoshan, Beijing, the Western Han Tomb in Dabaotai, Beijing, the Minfeng Nya Site in Xinjiang, the Ciyun Temple in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, the Dove Cave in Longhua County, Hebei Province, and the Tomb of Marquis Haihun in Jiangxi Province, these archaeological excavation sites link up a history of Chinese textile archaeology.

Through the protection and restoration of cultural relics, Wang Yarong's textile archaeology team has made the physical chain of clothing cultural relics of past dynasties increasingly complete, providing important evidence for the study of ancient Chinese clothing culture. In 2016, the Scientific Research Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences officially approved the establishment of the "Unique Discipline of Textile Archaeology"; In 2023, with the official approval of the Ministry of Education, the Institute of Fashion Technology of Shenzhen University of Technology was established to promote and promote the inheritance and development of Chinese traditional clothing culture and cultivate professional talents.

Wang Yarong also has some ideas about the inheritance of costume culture. She hopes that people will not call these ancient costumes "Han costumes".

(Source: China Youth Daily client)