Quick Answer: What Is Chinese Silk Gauze?
Chinese silk gauze (纱, shā) is a name used for light, open silk fabrics. Some examples gain their openings from widely spaced threads in plain weave. In others, neighboring warp threads cross over one another as the cloth is woven. Both can look sheer in a photograph.[1][2]
- Material: Fine silk threads make it possible to keep the cloth light even when the openings are small.[2]
- Structure: The crossings of the warp, the threads running lengthwise, help distinguish types of gauze.[1]
- Historical use: The Western Han finds at Mawangdui include unlined gowns. Surviving Qing summer garments show that gauze could also carry decoration.[3][4][5]
A museum label may use “gauze” broadly. When the structure matters, look for the weave description as well as the English name.[1]
A sleeve in a display case can look almost transparent. Look closer and the holes may form a regular grid or sit between small groups of crossed threads. Those details explain more about how the cloth was woven than its sheerness alone.
How Sha Gets Its Open Texture
In open plain weave, the crosswise thread passes over and under the lengthwise threads in turn. Fine yarn and space between neighboring threads leave small openings. This is the structure documented for the plain gauze (素纱, sùshā) of the Mawangdui gowns. The yarn can leave room for light to pass through and still give the cloth a close, even grid.[1][2]
In a crossed-warp gauze, some of the lengthwise threads change their position relative to adjacent threads, crossing over them between passes of the crosswise yarn. The resulting arrangement holds the yarns together around the openings. The term sha has also been used for fabrics made with this kind of interlacing.[1]
Chinese gauze luo (罗, luó) is another family of open fabrics. More elaborate forms can use three or four warp ends in a crossing group. The openings in some luo fabrics look less regular than a plain weave grid. A transmitted-light detail makes the apertures easier to see. A weave diagram answers a different question by showing whether the warp ends stay parallel or cross. That distinction can be hard to see in a distant photograph of a whole garment.[1]
The Two Mawangdui Gauze Gowns
Two Western Han plain unlined gauze gowns (素纱单衣, sùshā dānyī) came from Tomb 1 at Mawangdui in Changsha. The straight-front gown measures 128 centimeters in length and weighs 49 grams. The curving-front gown measures 160 centimeters and weighs 48 grams. Their body fabric is the same type of gauze, while the materials of the collars and cuffs differ.[2][3]
These are weights for complete garments, including the trim. A fabric sample is normally described by mass per unit area, a different measurement. The two garments also show how different front cuts could use the same textile. For the way such garment features fit into the period, see Han dynasty clothing.[2][3]
Gauze in Qing Summer Clothing
A surviving informal summer robe for a woman pairs figured gauze-weave silk with counted-stitch embroidery. The pattern in the gauze ground and the flowers and butterflies added by stitching belong to separate stages of making the cloth and decorating it. The light ground and visible decoration work together.[4]
Gauze could also serve in formal clothing. A summer court robe made for the Qianlong emperor has embroidery on a gauze ground. These examples show why a description of historical silk gauze can include delicate, plain clothing as well as richly decorated robes.[5]
What to Look For in a Textile Label
Start with the fiber and weave fields. A description of silk tells you what the threads are made from. Gauze tells you something about the open cloth, while a name such as silk satin (缎, duàn) has a smooth face where one set of yarns dominates the surface. A fabric can be silk in both cases, with a markedly different weave and texture.[1][6]
A garment’s season is a clue to what its maker wanted from the fabric. The fiber can vary even when the season is the same. Chinese summer cloth (夏布, xiàbù) is traditionally woven from ramie. Summer clothing can therefore be made from fabrics with different fibers and structures.[7]
FAQs About Chinese Silk Gauze
Is sha always a crossed-warp weave?
The term covers some open plain-weave silk as well as gauze made with crossed warp threads. A specific object’s weave analysis is the best guide.[1][2]
Was the Mawangdui gown 48 or 49 grams?
The curving-front gown weighs 48 grams. The straight-front gown weighs 49 grams. Both are from Mawangdui Tomb 1.[3]
Does gauze on a museum label always mean sha?
English textile catalogs also use gauze for forms of luo and other open weaves. The Chinese name and the technical description help identify which fabric is meant.[1]
Источники
[1] China National Silk Museum. What are ling, luo, chou and duan? Part one
[2] Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage. How could a garment be as light as mist?
[3] Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism. Curving-front plain unlined gauze gown to make debut at Hunan Museum
[4] The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Woman’s Informal Summer Robe
[5] The Palace Museum. The Qianlong emperor’s embroidered summer court robe
[6] China National Silk Museum. What are ling, luo, chou and duan? Part two
[7] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. Xia bu weaving technique