Posted 2018/11/28
Cotton planting and weaving technology were extensively adopted and improved during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Huang Daopo was well known as a female textile specialist of the time. In improving cotton weaving machinery, she converted the traditional spinning wheel into a new three-spindle cotton spinning frame which brought about a marked rise in the production of cotton yarn. Cotton textile craft of the Yuan Dynasty thus took a great leap forward.
In both quantity and variety, silk fabrics turned out during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) surpassed those of the Tang-Song period. Objects that have been preserved to this day indicate that silk textiles of this period had extensive topics for their patterns and show livelier and brighter colors. Artisans of the Ming period improved the jacquard loom for silk weaving. According to Exploitation of the Works of Nature by Song Yingxing, the jacquard loom of the Ming Dynasty was normally more than five meters long and operated by two people working together. One weaver sat or stood on an elevated jacquard frame to lift the warp according to the pattern design while the other moved the shuttles at the bottom of the loom. A bolt of fabric took two people working in concerted efforts and careful operation. This type of tall jacquard loom was in use until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In recent years, such looms have been exhibited to demonstrate China's ancient civilization in many Chinese exhibitions abroad.
Some important works combining the achievements of the previous dynasties in science and technology were printed during the Ming Dynasty.
The eighteen-volume Exploitation of the Works of Nature was written by Song Yingxing of the late Yuan and early Qing period. The book covered almost all the important production technologies and processes in agriculture and handicrafts. Under the influence of early capitalism, it dealt in great length with the production techniques of the handicrafts industry, which was rarely seen in other books, thus giving it a very high scientific value. The more than 200 drawings, mostly describing production processes, are equally important. The book has been referred to as the world's first encyclopedia of agricultural and handicraft production. Soon after it was published, it was translated into several languages including German, Japanese, English and French and caught the attention of people in various countries.
