Chapter 1531 Breaking the Secret
Later, when I discussed with Master Yang the plain yarn Zen clothes unearthed from Mawangdui, I mentioned that the most difficult part of replicating this Zen clothes was the silk, because silkworms in the Han Dynasty Not only is it smaller than modern silkworms, but it also has three sleeps.
This unintentional sentence really provided an idea, so I started to look up the information when I got back.
The so-called "sleeping" means that silkworms will sleep without eating and then molt.
After one molt, the size of the silkworm will grow a circle, and the further back, the greater the difference.
The first thing is of course to check whether the silk fabrics from Mawangdui Han Tomb are mulberry silk.
Because there is another kind of silkworm in China - tussah.
There are many papers in this area. Through the identification of silk fiber types, the silk fabrics from the Mawangdui Han Tomb were measured through cross-sectional sectioning, longitudinal projection, differential thermal analysis, amino acid content, and X-ray diffraction. The fiber is significantly different from tussah silk, but very similar to modern mulberry silk. Therefore, the fiber raw material of this batch of silk fabrics must be domestic silk.
This shows that although the Sanmian silkworms of the Han Dynasty were very small and the silk they spun was very thin, they were indeed mulberry silkworms.
This is the premise for things to continue.
Looking back, it was recorded earlier in Jia Sixie's "Qi Min Yao Shu" of the Northern Wei Dynasty that "in this world, there are three people who lie down to give birth to silkworms, and four people who lie down to give birth to silkworms."
Although the record is so early, it seems that four-lying silkworms were not popular. Until the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhen's "Nongshu" also recorded: "The silkworms have been sleeping since the big sleep, and after fifteen or sixteen years, He is now old. How much silk he gets is all counted here. Most silkworms sleep in three places, and all southern silkworms sleep in four places. "
Qin Guan, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, also wrote a book called "The Book of Silkworms", which introduced the sericulture technology of the Northern Song Dynasty in detail, and also mentioned it. Guo Sanmian Silkworm and Simian Silkworm are also distinguished by north and south.
It shows that at that time, the four sleep silkworms were mainly concentrated in the Jiangnan area.
Looking at archaeological papers on ancient silk fabrics, we can find that silk has developed into the Song Dynasty. Compared with the Han Dynasty, the diameter of silk has become much thicker.
The Song Dynasty attached great importance to culture, and the paper used for paintings even came from Jilin, Goryeo. The literati played with it almost regardless of the cost.
Therefore, the silk used for calligraphy and painting in the Song Dynasty should have been made from the best-quality southern Simian silk at that time.
So, if today's silkworms start spinning cocoons after the third sleep, even if the diameter of the silk cannot return to the thickness of the silk of the Han Dynasty, will it be comparable to the silk of the fourth sleep silkworm of the Song Dynasty? Is the diameter equivalent?
Continuing to search for information, Zhou Zhi discovered that even in the Qing Dynasty, the poet Huang Xieqing wrote in "Changshui Bamboo Branch Poems": "Silkworm seeds need to be taught to sleep for four days, and mulberry seeds need to be bought for fresh branches."< br>
This shows that even in the Qing Dynasty, the four-sleeping silkworms were still among the most carefully selected. This also shows that the three-sleeping silkworms may still be common in the northern region at that time.
At that time, Yang He was still at the Agricultural University, and Zhou Zhi called him and asked him to find an expert to ask whether it was possible to make modern silkworms spin silk in Sanmian.
It turns out that this is not a complicated matter. Although the modern four-sleep silkworm is big and silky, it is a delicate baby with a very weak constitution and needs careful care. If you are not careful, it is easy to develop three-sleep silkworms. Or five sleeps.
These are considered defective products, and they should be avoided as much as possible during the production process. Now Zhou Zhi wants to "reverse Tiangang", but it is also a very simple matter. One is to use drug induction to directly make people who should have Silkworms of Simian Before arriving in Sanmian, they started spinning silk to make cocoons. Another way is to do what the village girls in "Changshui Bamboo Branch Ci" did again in daily production, but this time it was changed to carefully select Sanmian silkworms. Their genetic characteristics are then solidified. The latter was too late at the moment, but the former was a very simple matter. The school also had a fixed contract base for scientific research. Those rural silkworm farmers specialized in raising silkworms for the college's scientific research.
As long as you pay, there are plenty of pesticides, just pick a batch and process them.
This batch of silk was finally tested and found that although it was still much thicker than the mulberry silk of the Han Dynasty, it was almost the same as the silk used for calligraphy and painting in the Song Dynasty.
So this batch was sent to Master Yang again. Master Yang was so happy. With this successful attempt and the flower panels reverse-engineered through computer programs, the highest degree of restoration was Song Jin, or what? Is it difficult?
But this is not the case with the first batch. The first batch was made for Zhou Zhi to imitate Song silk. Now this baby is a treasure and cannot be offended.
This first batch of Sanmian silkworm imitation Song silk has now been brought to Rongbaozhai for Zhou Zhi.
It was also a pillow given to others who were sleepy, because Rongbaozhai had just accepted a hot potato, which was to restore the Ming Dynasty Tang Yin landscape painting for the Shanghai Museum.
The landscape painting is a silk painting core. Due to its age, the painting is aged, damaged, incomplete in painting, and has serious creases and fractures. It is in urgent need of restoration.
The museum requires that the restoration process must be strictly carried out in accordance with the five major processes of ancient calligraphy and painting restoration: "washing, uncovering, repairing, supporting, and repairing", and strictly abide by "minimum intervention", "maximum information retention" and "maximum information retention". "Safety" three principles.
“Here are the elbows?” Hearing that Zhou Zhi had arrived, Xu Bangda personally came out to greet him, which actually startled the customers in the store.
Xu Bangda is known as "Xu Banchi". He is famous in the field of calligraphy and painting appraisal and restoration. He is even a painter himself. His skills and ability are more than enough to hold exhibitions. He has not appeared in the exhibition for many years. In front of everyone.
To be so polite to a young man now makes people feel surprised at the identity of the young man.
In fact, Xu Bangda didn't care about the young man's face. He clearly looked at the things in the young people's hands: "The things are out?" , Song Juan can be considered as having made it for you, and he won’t touch it anymore. Is the art hidden?"
"Don't talk nonsense. If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools. We must get Song Juan out first, otherwise we will live for a few years. I can’t do it anymore.”
As he spoke, he wanted to pull the silk towards him.
Unexpectedly and thoughtfully, he did not let go: "If you don't tell me today how you restored ancient paintings of the Song and Ming Dynasties, I won't give you this thing. I just want to know what you did before to restore the silk. , where can I find silk that matches the ancient painting? ”
"Hahahaha..." Xu Bangda was as happy as a child whose trick had succeeded: "If it hadn't been hidden, you probably wouldn't be able to recover from this Song Juan even today, right? Hahahaha..."
"Old man, don't keep your word. It's time to reveal the answer to the mystery!" Zhou Zhi had already been feeling itchy.
“Actually, there is no way.” Xu Bangda said with a smile: “All we can do is tear down the west wall to repair the east wall. The answer is that we will remove the lining silk carefully after unmounting the heart of the painting. Because the lining silk and the painting are basically from the same period, we will use the intact part of the lining silk as the patching silk. After repairing the painting, use modern silk as the lining. This will at least ensure that the painting remains as old as before. "It's that simple?" Zhou Zhi suddenly felt that he was being tricked by Mr. Xu. Damn it, you put so much effort into creating something, and what you get in exchange is such a "secret"?
What kind of secret is this? !
(End of this chapter)