Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 33 Sir, would you like to buy a piece of Shu brocade?
In front of each loom in the front yard sat three female weavers, one picking the flowers, one winding the flowers, and one throwing the shuttle.

Seeing that there were people watching, the female weavers were not shy. Instead, a woman who was sitting on a chair and fanning herself with a bamboo fan stood up and walked forward enthusiastically to ask.

"Would you like to buy a piece of Shu brocade?"

Lu Beigu quietly retreated behind the crowd.

This is not a blind purchase. If he agreed to it, he would have to empty his wallet to buy even half a piece of Shu brocade, let alone a whole piece.

After all, Shu brocade has been one of China's top luxury goods since the end of the Han Dynasty, and ordinary people really cannot afford it.

However, even if I can't afford it, it's still good to take a look at the craftsmanship. It's a visual feast and doesn't cost any money.

Seeing that they didn't turn around and leave, the woman explained to Li Pan: "Each heddle corresponds to one silk thread. To weave the 'square pattern', sixty heddles are needed, and to weave the 'ribbon pattern', seventy-two heddles are needed."

As she spoke, the embroiderer was using a needle to shuttle and tie knots between the ear threads. The needle fluttered like a butterfly, and the originally messy gold threads suddenly showed the outline of a diamond pattern.

The jacquard part of the flower tower loom is composed of healds, fiber ropes, flower bases and other parts. The flower puller operates the jacquard machine on the flower tower to form the pattern opening by pulling the warp threads, and the shuttle operator is responsible for passing the weft threads of different colors through the warp thread opening, weaving the warp and weft together to form a pattern.

Lu Beigu leaned over to take a closer look and discovered that the bamboo reeds under the loom were engraved with fine scales. Every time a shuttle was thrown, the reed had to tighten the weft by one point, and the force was so even that it seemed as if it had been measured with a ruler.

However, weaving Shu brocade does not consist of just one layer. It requires at least seven layers, top and bottom. The weavers cooperate with each other, weave non-stop for an hour, and throw the shuttle accurately for hundreds of times, but they can only weave a piece of Shu brocade the size of a thumb.

This is how the saying "every inch of silk is worth a ton of gold" came about.

How should I put it? After looking at it for a while, Lu Beigu felt that expensive things were indeed expensive for a reason.

Afterwards, the woman took them to visit the central courtyard.

The colored silk that had just been taken out of the vat was drying in the middle courtyard. There were only two colors, one was yellow silk dyed with gardenia and locust beans, and the other was blue silk dyed with isatis root.

As for the other colors, they might not have been dyed this time, so they didn’t see them.

But in addition to these common colors, there are also special colors.

For example, Lu Beigu saw a young man using a bamboo pole to pick up silk threads and stretching them straight in a special shade shed. The threads looked solid from a distance, but when he looked closely, he found that each thread contained four or five gradient colors, like the morning glow twisted into silk, which was truly dazzling.

This kind of silk thread is only used for making special Shu brocade.

In the backyard is where Shu embroidery is done.

It was unusually quiet here. The embroiderer closest to them was quietly embroidering a picture of "Koi in Lotus Pond".

The finished Shu brocade has extremely beautiful patterns, and these embroiderers are responsible for adding the finishing touch to the custom-made Shu brocade.

——It literally means "icing on the cake".

Her needle tip flew up and down the Shu brocade, and each time she dropped the needle, it passed precisely through the gap of the previous silk thread. Lu Beigu saw that when she embroidered the lotus petals, she used a peculiar needle method. Seven kinds of pink threads of different shades were arranged from dense to sparse, which gave the petals a dewy texture.

When it came to embroidering the fish, she used a rolling needle as thin as a hair. When she got to the tail of the fish, she suddenly changed to a sand needle. With just a few strokes, the scales of the koi on the Shu brocade suddenly became bright, as if it would wag its tail and swim away in the next moment.

It was such a miraculous skill that Li Pan was speechless for a moment, and then he exclaimed after a moment.

"I used to think that Zhang Sengyou's dragon painting on the wall of Anle Temple in Jinling, with the saying 'pointing the eyes and letting it fly away', was an exaggeration. Now that I see it, I'm afraid I was just too ignorant."

"Would you like to buy a piece of Shu brocade?"

The woman asked the same question a second time, and this time Li Pan hesitated.

On the one hand, he was really moved, but on the other hand, he felt trapped. He really didn't want to lose face in front of so many subordinates. No matter who they were, they all had this mentality.

He then slapped his purse and shouted, "Buy!"

The woman smiled happily and took Li Pan to choose the color.

Shu brocade comes in many colors, but if you want to choose the ones that look good when made into clothes to wear outside, they are nothing more than crabapple red, sunflower yellow, sky blue, woad indigo, and cypress green.

After much deliberation, Li Pan finally chose the crabapple red color, which is also known as the "Shu Brocade Red". It is dyed with Sichuan safflower, madder and other plants that are unique to Shu. It retains the warmth of red and adds transparency to pink.

Because "Tang" and "Tang" are homophones, it has also derived auspicious meanings such as "a house full of gold and jade", and is the Shu brocade most commonly used in festive occasions.

A piece of Shu brocade is 33 Song feet long and 2 Song feet wide, and is sold for 40 strings of cash.

When paying, Lu Beigu, who was standing next to him, also truly witnessed the concept of "the Song Dynasty supporting scholars and officials in wealth" through the purchasing power of luxury goods.

To be able to afford such a beautiful piece of Shu brocade, ordinary people would have to save money for six or seven years, excluding their daily expenses.

For Li Pan, it was just one month's salary, and it was purely legal income.

In the Song Dynasty, the monthly salary of a county magistrate was 15 strings of cash and the salary was 20 strings of cash, totaling 35 strings of cash. Every year, the imperial court would also grant him 12 pieces of silk, 1 piece of gauze, and 20 taels of cotton, which translated into a legal income of over 40 strings of cash a month.

Li Pan was also generous. After paying four "ten-string" Jiaozi notes, he simply said to the woman.

"Leave 13 feet for me, cut 20 feet off, divide it into five pieces, 4 feet per person, and wrap it up for them."

——Is there such a benefit in traveling on business with the boss?
Now, not to mention the four personal guards who were traveling with him, even Lu Beigu was really happy.

The woman carefully cut it out and wrapped it for them. Looking at the crabapple red Shu brocade that felt silky smooth on his palms and had beautiful colors and patterns, Lu Beigu thought that these Shu brocades would definitely not be enough to make clothes for him, but they would probably be enough to make a pleated skirt for his sister-in-law, or tops for the two children.

This way, you will always have something formal to wear during festivals.

"Thank you, Lord Ling!"

Lu Beigu was very sincere.

Li Pan patted his shoulder without saying anything. He probably felt a little painful after making an impulse purchase.

Afterwards, several people quickly walked out of the Shu brocade weaving workshop next to the post station.

At this time, another group of people who looked like officials came out for a walk after eating and drinking at the post station. The woman took the opportunity to stand at the door of the weaving yard and asked enthusiastically.

"Would you like to buy a piece of Shu brocade?"

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① "Sheng" was originally a hair ornament worn by the Queen Mother of the West in mythology. The square Sheng pattern is composed of two overlapping diamond-shaped corners, which has auspicious meanings. "Song Shu Fu Rui Zhi" records: "Sheng, the so-called country is pacified and thieves are gone, and the four barbarians will submit and come out."

② The coiled ribbon pattern refers to a complex and colorful pattern that looks like a rope woven with colorful silk threads. It was widely welcomed by dignitaries in the Northern Song Dynasty, but was prohibited from being used by officials after the Xining period of Song Shenzong.

③ A component on a loom, through which the warp threads pass between the reed teeth, and its function is to push the weft threads to the weaving mouth.

(End of this chapter)