The Spindle-Wheel: A Chou Chinese Invention

Dieter Kuhn

doi:10.1017/S0362502800006106

The Spindle-Wheel: A Chou Chinese Invention

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2015

Dieter Kuhn

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Dieter Kuhn*: Affiliation:
East Asian History of Science Library, 16 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 2BB, England

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Abstract

The early Chinese spindle-wheel was originally invented in conjunction with silk-technology and was linked to silk production, as pictured in some Han stone reliefs. It is concluded that the spindle-wheel is a Chinese Invention which may be dated to the early years of the Warring States period. In the course of time people realized the advantages of the spindle-wheel and it was adopted for plant fiber production.

The spindle-wheel may have been brought to Europe at the same time as silk-technology was introduced, most probably in the second half of the first millenium A.D. Only when the continuously working spinning-wheel with flyer was invented in fifteenth century Europe did a better and more efficient spinning device become available.

Type: Articles
Information: Early China , Volume 5 , 1979 , pp. 14 - 24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0362502800006106 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1979

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FOOTNOTES

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2. This Statement is based on my own experience last summer in China.

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5. Geijer, Agnes, A History of Textile Art (London, Leeds, 1979)Google Scholar. This book cannot seriously be regarded as “A History of Textile Art.” Scandinavian textiles and textile technology receive far more attention than Chinese or Persian. The general reader necessarily gets the impression that Scandinavia piayed an important role in the development of textile technology and in the history of textile arts.

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12. Hsio-Yen Shih has cited 56 titles of Chinese publications concerning the history of textiles in her article “Textile Finds in the People's Republic of China,” in Studies in Textile History, ed. Gervers, Veronika (Toronto, 1977), pp. 305–321Google Scholar. In addition there are a few titles concerning textile technology: Shih Hung-ta “Shih-lun Sung Yüan Ming san-tai mein-fang-chih sheng-ch'an kung-chü fa-chan-shih kuo-ch'eng” (Discussion of the development of implements and machinery for the cotton manufacture in Sung, Yüan, and Ming times), Li-shih yen-chiu 1957.3:19–42Google Scholar; Ch'ung-chou, Li “Shih-chieh shang tsui-tsao ti shui-li fang-chi-ch'e ‘shul-chuan ta-fang-ch‘e’” (The world's oldest water-powered spinning machinery-the great water-driven spinning machine), WW 1959.12:29–30Google Scholar; Po-yin, Sung and Chung-i, Li, “Ts'ung Han hua-hsiang-shih t'an-so Han-tai chih-chi lou-tsao” (Investigation of the construction of looms in the Han period based on stone reliefs), WW 1962.3:24–30, 44Google Scholar; Shih, Tuan “Chiang-su T'ung-shan Hung-lou Tung-Han-mu ch'u-t'u fang-shih hua-hsiang-shih” (Eastern Han stone reliefs of looms from Tung-shan, Hung-lou in Kiangsu province), WW 1962.3:31–32Google Scholar; Chao-lin, Sung “Yün-nan Hsi-shuang Pan-na T'ai-tsu ti fang-chih chi-shu; chien t'an ku?tai fang-chih ti chi-ko wen-t'i” (The weaving techniques of the T'ai nationality of Hsi-shuang, Pan-na, Yünnan province and some problems of textile weaving in antiquity), WW 1965.4:6–13Google Scholar; “T'u-lu-fan-hsien A-ssu-t'a-na Ha-la-ho-cho ku-mu ch'un fa-chüeh chien-pao” (Excavations of ancient tombs at Astana and Karakhoja in Turfan, 1963-1965), WW 1972.1:8–29Google Scholar; “Wu-ch'an-chieh-chi wen-hua ta-ko-ming chung ti k'ao-ku hsin-fa-hsien” (New archaeological finds during the Proletarian Cultural Revolution), KK 1972.1:29–42Google Scholar; Ch'ung-chou, Li, “Wo-kuo ku-tai ti chiao-t'a fang-ch'e” (Our ancient treadle-operated spinning wheel), WW 1977.12:73–75Google Scholar; yen-chiu-so, Tzu-jan k'o-hsüeh-shih, ed., Chung-kuo ku-tai k'o-chi ch'eng-chiu (China's historical achievements in science and technology) (Peking, 1978), pp. 362–391, 632–661Google Scholar; yen-chiu-yüan, Shanghai-shih fang-chih k'o-hsüeh ed., Fang-chih shih-hua Discussion on the history of textile technology) (Shanghai, 1978: 2nd ed., Shanghai, 1979)Google Scholar. Of the works published in Taiwan, I will mention only the articles by Ching-heng, Tsou, published in Ta-Tu tsa-chih 45.5 (1972):235–254Google Scholar; 49.2 (1974): 55-77; and Tan-chiung, T'an, Chung-hua min-chien kung-i t'u-shuo (Illustrations and explanations of Chinese popular crafts) (Taipei, 1956), pp. 1–33Google Scholar.

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14. Kuhn, Dieter, “Silk Technology in the Sung Period (960 - 1278 A.D.).” Accepted for publication in TP (1981)Google Scholar.

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16. Patterson, R., “Spinning and Weaving,” in A History of Technology, ed, Singer, Charles (Oxford, 1956), p. 203Google Scholar.

17. On the spinning process, see also: Fannin, Allen, Handspinning: Art & Technique (New York, 1970)Google Scholar.

18. Patterson, op. cit., p. 202.

19. “Das Mittelalterliche Hausbuch” (Frankfurt, 1887; Leipzig, 1912; Munich, 1957)Google Scholar.

20. For further discussion, see Usher, A.P., A History of Mechanical Inventions (New York, 1954) pp. 270–274Google Scholar; Patterson, op.dt., p. 205; English, W., The Textile Industry (London, 1969), pp. 4–7Google Scholar; Leadbeater, Eliza, Spinning and Spinning Wheels, Shire Album 43 (Aylesbury, 1979), pp. 6–9Google Scholar.

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26. Fang-chih shih-hua, p. 63. In my own research on the geographical distribution of spindle whorls in Neolithic China, I arrived at the same conclusion.

27. I have been informed by my Chinese colleague Mr. Chao Ch'eng-tse that the Chinese archaeologists and textile historians will publish in 1980 a book which will demonstrate the existence of the draw-loom in the Chou period.

28. Lieh-tzu (Shih-te-t'ang, 1914), 5:22Google Scholar. It would far exceed the scope of this article to go into the question of whether Lieh-tzu was actually a philosopher or just an invention by Chuang-tzu. I follow Forke, Alfred, Geschichte der alten chinesischen Philosophie (Hamburg, 1927), vol. 1, pp. 284–290Google Scholar, in believing that major parts of the work at least are Chou originals. The anecdote itself is attributed to the school of Lieh-tzu (before Han times).

29. I follow the commentary by Chang Ch'an of the Chin dynasty.

30. Fang-chih shih-hua, p. 62.

31. Fang-chih shih-hua, p. 62. This of course is only the case when weaving the 15 sheng fabric (warp threads:weft threads 28:24/cm²).

32. Fang-chih shih-hua, p. 64.

33. A Schwarz, op. cit., pp. 2138, 2165. Linder, Alfred, Spirmen und Weben einst und jetzt (Frankfurt, Luzern, 1967), pp. 56–60Google Scholar.

34. Fannin, op. cit., pp. 21-22.

35. Fang-chih shih-hua, pp. 65-67.

36. Chuan-hsin, Hsiung “Ch'ang-sha hsin-fa-hsien ti Chan-kuo ssu-chih-wu” (Silk fabrics from the Warring States period newly discovered at Ch'ang-sha), WW 1975.2:49–52Google Scholar.

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39. Patterson, op. cit., p. 209.

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41. See footnotes 45, 46, 57, 77, 78.

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44. Shuo-wen chieh-tzu, 5 shang:3.

45. The stone relief depicted In fig. 1 was found 1930 in T'eng hsien in Shantung. It is pictured in Hsi-hua, Fu (comp.), Han-tai hua-hsiang ch'üan-chi , (Peking, 1950–1951), vol. 1, no. 91Google Scholar; Sung Po-yin, op. cit., p. 23, fig. 1; Satō Taketoshi, op. cit., pl. 1.

46. The stone relief depicted in fig. 2 was found 1952 in T'eng hsien, Lung-yang-tien, Shantung. It is now in the Li-shih po-wu-kuan, Peking. It is pictured in Lubo-Lesnichenko, E., Drevnie kitaiskie šelkoviye tkani i vyšivki (Leningrad, 1961), pl. III, no. 4Google Scholar; Sung Po-yin, op, cit., p. 23, fig. 2; Finsterbusch, Käte, Verzeichnis und Motivindex der Han-Darstellungen (Wiesbaden, 1971) vol. 2, Taf. 240, no. 5Google Scholar; Satō Taketoshi, op. cit., Pl.2.

47. Shuo-wen chieh-tzu, 13 shang:1

48. Ying-hsing, Sung, T'en-kung k'ai-wu (1637; reprint: Shanghai, 1959)Google Scholar, shang ch., p.33a.

49. Chen, Wang, Nung-shu (1313; Wu-ying-tien chü-chen-pan ch'üan-shu edition of 1783) 21:16bGoogle Scholar.

50. T'ien-kung k'ai-wu, shang ch., p. 33b.

51. Throwing is not used here in the European sense, i.e., twisting several single threads into one thread in a direction opposite to that in which they themselves are twisted. See Chieh, Wei, Ts'an-sang ts'ui-pien (1899), 5:2Google Scholar.

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53. Ts'an-sang ts'ui-pien, 5:2b.

54. Shuo-wen chieh-tzu, 5 shang: 6.

55. Nung-shu, 21:16b.

56. T'ien-kung k'ai-wu, shang ch., p. 33b.

57. The stone relief depicted in fig. 3 was found in Chi-ling, Shantung. It is now in the Tokyo School of Engineering and pictured in Sekino, Tadashi, “Sepulchral Remains of the Han Dynasty in the Province of Shantung, China,” Journal of the College of Engineering 8 (1916): 1Google Scholar; Sung Po-yin, op. cit., p. 23, fig, 4; Finsterbusch, op. cit., Taf. 107, no. 370; Satō, op. cit., pl.3.

58. This stone relief was found in 1956, T'ung-shan hsien, Mangsu province. It is pictured in Chiang-su Hsü-chou Han-mu hua-hsiang-shih (Han stone rel iefs from Hsü-chou in Kiangsu) (Peking, 1959), III. 51Google Scholar; E. Lubo-Lesnlchenko, op. cit., pl. III, no.3; Eizō, Ohta, “Tsukinowa kofun” , Tsukinowa, the Ancient Burial Mound, a Report of Our Excavation (Yanahara, Ohayama, 1960), fig. 107Google Scholar; Sung Po-yin, op. cit., p. 24, fig.7; Finsterbusch, op. cit., Taf. 157, No. 594; Nai, Hsia “Wo-kuo ku-tai ts'an-sang ssu-ch'ou ti li-shih” (The history of sericulture and silk fabrics in our antiquity), KK 1972.2:21, fig. 8Google Scholar; “Ch'ang-sha Ma-wang-tui i-hab Han-mu ch'ü-t'u ti jung-ch'üan-chin” (The pile-loop brocade unearthed from Han tomb No. 1 at Ma-wang-tui in in Ch'ang-sha), KKHP 1974.1:176, fig.2Google Scholar; Satō, op. cit., pl.7.

59. Most probably warp and weft were manufactured in the same way, that is to say, the same quilling wheels were used to produce the warp, and the weft threads. Burnham, Harold B., “La préparation des fils de soie en Chine ancienne,” Bulletin de Liaison 27 (1968):54–58Google Scholar.

60. Shuo-wen chieh-tzu, 13 shang:2.

61. T'ien-kung k'ai-wu, shang ch., p. 31a.

62. T'ien-kung k'ai-wu, shang ch., p. 31a.

63. Shuo-wen chieh-tzu, 13 shang:2.

64. Chen, Tai, Fang-yen su-cheng (1777), 5:10Google Scholar; (Annotated and amplified text of the Fang-yen [ca. 15, B.C.] by Yang Hsiung

65. Fang-yen su-cheng, 5:10Google Scholar.

66. Nung-shu, 21:13b–15aGoogle Scholar.

67. Nung-shu, 21:13bGoogle Scholar.

68. T'ien-kung k'ai-wu, shang ch., p. 31b.

69. Ibid.

70. For a discussion of driving belts in China, see Needham, op. cit., pp. 8, 55, 83, 95, 102-105, 107-108, 267. The spindle was driven as demonstrated in Rudolph P. Hommel, op. cit., p. 173, fig. 251. These stone reliefs are the oldest illustrated sources proving the existence of continuous driving belts in China.

71. H. B. Burnham, “La preparation des fils …,” op. cit., p. 56.

72. T'ien-kung k'ai-wu, shang ch., p. 34a; Shen, Yang, Pin-feng kuang-i (1742), 3:15Google Scholar.

73. One picture is to be seen on the left side of fig. 2; I have not redrawn the other picture. It is on a stone relief of poor quality from P'ei hsien, Kiangsu, pictured in Sung Po-yin, op. cit., p. 24, fig. 6; Finsterbusch, op. cit., Taf. 148, no. 550a.

74. Pin-feng kuang-i, 2:57bGoogle Scholar.

75. See footnote 58.

76. Fig. 4 is from Ssu-hung hsien in Kiangsu. “Ssu-hung hsien Ts'ao-chuang fa-hsien i-p'i Han-hua hsiang-shih” (A Han period stone relief discovered in Ts'ao-chuang commune in Ssu-hung hsien, Kiangsu), WW 1975. 3:76Google Scholar.

77. Chia-chi, Liu and Ping-sen, Liu, “Chin-chüeh-shan Hsi-Han pai-hua lin-mo hou-kan” (Further thoughts on the copies of the silk paintings from Chin-chüeh-shan of the Western Han period), WW 1977. 11:28–31Google Scholar.