Traditional Chinese bamboo weaving, the beauty of warp and weft

1. What is bamboo weaving?

Bamboo weaving is a weaving technique that uses bamboo to carve and weave into various tools and crafts. Handmade bamboo not only has good practical value, but also has a profound historical background.

Lu Guanghua, the “first person in Chinese bamboo weaving painting and calligraphy”, was born into a bamboo weaving family and has been devoted to the study of bamboo weaving art for more than 40 years. He combines rich colors and images, and weaves rich poetic and pictorial ideas together, writing a brilliant chapter in the history of Chinese bamboo weaving.

Large and finely woven bamboo wall hanging “Lanting Preface”

In the past, people used bamboo to weave a variety of daily necessities according to local conditions, that is, they used bamboo threads and strips to form warp and weft interweaving by picking and pressing.

2. The Origin of Bamboo Weaving

Bamboo has always been a symbol of a gentleman, and is loved by scholars for its noble character, emptiness and purity. In the hands of skilled craftsmen of all generations, the relationship between bamboo and humans has become even closer.

Su Shi of the Song Dynasty wrote in his poem “Green Bamboo”: “I would rather eat without meat than live without bamboo. No meat makes people thin, and no bamboo makes people vulgar.”

There is no exact date for the emergence of bamboo weaving, but archaeological evidence shows that in ancient times, after people settled down, they used containers made of plant rattan to hold the food they obtained. In this process, they found that bamboo was tough and durable, so bamboo became the main material for weaving containers.

By the Warring States Period, the styles of bamboo weaving had become very rich. Through archaeological research on cultural relics from the Warring States Period unearthed in Anji, the bamboo village, it was discovered that there were bamboo mats, bamboo baskets, bamboo fans, bamboo boxes, bamboo bowls, bamboo curtains, etc.

With the improvement of bamboo weaving techniques, in the bamboo weaving of the Chu State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the twill weaving alone had many forms such as herringbone pattern, polygon, hollow flower, square cross, rectangular pattern, stripe pattern, etc.

The bamboo-woven “rabbit-making box” unearthed from the No. 1 Han Tomb of Mawangdui in Changsha has thin bamboo strips (Figure 1) and fine workmanship. The average thickness of each strip is only 1 mm, and it is made by the “human” pattern weaving method. In addition, there are 47 bamboo boxes of similar size, which are used to hold clothes, food and important items. From the skillful workmanship, it can be inferred that bamboo woven products were very common and widely used bamboo utensils at that time.

By the Republic of China period, bamboo weaving had developed into more than 150 weaving techniques. The picking and pressing weaving method alone can be extended to twisted wire weaving, spiral weaving, braid weaving, flower hoop weaving, threading weaving, reinforcing bar weaving and thread weaving. At the same time, weaving bamboo products has become more ingenious and exquisite with the enrichment of techniques.

After thousands of years of inheritance, “bamboo weaving towns” have been formed in places with a large number of bamboo weaving people. Among them, the famous ones are: Qingshen and Daoming in Sichuan, Sanshui in Guizhou, Dongyang in Zhejiang, etc.

Hometown of Bamboo Weaving-Daoming, Sichuan

3. Bamboo weaving craft

Bamboo weaving is a traditional folk handicraft art. It uses bamboo as raw material and is refined into various types of handicrafts. Its unique conception, exquisite shape and exquisite craftsmanship are unique in the world.

The materials used in bamboo weaving are long, soft and flexible, with unique craftsmanship and various techniques interspersed, giving it a distinctive style.

The bamboo weaving process can be roughly divided into three steps: starting, weaving, and locking.

In the weaving process, the warp and weft weaving method is mainly used; on the basis of warp and weft weaving, various techniques can be interspersed, such as sparse weaving, inserting, piercing, cutting, locking, nailing, tying, and covering, so that the patterns and colors of the weaving are varied. According to the different weaving forms of bamboo weaving technology, it can be divided into three forms: flat bamboo weaving, three-dimensional bamboo weaving and mixed bamboo weaving.

The patterns are clear, the colors are rich, the workmanship is exquisite, and it has strong practicality and ornamental value.

According to the thickness of the bamboo strips used for weaving, bamboo weaving handicrafts can be divided into fine-wire handicrafts and coarse-wire bamboo weaving handicrafts.

The fine-wire bamboo weaving technique is unique and is known for its fineness. It has the technical characteristics of “selected materials, ultra-fine filaments, close to the body, densely hidden heads, and colorful patterns”. The main products include: porcelain-based bamboo vases, bamboo tea sets, coffee sets, wine sets, stationery, and bamboo flat paintings.

Coarse bamboo weaving refers to the bamboo weaving craft that uses relatively wide and thick bamboo strips to weave daily necessities and ornamental furnishings.

With the development of society, handicrafts are also constantly innovating. Modern people’s aesthetic requirements and standards for bamboo weaving product design are no longer limited to traditional forms, but incorporate more modern innovative thinking and modern elements.