Yuanbao

Yuanbao

Yuanbaoshi, also known as calendering stone, goubu stone, fan cloth stone, trample cloth stone and flying goose stone, is a special tool used by ancient dyeing workshops for milling and finishing dyed fabrics. It consists of two parts: upper valve and lower valve. The sizes vary from place to place, but the shapes are similar. The small ones are five or six hundred jin, and the heavy ones are more than one thousand jin.

The origin of history

Yuanbaoshi consists of two parts. The upper valve is a Yuanbao shaped stone piece, which is about 30 cm thick, 70 cm high and 100 cm long. The lower valve is a rectangular cushion stone, the center of which is shallow concave longitudinally, and kisses the transverse arc at the bottom of the upper valve. The scene of cloth grinding operation is "place a polished stone plate as the support, take a five color cloth and roll it on a wooden shaft, and press a large stone like concave shape on it, which can weigh a thousand jin. One person can step on both ends of it and transfer it from one end to the other, then the cloth is tight, thin and bright" (1).

According to the earlier records of using yuan gems, song Yingxing of the Ming Dynasty wrote "Tiangong Kaiwu Naifu": "every inch of cotton cloth can be found, and the weaving is shangsongjiang, and the pulp dyeing is shangwuhu. If the cloth is tight, it will be firm; if it is slow, it will be brittle. If the stone is cold and greasy (each piece is worth more than ten gold), it will not be loose if the stone is not feverish. Wuhu giant shop first shangjiashi "(2). Song Yingxing not only recorded the prosperity of Songjiang weaving industry and Wuhu pulp and dyeing industry at that time, but also recorded some information about yuanbaoshi, which is very precious. First, the dyed fabric can be made "tight and not loose" by grinding the cloth with meta gem. Second, it is reasonable to "take Jiangbei cold and greasy" as "rolling stone". Even if the rolling operation lasts a long time, "the stone does not have a fever", and the fabric will not be damaged due to electrostatic heating caused by friction. Third, "Wuhu giant shop first shangjiashi" refers to the large-scale printing and dyeing shops, which all like the yuan gems with good materials and buy them with a lot of money to show off their strength and attract business.

Many dyeing bureaus were set up in Wuhu in the Ming Dynasty. According to Wang Daokun's Tai Han Ji, there was an Hui merchant named Ruan Bi who set up a dyeing Bureau in Wuhu during the Wanli period, specializing in dyeing and selling cloth. "Those who buy at that time strive for the harvest, while those who profit return to the dye.". Chang Gong said with a smile: not only dyeing people can whiten (bleach) but also pick (dye). It was established in Wuhu, and Cao Zhizhi was called to dye it. There was no need to indoctrinate it. It cost less than Lizi. Yiji, the buyer of the five parties, transported all over Wu, Yue, Jing, Liang, Yan, Lu, Qi and Yu, and then divided into Jia Yaojin "(3). Ruan Bi set up a general administration in Wuhu, and set up branches in each important area. The scale of production and operation can be imagined. The dyeing industry in Songjiang was also very prosperous. "Hundreds of cloth brands in the former Ming Dynasty were all in Songjiang, Fengjing and Zhujing, and the dyeing family, Toufang and merchants learned from them" (4). There are also many dyeing workshops in Suzhou. In the Wanli year, Cao shipin's memorials said: "as far as I can see, thousands of dyeing workers broke up when the dyeing workshops were finished" (5). In the ninth year of Kangxi (1693) in January, Suzhou was "short of rice for years", while the price of dyeing a piece of cloth was one cent and one percent, so it was difficult to make a living and even went on strike (6).

The picture of cotton is the record of the work scene of the cloth kicker. In April 1765, the governor of Zhili, Fang Guancheng, framed 16 fine brushwork paintings on the whole process of cotton planting, spinning and dyeing. Each picture was accompanied by a text description. At the beginning of the book, a preface to kapok Fu by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty was recorded and submitted to Emperor Qianlong. In the same month, at the request of Fang Guancheng, Qianlong wrote a poem with seven characters for each picture of the cotton atlas, a total of 16 poems. At the same time, he allowed the poems written by Fang Guancheng to be attached to the end of each picture. Fang Guancheng officially named the cotton atlas inscribed by Emperor Qianlong as the cotton atlas inscribed by Emperor Qianlong, and carefully copied the copy and engraved it on the precious Duanshi. The first 16 paintings are "painting practice", in which there is a depiction of the scene of kicking cloth workers, and Kangxi also mentioned the poem later (Fig. 1) (Fig. 2).

In the folk paper horse, there are also scenes of kicking cloth, such as the paper horse "God of dyeing vat" (Fig. 3). The two characters "Mei" and "Ge" are engraved on the picture of the paper horse, which coincides with the folk legend that the dyeing industry worships Mei and Ge Xianweng as the God of the cloth dyeing vat. There are four dyers in the picture, one is dyeing cloth in a vat, one is drying dyed cloth, one is drying cloth with bamboo pole in hand, and one is kicking cloth with two hands. It is said that the 9th of September was the day when the dyehouse offered sacrifices to the God of dyeing vat in the old days. The author searched for a lot of information, but there was no literature record.

Relevant examples

In addition, in some scenic spots, there are also some stones with natural shapes similar to Yuanbao, which are called Yuanbao by some literati or tourists. For example, there is a stone on the west mountain of Beijing with this name. It is said that inspired by this stone, Cao Xueqin wrote in the first chapter of a dream of Red Mansions: "the body is also a spiritual thing, but it has no real advantage." therefore, he named the protagonist in the book Jia (fake) Baoyu.

Address: Panshan scenic area, Jixian County, Tianjin

Longitude: 117.27467536926

Latitude: 40.086991682286

Ticket information: no ticket required. Included in the ticket of Panshan scenic spot.