"Mother-in-law, is this a picture of a flower book with a large cloth pattern?"

Zheng Haizhu asked, while already holding the yellowed drawing in the bookcase in his hand, carefully studying the colorful geometric figures on it.

Grandma Tang glanced at it and nodded.

Chongming Island in this world, like Songjiang, is the place where the cotton spinning industry in the south of the Yangtze River is developed.

Chongming people manage the undyed blank cloth, called "small cloth", because this kind of rough cloth is mostly accepted by the imperial court to sell to merchants, also known as "selling cloth".

The "big cloth" that Zheng Haizhu said is a colored cloth woven from dyed cotton threads, and Chongming people also call it "intercloth".

Grandma Tang took the drawings, and tenderness appeared in her eyes: "Miss Azhu, this is the flower book written down by my grandmother, when she came to Chongming with my grandfather, she also brought the weaving techniques of Guangxi to the women here. ”

Zheng Haizhu praised: "Mother-in-law, Mrs. Tang's patterns are exquisite, even if they are compared with the Lu Jinbi I saw in the Yanzhou Palace, they will not fall behind." ”

"Lu Jin? Alas, how can we compare this to brocade? ”

"Mother-in-law, Lu Jin is not made of silk," Zheng Haizhu explained, "Lu Jin is also woven with various colors of cotton thread, and the pattern is very similar to these checks drawn by Mrs. Tang." Lu brocade is colorful, cotton cloth is soft and warm, the nobles of Lu Wangfu do not only love to use silk, they also rare the best jacquard cotton cloth. ”

"Oh, so," Grandma Tang said with a smile, "this name is not a fool, it is all as bright as clouds, and the satin of one or two silver and a foot on the prince's body can be called brocade, why can't the cloth worn by the common people be called brocade?" ”

At this time, Zheng Haizhu had already left the stone table, squatting by the open bookcase basking in the sun, like a gold digger, carefully sorting out the stack of drawings that were obviously flower patterns.

Mo said that it was a cloth workshop in Chongming County, even if it was a silk cloth business of the scale of the Han family in Songjiang Prefecture, she had never seen this pattern.

The color is indeed like Lu Jin, the plant pattern, human-shaped pattern, bird and beast pattern between the square inches of the rhombic grid, but it clearly has an alternative fantasy romance, which is obviously different from the regular and subtle style spawned by Confucian etiquette, like a warm carnival in the microcosm.

Yes, Zheng Haizhu remembered that the late Tang Yicen Tang Gong was originally from Guilin, Guangxi, whether Mrs. Tang was Han or an ethnic minority, her depiction of textile patterns must bring the aesthetic brilliance of the southwest border.

There is no difference between the cultural treasures of different regions and different nationalities. Only the narrow-minded Han nationalists, only the frogs at the bottom of the well with shallow eye sockets, will be arrogant and arrogant, and they will not see their compatriots studying in an outward-looking manner, just as they will not see their compatriots going to the sea to do business.

Zheng Haizhu couldn't help but be excited.

She wanted to ask Han Ximeng to look at these patterns.

Whether it is weaving or embroidery, Han Er and Han Ximeng have no habit of resting on their laurels, they will like these patterns.

Tang Po on the side, seeing Zheng Haizhu's face full of "I dug up the baby", she couldn't help but be moved.

"Miss Azhu, my mother is a native of Chongming, but I haven't seen my mother's flower book, I don't see how my mother uses it, maybe I don't like it, maybe it's too difficult. When you get to me, cough, you can't continue. I'm not good at being a woman, as soon as I get on the loom and take the shuttle, I get a headache and dazzle......"

Zheng Haizhu picked up the pile of precious materials, sat back on the stone table, and said with a tone that no longer had a sense of alienation: "Everyone has different temperaments and preferences, who stipulates that women should be able to weave?" My mother-in-law reads the contract deed paper, and she can be willing to read many words, which is also a skill that I can't learn. ”

Tang Po stared at the colorful patterns that became more and more beautiful in the bright sunshine, and couldn't help but sigh: "My grandmother is really amazing, such a complex flowers, birds, fish and insects, those hanging comprehensives, although I have not counted, I am afraid that there are hundreds." ”

Zheng Haizhu's eyes lit up.

Hanging heald is a device with warp threads strung on a textile machine.

When weaving patterned cloth, the warp threads of various colors are lifted in a certain order, and the weft threads in the shuttle pass through the gaps between the warp threads, and then the warp and weft threads are compacted from time to time, and complex patterns appear on the finished fabric.

Therefore, the hanging comprehensive is actually like a set of program algorithms, corresponding to different patterns. If you can see the owner's ready-made hanging comprehensive, you can save the step of programming.

Zheng Haizhu then said to Mrs. Tang: "Mrs. Tang's hanging comprehensive, but there are still some handed down?" ”

Tang Po patted her leg: "Yes!" In the ancestral house of my county, the hanging weights on the loom are still there, but they are just placed in the firewood room and accumulate dust, and I am sorry for my ancestors. ”

Zheng Haizhu said happily: "Mother-in-law take me to take a look, I will kowtow to Mrs. Tang's tablet and be her apprentice." ”

"Make, make!" Tang Po heartily agreed.

At this time, the old and young women didn't know that what Mrs. Tang left to the world back then was by no means as simple as a set of hanging comprehensives.

……

Ten days later, at the Dangsha Port Wharf in the southeast of Chongming Island, a ferry boat from Wusongkou slowly docked.

Dong Erya, a hard-working person who used to nurse her child in the Zhenjiang Canal, is now the maid of Han Ximeng's inner house that Han Ximeng relies on the most.

Dong Erya held her four-year-old daughter in her left hand, and the little young master Gu Zuoyou in her right hand, and strode across the trestle bridge, behind her were Han Ximeng and Fan Poyu, and two family members carrying luggage.

Zheng Haizhu, who was already waiting at the dock, greeted him, took Gu Zuoyou, and smiled at Han Ximeng: "The baby is really growing fast in spring, and she has not been hugged for a month, and it is a lot heavier. ”

At the moment of laughter, when she and Han Ximeng looked at each other, they sensitively found that the eyelids of this former employer and now best friend were a little swollen.

Han Ximeng's eyes flashed slightly, and soon a sense of humor appeared, pointing to Fan Poyu on his side, and said to Zheng Haizhu: "You just have some strength, you are all going to be aunts and grandmothers, go back and hug your nephew." ”

Fan Poyu's face turned red, frowning and pursing his lips, and his embarrassment blended with a bit of sweetness.

In another half a year, around the Double Ninth Festival, she will marry Shoukuan.

Zheng Haizhu also showed his face and said to Fan Poyu: "This time I come back to the island, I have a very new and beautiful jacquard pattern for you, you choose a few, my aunt will weave it into a quilt, and in September, I will use the new cotton as the core and send it to your new house in Zhenjiang." ”

The women were talking and laughing, and the Liaomin girl Hua Er by the mule cart looked at them intently.

Hua Er realized that it turned out that the woman was not good-looking because she looked like a bodhisattva in the temple.

They are beautiful because they have light in their eyes and they don't speak like mosquitoes.

Hua Er couldn't help but think of the Han women outside the gate, although they looked different, their expressions were the same. After years of enslavement by the Jurchens, they had lost even the deep and shallow horror and timidity, only lifeless numbness, like the pebbles on the river beach in front of them that were forever trampled under their feet.

With a lot of emotion, the Liaomin girl jumped on the frame and sent a car of women with brilliance in her eyes to the house of Grandma Tang in Chongming County.

Three newly renovated looms sit quietly in a small patio.

On each loom, there are dense hanging heaves, and the colorful warp threads worn on the heald are like countless rainbow lights, falling into the weft laid out below.

Rao is an embroidery master like Han Ximeng, who is accustomed to using nearly 100 colors of silk thread for an embroidery, and he was so surprised when he saw the scene in front of him.

This is not silk thread after all, it is cotton thread.

Although the Han family's weaving workshop is not small, in the end it still follows the usual elegant and calm pattern aesthetics in the Susong area.

I didn't expect that today, in the corner of Chongming Island in Yingzhou in the East China Sea, I could see such a visually shocking hanging comprehensive flower book.

Fan Poyu was also the same as Han Ximeng, his eyes were glued to those hanging comprehensives. This girl, who is going to Zhenjiang to take charge of the branch of Han Xi Meng's clothing workshop, immediately coiled in her mind, and the narrow strip of cloth formed by the interweaving of warp and weft can be sewn on the horse-faced skirt, and the owner of the skirt walks around, as if stepping on spring flowers.

Only Dong Erya, who was in charge of bringing the baby, didn't immediately come over to see the strangeness.

The naughty young master Gu Zuoyou took her hand and came to a corner of the courtyard, eager to study the novel big toy.

Dong Erya's daughter was already standing in front of another wooden machine there, fiddling with the wooden lumps on it.

"What is this?" Gu Zuoyou asked in a milky voice.

Dong Erya's daughter said: "It's a solid shuttle." ”

Dong Erya said with a smile: "Silly girl, how can the shuttle be solid, and how can the solid one be packed into cotton weaving." ”

Hearing their conversation, Han Ximeng and Fan Poyu also walked over.

Han Ximeng looked at the bottom of this strange machine, hanging bits and pieces of cotton wool, frowned slightly, looked at Zheng Haizhu, and asked, "This, is it spinning cotton thread?" ”

As soon as she finished speaking, Tang Po had already walked in from outside the door.

"But Grandma Gu has already arrived? Wife, I'll go to the town to buy Chongming Hundred Fruit Cake for you. ”

Han Ximeng has learned about the legend of Grandma Tang from Zheng Haizhu's letter to Songjiang, and when he saw this senior today, he was really in addition to his spirits, but also had a lofty momentum, and he hurriedly leaned over to perform the salute of the junior.

Grandma Tang's eyebrows were full of kindness, and she beckoned Dong Erya to distribute Chongming cakes to the dolls, and asked Zheng Haizhu with a smile: "The two female connoisseurs from Songjiang, can you guess what this machine is for?" ”

Fan Poyu also slapped his head at this time, and suddenly realized: "That row of wooden lumps is not a shuttle, it is a spindle." This is not a loom, it is a spinning machine. Mother, could it be that this machine can spin several lumps of cotton at a time? ”

Zheng Haizhu bowed her head and affirmed the answer of this prospective nephew.

Zheng Haizhu is no longer as excited as when he found this textile machine in Grandma Tang's house before, but he is still pleased with Han Ximeng's ability to distinguish between Fan Poyu.

The ancient Chinese, who were proficient in textile machinery, really saw at a glance the clues of the upright arrangement of yarn spindles.

Although, the machine in front of us, in the history of another time and space, first appeared in England more than a hundred years later, and was called the "Jenny Spinning Machine".

(End of chapter)