Lanxi, Zhejiang, Exhibited Nearly 900 Years Of Cotton Blankets, Demonstrating The Textile Industry Level Of The Song Dynasty

Dense mountain cotton blanket. Photographed by Zhu Yanxuan

In August 1966, in the then Mishan Brigade of Xiangxi Commune in Lanxi County (now Lanxi City), Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, people found a tomb of the Southern Song Dynasty. A cotton blanket was unearthed from the tomb - the only cotton blanket of the Southern Song Dynasty that has been found earliest and most complete in China so far, nearly 900 years ago, and is now a national first-class cultural relic.

On January 18, at the special exhibition of "Looking for the Song Dynasty, a Story of a Cotton Blanket in the Southern Song Dynasty", the relevant person in charge of Lanxi Museum introduced that the above cotton blanket, named Mishan Cotton Blanket, was 2.51 meters long and 1.16 meters wide, and was sewn with six interconnected patterns composed of 81 Kaiyuan Tongbao and coins of the Northern Song Dynasty. The discovery of this cotton blanket has strongly confirmed that the cotton textile industry in Wuzhou (Jinhua) area, especially Lanxi reached a high level of technology during the Southern Song Dynasty, and rewritten the history of cotton textile technology brought back by Huang Daopo in the Yuan Dynasty, pushing the history of cotton textile forward about 100 years.

It is reported that due to the early discovery of the tomb, the local conditions for the preservation of cultural relics are insufficient, and the unearthed cotton blankets and other cultural relics have been preserved in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum. After 56 years, Mishan cotton blanket finally returned to Lanxi, its "hometown", and was exhibited in Lanxi Museum.

The special exhibition of "Looking for the Song Dynasty, the Story of a Cotton Blanket in the Southern Song Dynasty" is divided into four chapters: "Who Is He", "Why Is He Immortal", "Their Daily Life" and "The Mystery of the Cotton Blanket", presenting 62 cultural relics in total. The special exhibition will last until March this year.

At the opening ceremony of the special exhibition, Dai Chong, secretary of Lanxi Municipal Party Committee, said that the thousand year old Song rhyme still exists today, and a cotton blanket photo is taken from ancient to modern times. Through the cotton blanket in Mishan, you can not only explore the cotton planting history and cotton textile history in the land of Bawu, but also connect the water transportation history, trade history and folk customs history of Lanxi.

According to the official website of Lanxi Municipal People's Government, the city is located in the west of Jinhua City, the middle reaches of Qiantang River, and the northern edge of Jinqu Basin. Since ancient times, the local area has been known as "the junction of three rivers", "the waist of six rivers" and "the thoroughfare of seven provinces".

The textile industry has always been the dominant and important pillar industry of local traditional advantages. At present, a relatively complete series of industrial chains including spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, colored cloth, jeans, home towel, clothing, and industrial cloth have been formed in the local area, which has developed into one of the most influential production bases of cotton textile fabrics in China. The output of pure cotton elastic leisure fabrics ranks first in the country. By 2021, the annual output of local denim will be 350 million meters, ranking first in the country. The total output of all kinds of towels will rank first in the same level of counties and cities in the country, known as "China's famous weaving city" and "China's textile industry base city".

　　 "The textile industry is the traditional pillar industry of Lanxi. Mishan cotton blanket confirms the long history, exquisite skills and important position of Lanxi's textile industry, which is highly consistent with Lanxi's strategic goal of building an" intelligent weaving demonstration site ". This exhibition and follow-up discussion of Mishan cotton blanket will further enhance Lanxi people's historical confidence and cultural confidence, and provide culture for better and faster development of Lanxi's textile industry Support and gather consensus, and strengthen confidence and determination to create a brilliant future. " Dai Chong said.

(Source: China News Network)