Botanical Provenance of Historical Chinese Dye Plants

Botanical Provenance of Historical Chinese Dye Plants. Dye plants are an essential part of historical dyeing activities for textiles. Their correct botanical provenance is an important basis for understanding the sources mentioned in dyeing instructions and for chemical identification of the dyes on the textiles themselves. This paper describes a combined study of dyeing recipes in four historical manuscripts of the Ming (1368–1644 C.E.) and Qing Dynasties (1644–1911 C.E.). Within the context of historical plant medicine and botanical classification, this study resolves uncertainties about the names, provenance, and preferences for the significant dyes in Chinese textile history for the first time, namely safflower, sappanwood, smoketree, pagoda bud, Amur cork tree, indigo, Chinese gallnut, acorn cup, dark plum, munjeet, gromwell, gardenia, and turmeric. Most dye plants in the historical manuscripts refer to one or two major species or variants, with ambiguity arising mainly from non-uniform naming conventions and conversion between different taxonomies. It is now clear that saffron was confused with safflower in Ming Dynasty herbal plants instructions, that Su mu 蘇木 meant sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan L.), and occasionally foreign redwoods from genera Caesalpinia and Haematoxylum, and that huang lu mu 黃櫨木, huang lu黃蘆 and lu mu 蘆/櫨木 were all variants of Cotinus coggygria Scop. Pagoda bud can be identified by huai hua 槐花, huai mi 槐米, huai hua mi 槐花米, and huai zi 槐子, while jiang huang 薑黃 and yv jin 郁金, recorded for dyeing, both referred to the rhizome of Curcuma longa L. Of the various zhi zi 梔子 available, zhi zi for dyeing was Gardenia jasminoindes Ellis f. longicarpa Z·W·Xie et M. Okada, although whether this preference was widely recognized or practiced is not clear. This research promotes a better understanding of historical Chinese dye plants. It also complements existing research results of historical herbal medicine in the aspect of dyeing.

古代中国染料植物的原植物考证。染料植物是古代纺织品染色活动的重要内容,对古代染料植物正确的原植物鉴别是染色历史文献研究和文物染料化学鉴定的重要基础。本文针对四篇明清时期历史文献中的染色工艺记载做了跨学科研究,首次集中探讨了中国纺织史中重要染料植物的名称、原植物和使用偏好。这些染料包括红花、苏木、黄栌、槐花、黄檗、靛蓝、五倍子、皂斗、乌梅、茜草、紫草、栀子和姜黄。研究发现,历史文献中的染料植物多指一或两个种或是变体。染料原植物的不确定性的主要原因是缺少统一的命名规则和不同分类学体系之间的转换。进一步研究表明,红花和番红花是两种不同的染料植物。苏木指云实科植物苏木 Caesalpinia sappan L.,偶尔也指云实属和墨水树属的外国红木。染色历史文献中的黄栌木、黄芦和芦/栌木均指漆树科植物黄栌Cotinus coggygria Scop.的几个变种。槐花、槐米、槐花米和槐子这些名称均指槐花的花蕾。历史文献中用于染色的姜黄和郁金都指姜科植物姜黄 Curcuma longa L.的根茎。不同的栀子用途有别,用于染色的栀子主要是茜草科植物长果栀子Gardenia jasminoindes Ellis f. longicarpa Z·W·Xie et M. Okada,但这种偏好在古代是否被广泛认可和实践还不清楚。本研究推进了对中国古代染料植物的正确理解,并对已有的本草学考证成果在染色方面进行了补充。