Silk Dress with Golden Threads:
Costumes from Liao and Yuan Periods (10th-13th century)

Among the substances considered precious by Chinese society, jade has traditionally held a position equal to those of gold or silver, not infrequently surpassing them. Particular witness to this has been the archaeological record, which in recent decades has exposed the importance jade, above all other materials, played within the funerary customs of ancient China. With all early human cultures funerary customs have been modern archaeology’s most reliable (and available) metre by which the spiritual and material values of a society could be measured. In ancient China, and particularly that of its golden age – the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) – the material of greatest value to the deceased was clearly jade. During this period, the exalted and privileged dead were attired in suits of jade plaques sewn together with gold, silver or silk thread, the so called jin lu yu yi or si lu yu yi ). In later periods, such suits were abandoned, but the importance of jade within the tomb remained an important, and often most important, component of the deceased’s possessions in the after life. One significant exception to this rule, however, can be found in the tombs of the Khitan and Mongol rulers of northern China during the 10th to 13th centuries. Their cultures, arising as they did from the nomadic steppe, placed less importance on jade, and wrapped the body in sumptuous silk robes woven with golden threads and further adorned with gold artefacts, of which they have left abundant examples. And even though jade, after the 13th century, once again became an important element in the funerary rites of the ruling elite, the golden robes of the Liao (907-1125), Jin (1115-1234) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties never fell entirely out of fashion.

The gold-decorated silk costumes of the Khitan and Mongols are, in fact, the culmination of a tradition of such garments that can be traced back to at least the 3rd or 4th century in northern China, as demonstrated by finds at Yingpan (Xinjiang) of silk textiles decorated with gold foil. By the Tang dynasty (618-907), undoubtedly due to the trade influenced by the commerce of both silk and gold along the Silk Routes, gold had become a highly fashionable and available material. Gold and silver wares were widely used in daily life, gold and silver coins were involved in trade and business, and gold and silver were applied to silk costume, whether through weaving, embroidery or printing. A poem of the period by Wei Zhuang (836-910) mentions a girl who would not stop crying the whole night until her parents promised to embroider gold threads on her new dress, thus demonstrating the passion with which gold had permeated mainstream Chinese culture. The textiles excavated from Famen temple near the Tang capital of Chang’an (in the region of present day Xi’an) include various types of gold-decorated textiles – woven, embroidered and affixed by glue (Fig.3).

It was during the subsequent Liao, Jin and Yuan periods, however, that such gold-decorated silk costumes reached the peak of their production. This is testified not only by the numerous historical documents of these periods, but also by the many textiles and costumes that have been found in the tombs of the Khitan and Mongol elite. With the following selection of Liao and Yuan costumes, we will explore not only the wonder and beauty of these fabrics, but also how they were created.

Spinning Metal into Thread
There are, in general, two forms in which gold is used in silk decoration – one, flat gold threads and the other, wrapped gold threads. The flat gold thread is basically a cut strip of gold foil either of pure gold, or if the foil is not of a thick enough weight, then glued to a substrate of animal skin or plant fibre paper. These strips of foil could be woven into the actual structure of the silk textile, or subsequently embroidered into it. The wrapped gold thread is created by taking a strand of the flat gold thread and wrapping it in an ‘S’ or ‘Z’ direction around a silk or cotton thread core. This creates a stronger and more pliable thread and additionally gave a more impressive and refined effect when applied to the textile. Although considerably more complicated to create than the flat gold thread, the wrapped gold thread ultimately became the most prevalent gold thread to be found in textile decoration. The tradition of gold thread production is still kept alive in China to this day, but it is now produced with a paper substrate.

In the earliest periods, pure gold foil seems to have been readily available for use in either of the two varieties of gold thread, as demonstrated by the gold foil found at Yingpan, the flat gold thread woven into the mid-Tang dynasty silk ribbon found at Dulan (Qinghai); even the gold threads whether wrapped or flat used in the couched embroidery on the Famen temple textiles still use pure gold foil (albeit with a silk or cotton core in the case of the wrapped threads). The earliest example of gold foil thread affixed to a substrate in China was probably the kesi tapestry pieces found in Cave 17 in Dunhuang, the so-called ‘library cave’. A small silk tapestry ribbon found amongst the piles of manuscripts that packed this small cave had gold strips in its weft which are glued to a paper substrate! As Cave 17 is known to have been sealed in the early 11th century, this indicates that gold foil was being so treated at least by this period, but probably not long before. This new technique, which certainly made a more economical use of the available gold, does not seem to have been standard practice even by the 11th century, as no Liao period textiles have been so far found to be woven or embroidered with thread made of gold foil affixed to a substrate. However, by the Yuan period, this situation had changed completely, and the use of substrates underneath an ever thinner gold foil became standard practice. One Yuan dynasty text by Yu Ji (1272-1348) actually mentions the use of an animal skin substrate in relation to gold thread. Yuan dynasty tombs have also provided ample physical examples of this type of gold thread using an animal skin or paper substrate, and even some textiles woven with thread made of pure gold foil, demonstrating that this earlier method did not die out completely.

Princes of the Steppe: the Khitan
In historical documents, the Khitan are said to have branched off from the Donghu people of the steppes of eastern Central Asia by at least the 4th century, developing gradually into a distinct and separate nation, particularly during the three centuries of the Tang empire. At the end of the latter, under the leadership of Yelu Abaoji, they began to carve their own empire out of the Tang’s northern territories. In 907, Yelu Abaoji was proclaimed the emperor Taizu (r. 907-926), and throughout the rest of the century the new Liao dynasty consolidated its control over much of northern China, extending its domain to the eastern seaboard. During the 11th century, the Liao were the dominant power in northern China, shadowing the neighbouring Chinese Song empire (960-1279) to the south. With the dawn of the 12th century, however, the Liao were confronted by a new power arising out of the northeast, the Jurchen – cousins of the Khitan. In 1125, they utterly defeated the Liao, appropriating their empire, and in 1126 they also routed the Song, taking the northern half of their domains. Establishing themselves as the Jin, they ruled over all of northern China until the advent of Ghengis Khan and his Mongol hordes in 1234. One of the main concerns for the Liao was to be able to retain their Khitan identity while ruling a multi-cultural empire stretching from the steppe into the heartland of northern China. The Khitans, therefore, maintained strong links with their traditional nomadic lifestyle, as illustrated on the wall paintings in many of the Liao tombs. The emphasis on all things equestrian distinguished Liao culture from that of the Song, but in the administration of their empire the Liao did adopt a great deal from Chinese precedents. The Liao used two systems to rule their domains, with dual prime ministers, one Khitan and the other Chinese, serving the Liao Emperor.

The Khitan prime minister dealt with the court, tribe and country, but the Chinese dealt with the prefectures, taxes and military. During the reign of the Liao emperor Taizong, Yelu Deguang (927-947), each half of this bipartisan government wore a distinctive ‘national’ costume – Khitan for the one, and Chinese for the other. The emperor’s family, and Khitan nobles and people all wore Khitan costume, the so-called guofu (‘official attire’), and the Chinese officials and people wore Chinese-style clothing, or hanfu (‘attire of the Han people’). The Khitan emperors would wear either Khitan or Chinese apparel, depending on which aspect of the government they were attending to. The Khitan costume was distinguished by its components opening to the left – the outer panel of a robe or jacket overlapped to the wearer’s left, and the inner panel to the right. Collars for the Khitan robes were normally in a standing style, but sometimes in a crossed, overlapping manner. Sleeves were always narrow, but the skirts would have a vent in the lower part of to facilitate riding on horseback.

Whether cut in the Khitan or Chinese style, the Liao court and aristocracy showed a marked preference for gold in their apparel. Although little is known about the costumes of the Khitan before the establishment of their empire, even the earliest Liao tombs, such as those of Yelu Que (Jiefang Yingzhi, Chifeng) and Yelu Yuzhi’s (Arukelqin), held textiles with a high proportion of gilt decoration. This decoration was applied in three basic techniques, the first of which was weaving, not only of kesi tapestry-style fabrics, but also brocades, using both flat gilt foil and wrapped threads. Gilt kesi could be frequently found on the boots, hats and quilts, damask or samite woven with gold threads was found on various robes and other garments. The second technique, and the most common, was embroidery. Most frequently the gilt embroidery was executed in a couched stitch, using the gold threads as either an outline or the sole component for a given motif. In Chinese documents, embroidered designs completely composed of gilt thread were distinguished as chu jin xiu and were the most costly of the gilt embellishments. The third basic technique was to simply glue gold foil in a pattern onto the surface of the cloth.

Conquerors of the Steppe: the Mongols
In 1206, Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1226) united the steppe and established the Great Mongol empire (13th/14th century). In the course of the century, his Mongol hordes would sweep throughout Central and Western Asia to the eastern frontiers of Europe, and would come to dominate utterly East Asia. In 1279, Ghengis Khan’s grandson Kubilai Khan (1216-1294) united all of China under his control and established the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). The imperial Mongols outstripped even the earlier Liao in their admiration and preference for gold-decorated costumes. One of the first taxes devised by the Mongols for their Chinese domains was that every five families should pay in tribute one jin of raw silk to either the court or a Mongol lord (one jin is equivalent to about 633 grams). Yuan histories reveal that in the year 1263 alone, this tax would have provided the court with around 712,171 jin (or 450.8 tonnes) of raw silk, and by 1267, when they had acquired much more Chinese territory, it produced 1,096,489 jin (694.1 tonnes).14 The histories also relate that they set up numerous state workshops to weave these enormous amounts of raw silk into textiles. There were at least five workshops to weave a special silk textile woven with gold threads, known in Mongolian as nasji (CH na shi shi ƒ). Two of these were known in Mongolian as the Besh Balik bureaus, and were located in their capital of Dadu (present-day Beijing) and just outside it. The remaining three were identified simply as the Nasji bureaus, one was directed by the emperor’s production minister and the other two, located in Hongzhou (present day Yangyuan, Hebei) and Xunmalin (near present day Zhangjiakou, Hebei), were under the management of the Chuzhenyuan a special organization associated with the Yuan crown prince.

According to the histories, the jisun (or jamah in Persian) is the most important of the formal robes in Mongol costume. It was only ever of a single colour and only ever to be worn on the occasion of an eponymous event, the jisun banquet. There were eleven grades of jisun robe, the highest being of nasji cloth, the second highest of velvet, the third of baoli– a textile with bands of woven or embroidered gold decoration, and the lowest of fengpi, which was probably a textile printed with gold. All these kinds of jisun robe, however, were to be accompanied by a hat decorated with gold dots. Comparing this archival evidence with that from excavations, it seems likely that this nasji cloth is identical to textiles woven in lampas weave with gold threads, in which two sets of warps, a foundation warp and a binding warp, are woven with two or more sets of wefts, one a foundation silk weft and the others supplementary patterning wefts, whether of flat gold foil or wrapped gold threads. Both foundation warp and weft establish the foundation weave, while the binding warps bind the gold threads of the patterning wefts to make the pattern.

Another distinctive group of excavated Yuan textiles is com-posed of either striped patterns or roundels in a brocade in which the pattern was delineated by gold threads brocaded into a foundation weave. These are the so-called jin da zhi (‘golden spot’) mentioned in both Jin and Yuan dynasty documents. Such brocades were already to be found in Liao dynasty tombs, but evidence for the lampas-woven nasji only comes into evidence during the Yuan dynasty, prominent examples being found at Mingshui (Inner Mongolia), the Salt Lake (Xinjiang) and Zhangxian (Gansu).

The written and archaeological record suggests that woven gilt textiles were more highly valued during the Yuan period than those adorned with gilt embroidery or printing, possibly due to the woven textiles being less bulky, stiff and fragile. Mongol robes usually had a cross collar with a right opening, narrow sleeves worn either long or short according to the weather, and even re-movable in some examples. There were also some types of skirt, in some cases with creped pleating near the waist, and with a ‘riding’ vent towards the right at the back. The most outstanding feature of Mongol costume, however, is the waist decoration of silk braiding, the so called bian xian, not unlike the modern cummerbund in its visual effect. These could be made of plied silk threads, twisted silk fabric, or even bands of silk fabric. The panels of the robes were secured to each other by means of tied ribbons, or silk loops that could be hooked onto silk knotted buttons. This type of robe survived into the early Ming dynasty, when it is was known as an yi sa in a text by Wang Shizhen (1526-1590).

Zhao Feng
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