On April 27th, 2011, Ms. Angelica Docog, the President of the Charlotte Museum of History, was invited again to deliver a cultural lecture entitled as Chinese Textiles for the entire staff in the Confucius Institute at Pfeiffer University. Ms. Angelica Docog received her PHD degree at the University of Manchester and she is an expert in the research of prehistoric textiles.

During the lecture, Ms. Angelica Docog introduced textile materials, technology, textile history, and its usage. Textiles are usually made from wool, cotton, or silk. There are two main methods used to create textiles: felting and weaving. The latter was a more time consuming activity than the former, but woven fabrics were much stronger and more durable than felt.

Those women were making silk, early 12th century painting by Emperor Huizong of Song (a remake of an 8th century original by artist Zhang Xuan), illustrates silk fabric manufacture in China.

Ms. Angelica Docog, introduced the textile history and usage by presenting many beautiful pictures to the Confucius Institute staff.

Ms. Angelica Docog was introducing the origin of Chinese silk to the Confucius Institute staff

At the beginning, she showed us two prehistoric textiles. One is Infant mummy, ca 8th century BCE. Excavated from Zaghunluq, Charchan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The textile cloth on the mummy was still colorful. The other was the Beauty of Xiaohe. She was found at a Bronze Age burial site in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang. She is almost 4,000 years old. She is cover with some of the oldest known textiles.

During the Song Dynasty, a variety of brocade and jacquard patterns were in common usages, including the following motif combinations: dragon and flowers, dragon and phoenix, peacocks, tortoise and snake, pheasant and stork, etc.

In ancient China, embroidery has been used as a form of embellishment. In the Neolithic world, simple embroidery was worked on wool, linen and hemp in mostly geometric abstract motifs, using needles made from bone, ivory or bronze. After the beginning of recorded history, embroidery was combined with paint as a textile embellishment. Many complicated and beautiful animal embroidery has been used in ancient Chinese costumes.

Ms. Angelica Docog also showed the Confucius Institute staff different embroidery works from different dynasties. By the Tang Dynasty, considered as the Golden Age of China, thousands of women were employed as seamstresses and embroiders, and Chang An, then capital of China, became a trade center for woven and embroidered textiles. By the Song Dynasty, embroidery embellished parasols, fans and shoes, as well as household items such as screens and bed coverlets. The Ming Dynasty saw the development of the ranking badges, worn on the front and back of robes by military and civilian officials and by their wives. Many of the Imperial Dragon Robes that you see in museums also date from the late Ming Dynasty.

Yuan dynasty embroidered canopy of two phoenix and flowers were decorated at borders with brown silk cord knotted into a fringe

The robe embroidered with dragon patterns was made for the exclusive use of an emperor during the Qing dynasty. However, the ritual of embroidering dragon patterns on the emperor's robe dates back to as early as the Zhou Dynasty (11th century-256 B.C.). During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the emperors were already wearing robes graced with dragon patterns, but it was not until the Qing that they were named "dragon robes" and became part of the official attire system. A dragon robe is either yellow or apricot-yellow dragons in color, and embroidered with nine yellow dragons and five-hued auspicious cloud patterns. The clouds are interlaced with twelve other patterns--the sun, the moon and stars (representing the light of the throne), mountains (synonymous to stability to changes) auspicious bird (denoting elegance and beauty) water reeds (which represent purity and cleanness), and fire (meaning light). According to imperial Qing rituals, the emperor's dragon robe was a kind of auspicious attire for lower-grade celebrations and ceremonies--it as by no means the highest grade of imperial attire. The dragon robe that was passed down from one emperor to another is embroidered with a dragon on the front and the back, before or behind the knees, on the shoulders, and on the lining of the chest. Thus a total of nine dragons are embroidered on a dragon robe. Observed from the front or behind it, five dragons could be seen at a glance, because in Chinese tradition the figures nine and five tallied with the dignity of the throne.

Dragon Robe in late Ming Dynasty

Dragon Robe in Qing Dynasty

Ms. Angelica Docog loves her Chinese textiles

Over the long period of Chinese ancient history, China developed a charming and beautiful Chinese textile culture. Ms. Angelica Docog's lecture not only enriches every Chinese instructor's cultural knowledge, but also strengthens our passion for Chinese culture.