Sun Festival Opened on Feb. 17! Millennium Dream of the Northern Silk Road and Oriental Silk Country

Release Time: 2017-11-02

    The Silk Road saw China’s eras of suffering and glory. The spirits of humanism and naturalism meet on this mystery and desolate road, along which grand scenes and stories disclose in front of us. Loulan, a dreamland with a history of four thousand years, the Turpan Depression, a large gallery with scorching weather, the Taklimakan Desert, deputed as Mona Lisa of the Western Regions, the south of Tianshan, rich in lazurite deposits, and Dunhuang, an area best known for the Chinese Buddhist grottoes…This road starts from the north, cuts through many legendary scenes and has finally met with us.

    The Chengdu Jinsha Sun Festival theme lantern show 2015 will be held in Jinsha Site Museum from February 17 to March 8. As the beginning of the Southern Silk Road and a famous city with a time-honored history and rich culture, Chengdu played an important role in the exchange between the East and West in ancient times. The lanterns to be displayed in this festival feature the Silk Road as the core theme. With the Southern Silk Road, the Northern Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road taken into consideration, delicately designed lantern groups are named as “Jinguancheng Full of Flowers”, “The Culture of the Silk Road”, “The Beauty of the Ancient Yunnan”, “Retrace the Southern Silk Road”, “Desert Travel” and “Vessels’ Voyage”, etc. Among these lantern groups, “Colorful Sichuan Brocade” is the most special one, which is inspired by the Jacquard loom model unearthed from the wooden-chambered tomb in Western Han Dynasty in Laoguan Moutain, Tianhui Town of Chengdu. This lantern group reproduces the grand scenes of the ancient Silk Road and highlights its value in the exchange of culture.

Jacquard Loom Model of Sichuan Brocade, A Brand-New Legend

    As the beginning of the Southern Silk Road, Chengdu is a significant pivot at the crossroads of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Silk Road Economic Belt. And the excavation of the loom model from a tomb in Han Dynasty indicates the connection between Chengdu and the Northern Silk Road.

  “Why do we insist that there are stories between Chengdu and the Northern Silk Road, the Southern Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road? Because a large number of intact handicrafts made of Sichuan brocade have been excavated along the route of the Silk Road for many times. Many of them were unearthed in Gansu Province, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and even other foreign countries. According to the recorded history, Chengdu has been the important origin of brocade nationwide since Western Han Dynasty. The excavation of the jacquard loom model of Sichuan brocade in Chengdu in 2013 has made a great sensation at home and abroad. It has been proved to be the most advanced jacquard loom worldwide at that time compared with its counterparts. This key excavation also proves that brocades in Han and Tang Dynasty unearthed along the Silk Road were mainly made in Chengdu, or made by means of the skill delivered from Chengdu. Chengdu had played a great part in the Silk Road,” as Wang Yi, the curator of Chengdu Museum and Jinsha Site Museum said to the reporter of the Chengdu Business Daily. As a special trade product, silk is the most important carrier of the Silk Road across the Eurasian continent. And Sichuan brocade is one of the great supports of the Silk Road.

    Sichuan brocade is the earliest silk fabric in China, which dated back to the Warring States period. It has always been ranking the first place on the list of China’s four well-known brocades. Wu Min, a famous silk archeologist even thought that there would no history of brocade in China without Sichuan brocade. This idea might provoke controversy, but it underlines the flourishing of Sichuan brocade. From the discovery of the tomb of Han Dynasty in Laoguan Mountain in Chengdu, it can be inferred that Sichuan brocades made in Chengdu have been continuously transported outside along the Silk Road, which makes an indelible contribution to the exchange of material and culture between the East and West and the progress of human civilization.

Why Chengdu Is Named “Jinguancheng”?

    As Zuo Si described in his writing Rhapsody on City Shu (Shu-du fu) that: “there were many weaving workshops in Chengdu at that time. Some weavers were busy with weaving, others were busy with washing the brocade in the river. And the brocade washed in the river made the river bright and colorful”. Then in Chengdu there were many weaving workshops where craftsmen and weaver maids were busy. Sounds of weaving could be everywhere in the city. The river became as bright and colorful as brocades for brocades were often washed in it. 

    Chengdu had become an important origin of brocade nationwide since late Western Han Dynasty. In late Eastern Han Dynasty, the output of Sichuan brocade made in Chengdu leaped to the first place nationwide compared with that of its counterparts. These Sichuan brocades were presented to the royal government as first-class offerings, sold throughout the nation and even sold to other countries. During the Three Kingdoms period, Sichuan brocade was the pillar industry of the development of the economy and military affairs in the state of Shu Han. Zhuge Liang once stressed in the military order that the defense expenditure had to be dependent on the Sichuan brocade’s selling for Shu was a poor state. Therefore, the royal government appointed an official whose official name was “Jinguan” (brocade officer) to strengthen the management of the brocade weaving. Sichuan brocade was very popular among the states of Wei and Wu and sold well in them. In the Liu Song Dynasty, the first of the four Southern Dynasties, Shan Qianzhi wrote in Danyangji, a local chronicle, “Chengdu was the only origin of the brocade then. Thus the states Wei and Wu often bought the brocades from Shu.” It is also recorded in Hou Hanshu also known as Book of the Later Han that Cao Cao once sent people for Sichuan brocades.

    In Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, the brocade weaving industry played a key role in the flourishing of business and handicraft industry. Sichuan brocade was very popular among the princesses in Tang Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, when Princess Anle was getting married, Sichuan presented an elegant and gorgeous monofilament cage skirt woven with hair-fine gold thread with patterns of flowers and birds. The glory of cultures along the Silk Road would be reproduced by shining lantern groups in Chengdu Jinsha Sun Festival 2015. Come to the festival and explore more about Jinguancheng!