一顾倾城的东方美

一顾倾城的东方美

Silk is one of the fi nest products of Oriental wisdom and aesthetic vision. It is through gorgeous and mysterious silk that the Western world started to know China. In fact, it was so much sought after that for a time it became one of the most prized luxuries in the West. Even during the time of Julius Caesar (100BC-44BC), the Romans took pride in the use of silk products and saw them as a symbol of wealth and status.

As early as the mid Qing Dynasty, silk fabric and raw silk became the second largest commodities exported to the West, second only to tea. They were sourced and transported from other parts of China to Guangzhou, the nation's only port opened for foreign trade at the time, before being shipped overseas through the Thirteen Factories.

The in fl ux of silk cloth and raw silk into the West spurred a “China fever” among Western societies. Gradually, silk became less and less of a privilege of the upper classes and began to be worn byordinary people. More importantly, the introduction of silk kindled the development of Europe's textile industry. As Adolf Reichwein, a German expert of cultural history, said, “The boom of the French silk industry in the late 17th century, both artistically and technically, was stimulated by the steady in fl ux of silk material from China”.

The silk exports traded by the Thirteen Factories were of three categories: raw silk, silk fabric and silk products (e.g. silk handbags and handkerchiefs). The rich colours of silk fabric made by a variety of silk-weaving techniques, together with all forms of fl oral prints, presented a colourful, visual world that the Westerners would never have imagined. The fi ne texture of silk (soft, smooth and sophisticated) and its sensual feel (light, natural and sumptuous), consciously or unconsciously, in fl uenced the aesthetic taste rooted in Western culture.

丝绸，是东方智慧与审美的结晶。西方世界了解中国,首先是从丝绸开始的。美丽而神秘的中国丝绸使西方社会为之倾倒，丝绸一度成为西方世界最昂贵的奢侈品之一。据记载，凯撒大帝时代，罗马人以使用丝绸为荣，以示富有。

清代中期，丝绸及生丝是海外贸易中仅次于茶叶的大宗商品，为广州十三行所垄断。中国国内各地的出口丝绸、生丝均要运输到广州，先卖给十三行商，再转售外国。中国丝绸及原料大量进入西方社会之后，引发了西方社会“中国热”潮流。丝绸不再是贵族阶层的专利，而是飞入寻常百姓家。更甚之，丝绸的传入还刺激了欧洲丝织业的进步。正如德国文化史专家利奇温所说：“18世纪末，法国丝业，在美术及技术方面的欣欣向荣，实出于17世纪中国材料不断输入的刺激。”

十三行海外贸易的丝绸产品主要有三部分，一是丝绸成品，二是生丝原料，三是相关的丝绸产品如手袋、手帕等。丝绸丰富的色彩以及各种不同的编织方法再配以不同形式的花纹图案，为西方人展现了一个色彩绚烂的感性世界。其柔软、舒适、细致的质感和予人华贵、自然、轻盈等感官享受，也对西方文化中的审美情趣产生了潜移默化的影响。

THE UNRIVALLED BEAUTY OF CHINESE SILK

Text by Leng Dong Photos provided by Canton1840 Translation by Leo

Canton1840 is an initiator of mobile museums. Mr. Wen Shi, the late owner of the Canton1840 mobile museum, has been collecting forty thousand items representing Lingnan region culture and European culture in over forty years. (WeChat: canton1840)

文仕文化博物档案馆是“近代海丝文化流动博物馆”概念的创导者。前馆长文仕先生历经40多年对珠江岭南地域文化及欧洲百年文化的搜集，收藏了近40000件博物馆级珍贵史料文物。（官微“canton1840”）