When the promotional poster for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was released, a work titled “Passionately Connecting the World” attracted everyone’s attention. It cleverly weaves the five Olympic rings into a Chinese knot, and the five hanging tassels below the Chinese knot are also designed in the colors of the five Olympic rings. In the first lesson of “Tiangong Classroom” on December 9 last year, astronaut Wang Yaping also demonstrated the Chinese knot among the water film test props. Chinese knotting, a decorative art piece made from one silk thread from beginning to end, has become a cultural symbol representing China. From ancient times to the present, Chinese knots have been widely used in all aspects of life, telling the inheritance and development of ancient wisdom.
“In ancient times, we tied knots to rule”
Speaking of knots, their origin can be traced back to ancient times. Bone needles and a variety of bone, shellfish and other ornaments with holes were found in the remains of the top cave people in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, about 20,000 years ago. This shows that artificially processed ropes have appeared at least in the late Paleolithic Age. . When the ancestors used these ropes to make animal bones, shellfish decorations or sew clothing, simple knots would inevitably be produced. We might even think that knots have a history almost as old as human civilization.
In addition to the binding function, the knots were also given another practical function by the wise ancestors – recording events. Knotting is a way for humans to record facts and communicate in ancient times after the emergence of language and before the emergence of writing. The Warring States Period work “Book of Changes: Xici Xizhuan” records that “in ancient times, people used knotted ropes to govern, and later generations of saints changed it with written deeds.” This means that in ancient times, knotted ropes were used to govern the world, and in later generations, the world was governed by knotting ropes. Later saints changed the knotted rope into deeds and engraved characters. Zheng Xuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty said in his “Notes on the Book of Changes” that “the ancients had no words, and knotting ropes was a covenant. For big things, tie the big rope; for small things, tie the small rope.” Mentioned: “The ancients had no written words, but they had covenants and oaths. If the matter was big, the rope would be tied to the big thing. If the thing was small, the rope would be tied to the small. The number of knots depends on the number of things.”
Among my country’s ethnic minorities, there are still examples of tying knots to remember events. For example, the Dulong people in Yunnan were still living in primitive social lifestyles of slash-and-burn farming and shifting cultivation until the 1950s. They used knotted ropes to record time. According to the “Inspection Report on the Yunnan-Tibet Plateau”, the Dulong people hang a hemp rope with several knots on the bedside to avoid forgetting it. If you are traveling far away, tie a hemp rope around your waist. Knotting is mostly used to record schedules. For example, tying an appointment is to take two thin ropes and tie an equal number of knots on each knot. One knot represents a day. Each party holds a rope, and after they are separated, they will untie one knot every day. After all the knots have been untied, both parties must meet at a certain place and must not miss the appointment.
In the Shang Dynasty, when the slave society was highly developed, rope knots not only developed practical functions, but also initially had decorative functions. In 1986, the Shang Dynasty statue of a kneeling figure unearthed from the No. 2 sacrificial pit of the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Guanghan, Sichuan, has a naked upper body, a skirt on the lower body, and a belt around the waist, which is used to tighten clothes. The shape and structure of the object and knot are very delicate. Moreover, the knot-tying tool 觿 (pronounced xī), which has been popular since the Shang Dynasty, also proves the widespread use of “knots” in people’s clothing. At that time, when the ancients wore clothes, they would often tie them into a tight knot in order to prevent the belts from unraveling and causing the clothes and pants to fall off. Therefore, in order to facilitate untying the knots, they would wear a knot-tying tool “觧” with them. Hibiscus is made both from bones, such as elephant bones, and from jade. Liu Xiang, a writer of the Western Han Dynasty, once mentioned in his book “Shuo Yuan” that “those who are good at resolving troubles will wear a hoe”, which means that the hoe that is good at tying knots means a person who is good at resolving troubles.
Beautiful and practical clothing accessories
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the rapid changes in social economy, politics, culture and other fields, knots gradually transformed from a simple practical function to an aesthetic function. Whether it is utensils, accessories or clothing, decorative knots appear. Take jewelry as an example. Chinese people have admired jade since ancient times, and there has always been a saying that “a gentleman must wear jade.” To wear jade, you need to use a rope and must be knotted. Therefore, jade and knots have an indissoluble bond. “Erya Yishu” mentioned that “the strips of jade used to connect the jade are also called lun, and they are tied gracefully with silk ropes.” Wearing pieces of jade pendants and beads with a ribbon to form a long pendant and hanging it on the waist is an important means for nobles to show their status and wealth. The painted pottery and wooden figurines unearthed from Chu tombs during the Warring States Period in Xinyang, Jiangling and other places more clearly depict the way people wore jade and tied knots at that time.
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the system of wearing ribbons gradually took shape to show status and hierarchy. The so-called “shou” refers to a wide belt woven with silk threads, hanging on the leather belt around the waist, with different colors used to distinguish grades. This kind of seals and ribbons are issued uniformly by the court, one seal and one ribbon. It is stipulated that when officials are outside during normal times, they must put the official seal in the leather bag (sound pán) around their waist and hang the ribbon outside. The size, color and weave of the ribbons worn by officials at all levels, from the emperor to the emperor, differed according to rank, allowing people to know the identity of the person wearing the ribbon at a glance.
As the peak period of the development of Chinese art, the Tang Dynasty also ushered in the peak of the development history of Chinese knots. During this period, the division of labor in the knitting process was meticulous.The hairpin used in the festival means to tie up the hair and tie it with a “hairpin”, which is called “the year of the hairpin”. The crown ceremony and hairpin ceremony are both symbols of adulthood for boys and girls. Therefore, the ancients often used hair knotting to refer to just adulthood, that is, reaching the age where they can get married.
Not only that, there was also the custom of “tying hair” at weddings in ancient times. On the wedding day, the newlyweds sit on the bed, the man on the left and the woman on the right. Each cuts off a strand of their own hair, and then ties the two strands of hair with each other, vowing to express unity and eternal love. It is the so-called “intercourse”. The silk is tied with dragons and phoenixes, and the carved colors are tied with clouds. One inch of concentric strands are like a hundred-year-old longevity flower.” We must know that for the ancients, “the hair and skin of the body are received by the parents and dare not be damaged, and filial piety is the beginning.” Therefore, this strand of black hair reflects the importance the ancients attached to married couples and their determination to share weal and woe with their partner.
In the Han Dynasty, there was still such a custom during funerals – if the first wife died early for some reason, the husband would break the first wife’s comb with green hair and divide it into two halves, one half would be buried with the coffin, and the other half would be kept as a souvenir. To show that he never forgets his deep love for his wife.
AAA functional fabric network DBGRTHRTH
