Multicultural Elements of the Mongol-Yuan Silk Textile
Abstract
Textiles have played a significant role in understanding the life and thinking of its users. Yuan silk textile greatly merges the weaving styles from the land that the Mongol-Yuan conquered. This paper offers an explanation on a specific Yuan silk textile by analyzing its motifs, colors, techniques, and the user’s attitudes toward them. This textile would require an overall look with Han and Islamic pattern structure, with a Taoism symbol, Buddhist lotus, and Mongolian nomadic totems. These features can be discussed with a comparison of the works of previous dynasties and evinced by historical records. This paper proposes that the previous dichotomy or setting of the Yuan’s preference for some cultures is misleading. Instead, it should be realized that the motifs and techniques imply the Mongol Yuan’s admiration of Buddhism, Han culture, and Islamic weaving techniques. In this admiration, the Yuan’s ban on the application of some motifs conveys their narrow cultural controls and causes the misunderstanding that denies their contribution to cultural communication. A motif cannot be clearly defined as a representation of one single culture. In other words, the Yuan court followed the confluence of diverse cultures with the development of commercial and travel.
References
- Zhang Fan (2018) Characteristics of the Yuan dynasty: Reflections on several issues from Mongol Yuan history, Chinese Studies in History, 51:1, 51-69, DOI: 10.1080/00094633.2018.1466564
- Herbert Franke (1994) From Tribal Chieftain to Universal Ruler and God, China under Mongolian Rule, Variorum, pp.33.
- Liu Keyan (2015) Yuan Dynasty Textile Pattern Research [Doctoral dissertation, DongHuaUniversity]. pp.163.
- Zhang Zhengxv (2010). The Analysis of Dragon and Phoenix Motifs on Liao Antiques, Collection of Song Dynasty Studies, (00), 300-314. DOI: 10.16764/b.cnki.ssyjlc.2010.00.042.
- Liu Keyan (2015) Yuan Dynasty Textile Pattern Research [Doctoral dissertation, DongHuaUniversity]. pp.175.
- d’ Ohsson, Abraham Constantin Mouradgea (2008). Histoire des Mongols: depuis Tchinguiz-Khan jusqu’à Timour-Lang. Paris: Didot, Volume One, (Feng Chengjun, Trans) Century Publishing Group of Shanghai, pp.324.
- Wardwell, A. E. (1987) Flight of the Phoenix: Crosscurrents in Late Thirteenth- to Fourteenth-Century Silk Patterns and Motifs. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 74(1), 2–35. pp.14.
- Guo Rongmei (2007) Lotus Flower as a Symbol of Literal Image from Pre-qin to Song (Master’s dissertation, Nanjing Normal University), pp.218.
- Liu Jian, Jiang Shaoyu & Hu Shuangbao (1990) The Nogeoldae, Jin dai Han yu yu fa zi liao hui bian, Shang wu yin shu guan: Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing, vol.3 pp.281-282.
- Gray, B. (1985). The Lotus and the Dragon. London, British Museum. The Burlington Magazine, 127(986), 313–303. pp. 313. http://www.jstor.org/stable/882082
- Song, Liang (1976). Yuan Shi, Zhonghua Book Company, vol.77. pp.1924.
- Atwood, C. P. (1996). Buddhism and Popular Ritual in Mongolian Religion: A Reexamination of the Fire Cult. History of Religions, 36(2), 112–139. pp. 126. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3176686
- Allsen, T.T. (2002). Commodity and exchange in the Mongol empire a cultural history of Islamic textiles. Cambridge Cambridge Univ.Press, pp.37.
- Shang Gang. (2003). Nashishi in China, Southeast Culture (08),54-64. pp.59.
- Chen, Gaohua, & Zhang Fan, & Liu Xiao, Duan pi jin zhi long feng duan pi, Yuan Dianzhang Zhouhua Book Company.