This study, the first of two parts, gives a comprehensive account of Chinese textiles and textile technology and deals with the evolution of bast fibre spinning and silk-reeling in the history of China. These operations are the basic techniques in the production of yarn and thread, pre-requisite to weaving, and any study of Chinese textile technology must start with the raw material obtained from fibre plants such as hemp, ramie, jute, cotton, etc, and silk reeled off from cocoons of the domestic silkworm. The time-span covered runs from the neolithic to the nineteenth century. Archaeological and pictoral evidence, the bulk of it hitherto unpublished in the West, is brought together with Chinese textual sources (which are extensively translated and interpreted) to illustrate Chinese achievements in this field. Professor Kuhn's study reveals the way in which Chinese textile-technological inventiveness has influenced textile production in other regions of the world and in medieval Europe. It explains how textile technology reached its high point between the tenth and thirteenth centuries and attempts to indicate the reasons for its subsequent relative decline. The development of the textile industry in Europe was a key factor in the rise of capitalism. In the case of China after Sung times, textile technology and the organisation of textile labour may help indicate why such a development did not take place in China.
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Editorial Reviews
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"This volume is a solid addition to the Science and Civilization in China series." Technology and Culture
"His accomplishment is immense." Science
"[An] astonishing and enduring study...[Needham brings] depth of emotion and technical finesse to his task."
Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books
"Perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and intercultural communication ever attempted by one man."
Laurence Picken, Cambridge University
"His accomplishment is immense." Science
"[An] astonishing and enduring study...[Needham brings] depth of emotion and technical finesse to his task."
Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books
"Perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and intercultural communication ever attempted by one man."
Laurence Picken, Cambridge University
Book Description
This study, the first of two parts, gives a comprehensive account of Chinese textiles and textile technology and deals with the evolution of bast fibre spinning and silk-reeling in the history of China. Here, the raw material, and the processing techniques applied to it, are documented in their context of historical evolution, geographical distribution and economic significance in an agrarian society.
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
It can be regarded as common practice to begin a study of this type with an introduction, though not one which bears the characteristics of a concluding chapter. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pottery whorls, eccentric lug, bast fibre plants, spinning waste silk, chhi yung, cocoon assemblies, eyebrow roller, silkworm spirit, mallet spindle, spooling silk, ramie yarn, truncated cone type, banana cloth, trapezium type, stone whorls, ramie fibres, silk technology, silkworm breeders, silkworm trays, reeling process, ramie cloth, bast fibres, silk machinery, bottom crossbar, silk fibres Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Nung Shu, Wang Chen, First Sericulturalist, Lady Hsi-ling, Tshan Shu, Warring States, Keng Chih Thu, Hsia Nai, Tshan Sang Tshui Pien, Chhin Kuan, Northern Sung, Nung Cheng, Sung Shih, Fang Yen, Near East, Pin Feng Kuang, Shih Ching, Liang Ssu-Yung, Nung Sang Chih Shuo, Sung Ying-Hsing, Tsou Ching-Heng, Western Chou, Shima Kunio, Book of Odes, Chhi Min Tao Shu New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
It can be regarded as common practice to begin a study of this type with an introduction, though not one which bears the characteristics of a concluding chapter. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pottery whorls, eccentric lug, bast fibre plants, spinning waste silk, chhi yung, cocoon assemblies, eyebrow roller, silkworm spirit, mallet spindle, spooling silk, ramie yarn, truncated cone type, banana cloth, trapezium type, stone whorls, ramie fibres, silk technology, silkworm breeders, silkworm trays, reeling process, ramie cloth, bast fibres, silk machinery, bottom crossbar, silk fibres Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Nung Shu, Wang Chen, First Sericulturalist, Lady Hsi-ling, Tshan Shu, Warring States, Keng Chih Thu, Hsia Nai, Tshan Sang Tshui Pien, Chhin Kuan, Northern Sung, Nung Cheng, Sung Shih, Fang Yen, Near East, Pin Feng Kuang, Shih Ching, Liang Ssu-Yung, Nung Sang Chih Shuo, Sung Ying-Hsing, Tsou Ching-Heng, Western Chou, Shima Kunio, Book of Odes, Chhi Min Tao Shu New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 78
books:
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- Economic Organization in Chinese Society (Language Science and National Development) by William E. Willmott on 4 pages
- Historians of China and Japan. by W.G. and E.G. Pulleyblank (eds) Beasley in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- History of Technology (2nd Annual Volume) by A. Rupert Hall in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- History of Technology by Rupert Hall in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Warp and Weft by Dorothy K. Burnham on page 64, page 434, and Back Matter
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- Reminiscence of a Roving Scholar by Ho Peng Yoke on 56 pages
- Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China (Asian Religions and Cultures) by Fabrizio Pregadio on 17 pages
- Fire And Water: The Art Of Incendiary And Aquatic Warfare In China by Ralph D. Sawyer on 9 pages
- Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto on 7 pages
- Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China (Envisioning Asia) by Craig Clunas on 5 pages
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