Models and Wooden Figures of Textile Workers
Four bamboo-and-wood loom models were buried with textile tools and fifteen painted wooden figures in Han tomb No. 2 at Laoguanshan, Tianhui Town, Chengdu. The technology they depict belongs to the Western Han, approximately the second half of the second century BCE; 2013 was the year of their modern discovery. Researchers dated them from the tomb’s form, coins, and other evidence. The 2017 paper stated that radiocarbon dating had not yet been carried out, so no precise year of manufacture can be assigned to the models.
These objects miniaturized looms and workers while retaining the spatial relationships among the frames, shaft-lifting components, and some silk threads. An isolated fragment of wood may be difficult to identify, but alongside warping and winding equipment it becomes evidence for understanding the weaving process. The models remain reduced-scale funerary objects, with missing parts and possible omissions of features found on actual machines. Research must establish both what they depict and which areas have not survived intact.
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Warp, Weft, and Pattern
Warp threads run lengthwise along a loom, and weft threads pass across them. Weaving begins by raising some warp threads to create an opening, or shed, between the upper and lower layers, through which the weft is introduced. Successive interlacings form cloth. Plain weave can be made by alternately raising and lowering two groups of warp threads; repeating patterns require more groups to be selected in a predetermined sequence. The shafts that move these threads in groups are crucial to mechanical pattern weaving.
Reconstruction research uses differently colored warp threads to explain how Han warp-faced jin silks displayed their patterns: where a particular color was required, its warp threads appeared on the fabric’s face, while the other color remained on the reverse. The ground shafts produced the fabric’s basic interlacing, and the pattern shafts organized the design. Before weaving, craftspeople had to group the threads, thread the heddles, and arrange the pattern, then lift the shafts in sequence during weaving. Pattern repetition depended on this entire process of preparation and operation.
How Sliding Frames and Hook Rods Lifted the Shafts
The four models show two transmission mechanisms. Researchers interpret the larger model, L.186, as the sliding-frame type. Pressing one end of a treadle caused the other end to push a sliding frame upward in grooves in the uprights. The frame then moved the hook beam above, lifting the selected shaft rods and shafts. The hook beam’s position could be adjusted along the direction of the warp to select different pattern shafts. These components transmitted the foot’s movement to the warp; the foot did not directly pull all the silk threads.
The other three, smaller models used hook rods on both sides for lifting. Linkages converted treadle movement into the raising and lowering of shafts. Both types connected the provision of power with the selection of pattern shafts, but arranged the intermediate components differently. Understanding the distinction requires tracing movement through every connection, rather than merely examining the frame’s outline. The operating mechanism proposed by reconstruction research must also account for the positions of corresponding components on the original models.
The Many Processes Behind a Piece of Brocade
Names written on the wooden figures’ chests, their poses, and the accompanying tools offer clues to the division of labor. Researchers interpret some as weavers sitting beside looms and associate others with warping, silk winding, and winding the weft. Warping prepared the warp threads in the required lengths, numbers, and arrangement, while silk and weft winding made threads suitable for later use. A weaving workplace therefore encompassed several interconnected activities.
This interpretation shifts attention from a single machine to a workshop. If threads were grouped incorrectly during heddle threading, the error could recur with every repeat; poor coordination between thread supply and weaving could also interrupt operation. Mechanical devices organized movements more regularly, but skilled workers still carried out setup, coordination, and correction. The figures can suggest roles and processes, but cannot alone establish each worker’s legal status or wages, or the relationship between the tomb’s occupant and an entire workshop.
Testing Interpretations Through Reconstruction
A reconstruction project led by the China National Silk Museum documented and measured the excavated models and associated tools and built working pattern looms. The museum’s 2017 annual report records that four sets of loom models, related tools, and wooden figures were reproduced that year, along with a sliding-frame hook-shaft pattern loom. It also records completion of the heddle threading for approximately seventy shafts in the reproduction of the jin silk bearing the inscription “Five stars rise in the east, benefiting China” (五星出东方利中国). Modern research reconnected static components into a moving system, using actual weaving to test whether the proposed mechanism could work.
An experiment that successfully weaves a pattern demonstrates that a particular assembly is feasible. Establishing that it reproduces the precise ancient method still requires comparison with holes and grooves, wear, surviving silk threads, and component dimensions on the originals. Missing portions of the models, mechanisms added during reconstruction, and adjustments made during trial weaving should be recorded separately.
Laoguanshan’s importance is that it provides inspectable mechanical objects for the study of multi-shaft pattern weaving in the Han period. It also offers a starting point for investigating exchanges of weaving technology. The ability of silk textiles to travel long distances does not automatically prove that the complete machines used to make them spread along the same routes. Tracing later pattern-weaving devices still requires continuous evidence from different regions and periods.