Xilankapu: The Beautiful Story of Tujia Culture in Zhangjiajie
In the Tujia language, 'Xilankapu' refers to Tujia brocade. 'Xilan' means 'quilt cover' and 'kapu' means 'flower,' so 'Xilankapu' is the Tujia floral quilt—a precious dowry for Tujia girls. Xilankapu is usually made from silk, cotton, or hemp, with red, blue, and black as the standard warp colors, while weft colors can be freely chosen. Using traditional looms...
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In the Tujia language, 'Xilankapu' is a kind of Tujia brocade. 'Xilan' means 'quilt cover,' and 'kapu' means 'flower.' 'Xilankapu' is the Tujia flowered quilt, a precious dowry of Tujia girls. Xilankapu mostly uses silk, cotton, and hemp as raw materials, generally with red, blue, and black as the warp threads, while the weft threads can be freely chosen in color. It is hand-woven on an old-style loom with a pattern-picking knife using the methods of continuous warp and broken weft and reverse-side pattern picking. Xilankapu has a generous composition, exquisite weaving, rich patterns, and bright, warm yet antique colors, and is called a living fossil of Tujia culture.
Xilankapu has a long history and distant origins, traceable at least to the ancient Ba people period more than four thousand years ago. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the textile industry in the Tujia region developed rapidly, and the 'cloth' woven there became a famous tribute item. During the Three Kingdoms period, under the policy of Zhuge Liang of Shu, who said, 'Now the people are poor and the state is empty; to defeat the enemy we can rely only on brocade,' the people of the Tujia region gradually mastered the advanced dyeing techniques of the Han people and wove colorful 'Tujia brocade.' During the Tang and Song dynasties, with increased economic exchange between the Tujia region and the Han people, the textile industry in the Tujia region further developed, and the social atmosphere appeared in which 'women are diligent in weaving, and every household has the sound of looms.'
The motifs of Xilankapu cover a wide range of subjects, involving almost every aspect of Tujia life, and the basically established traditional patterns have reached about one hundred and twenty kinds. The selection of its subjects is inseparably connected with Tujia life and customs, and it is a vivid artistic portrayal of the relationship between the Tujia people and nature.
In the use of color, Xilankapu has both brilliant and intense contrasts and plain, elegant tonal harmony. The Tujia people favor red and black. Because red is a warm color representing brightness, and black is a cool color symbolizing solemnity, Xilankapu mainly uses red, supplemented by black, interspersed with yellow, blue, and white accents. The coloring is antique, rich, and substantial, colorful and varied, harmonized within contrast, and colorful within plainness, splendid yet not vulgar, plain yet not monotonous, giving people a sense of brightness, liveliness, and vitality.
Legend of Origin
Regarding the origin and development of 'Xilankapu,' historical records contain only fragmentary accounts. The 'Langan fine cloth' of the Ailao Yi, described in the Book of Later Han, Account of the Southwestern Man and Yi, as 'weaving patterned damask and brocade,' was the predecessor of the Tujia flowered quilt. It is said that the 'Wuling Man' had the customs of 'weaving and spinning tree bark, dyeing with plant fruits,' 'liking five-colored clothes,' and 'garments being brightly patterned.' 'Wuling Man' was one of the names used for the Tujia people in history. The Tujia people's long tradition of excelling at weaving has been preserved, and until around the time of the replacement of hereditary local rulers by centrally appointed officials, both men and women still maintained the custom of 'liking brightly patterned clothing.' In general literature, the Tujia flowered quilt has been given various different names: the Longshan County Gazetteer compiled during the Tongzhi period says: Tujia brocade 'is made by spinning five-colored threads, with colors so brightly patterned and lovely. Customarily used as a quilt, or made into clothing skirts, or made into kerchiefs, hence also called gang kerchief.' The Yongshun Prefecture Gazetteer says: 'Brocade cloth is Tujia brocade.' 'The local people weave the weft with one hand and pick patterns with a small ox horn with the other, thus forming five colors.' The so-called 'gang kerchief,' 'Tujia brocade,' and similar terms such as 'Tujia silk' and 'gang brocade' all refer to the Tujia flowered quilt.
Another legend says that Xilan is a person's name, and Kapu is the flowered cloth she wove. It is said that Xilan was the most beautiful and clever girl in a Tujia mountain village. She embroidered all the hundred flowers in the mountains, but had never seen the ginkgo flower, which blooms in the middle of the night and withers in the middle of the night. In order to embroider the ginkgo flower, she alone climbed the tall ginkgo tree at midnight to converse with the ginkgo flower, but unexpectedly was discovered by her ugly and wicked sister-in-law. Her brother believed his wife's slander and cut down the ginkgo tree with an axe. Xilan fell to her death, but her embroidery art was passed down by the Tujia people.
Significance and Function
The Tujia flowered quilt has practical, ritual, and aesthetic significance in the lives of the Tujia people. It is not only famous for being durable, but is also the main dowry in Tujia marriage customs. Objectively, it is a symbol of the bride's family's economic status and proof of whether the daughter has been well brought up, and it is especially eye-catching in the dowry procession viewed by others and in the newlywed room furnishings evaluated by guests. Therefore, when Tujia girls marry, they all have flowered quilt covers woven with their own hands. The bride's parents take pride in giving an exquisite Tujia flowered quilt as dowry, and the family taking a daughter-in-law also uses it to judge the bride's skill and wisdom in needlework. It can be seen that the weavers of Tujia flowered quilts were mostly young women from about ten-plus to twenty years old. They were in an age of budding love and full of hope and fantasy for the future, and specially retrieved wild plants such as safflower, gardenia, turmeric, Dongdong tree, and gallnut from deep in the mountains to make dyes, dyeing homespun cotton yarn in various colors. Whenever they had a little spare time, they sat by the wooden loom picking patterns and embroidering, filling the weft threads on the loom with colored yarn or silk threads and weaving original and ingenious pattern designs.
Patterns and Colors
The most striking artistic features of the Tujia flowered quilt are its rich, full patterns and bright, intense colors. The pattern designs of the Tujia flowered quilt include major categories such as natural object patterns, geometric patterns, and character patterns. Their common characteristics are, first, that geometric patterns occupy a relatively large proportion. Even those patterns with stronger descriptive quality drawn from natural objects have been transformed, to suit colored weaving, into geometric forms composed of squares, triangles, straight lines, and other shapes and lines. For example, 'Rock Wall Flower' draws inspiration from the principle of mountain people stacking stones of various sizes into walls; 'Rapeseed Flower' comes from the fineness of rapeseed flowers; and 'Zeluoli' embodies the rise and fall of water waves, and so on. Second, the patterns and motifs are rich in variation. Looking at a single quilt cover (three panels make one bed), there are large motifs such as 'Forty-Eight Hooks' and 'Lang Kumei,' and small motifs such as 'Baba Rack'; some take rectangles as the main motif, such as 'Chair Flower'; some take hexagons as the main motif, such as 'Hook Flower' and 'Twenty-Four Hook Flower'; some take octagons as the main motif, such as 'Table Flower'; and some arrange the main motif in diamond-shaped diagonal grids as a four-way continuous pattern, such as 'Small White Plum,' 'Solid Flower,' and 'Yizhang Gai.' The 'Dangtou' (also called 'Langan,' called 'Kata' in the Tujia language) patterns at both ends of the quilt cover also have many varieties, such as the commonly used 'Moon,' 'Monkey Palm,' 'Longevity Character,' 'Zeluoli,' 'Supi,' 'Zhatugai,' 'Vine Flower,' and so on, which set off the overall quilt cover pattern. Third, they favor auspicious and celebratory meanings and motifs of mountain flowers, plants, birds, and beasts: 'Phoenix Piercing Peony' symbolizes glory, wealth, and honor; 'Wild Deer Holding Flowers' symbolizes longevity of a thousand years; the character 'wan' expresses wishes for ten thousand blessings and ten thousand years of life; 'dragon' suggests nobility and prominence; and the intentions of character patterns such as 'Fortune, Emolument, Longevity, and Joy,' 'A Hundred Years of Long Life,' and 'Both Wealth and Honor' are even more obvious. From this one can see the hardworking and wise Tujia people's love of life, their deep feelings for the natural environment in which they live, and their strong yearning for a better life.
The colors of the Tujia flower bedspread patterns are bright and vivid. The Tujia people are quite particular about color coordination in their flower bedspreads. A three-character verse sings: "Black with white, where can you find. Red with green, hard to choose. Blue with yellow, shines bright." This shows that Tujia flower bedspreads favor contrasting colors, using black and white to set off and highlight. Various hook-shaped, sawtooth-shaped, comb-tooth-shaped, seam-shaped, and interlocking border decorations, along with various polygonal small flowers as embellishments, are set against a black background with white edging. Thus, the primary and secondary patterns, set off by black and white, appear both clearly distinct and seamlessly integrated. Second, they favor warm colors, with large orange-yellow tones as the base, used for the main areas, while the specific color schemes are endlessly varied. Their patterns include themes from Tujia history, such as Four Phoenixes Carrying a Seal and Five Seals of the Tujia King; themes from daily life and customs, such as Two Phoenixes Facing the Sun, Dragon and Phoenix Bringing Prosperity, Qilin Bringing Children, Fortune, Wealth, Longevity and Happiness, Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate, Five Sons Passing the Imperial Examination, Mandarin Ducks Playing in Water, Wild Deer Holding Plum Blossoms, and Mice Marrying Off Their Daughter; themes from natural scenery, such as Zhangjiajie Scenery and Tujia Stilted Houses; and themes from animals and plants, such as Monkey Flower, Tiger Head Flower, Cat Paw Print Flower, Dog Tooth Flower, Rose, Chrysanthemum, and Monthly Red, among others. Tujia brocade has unique craftsmanship, beautiful designs, and rich content. Experts call it a mother art that rivals Xiang embroidery in fame. In Tujia mountain villages, whether a girl can do cross-stitch embroidery is regarded as a sign of whether she is clever and skillful. Listen to this love song: A white cloth handkerchief has four corners, embroidered with wild geese on all four corners; even when the handkerchief is worn out, the wild geese remain—don't judge by looks, judge by skill.
Current Status
In 1957, a Tujia weaving expert meticulously crafted a "Xilankapu" with the pattern "Developing the Mountain Areas," blending traditional techniques and pouring in love for the Party and for the new life. It was selected for the China Arts and Crafts Exhibition and toured Eastern European countries, winning praise from people and experts of various nations. Especially since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, young Tujia weaving experts, building on tradition, have created more than ten new works, including "Shaoshan Scenery," "Eight Views of Beijing," "Hand-Waving Dance," "Panda," "Dark Cloud Flower," "Butterfly and Chrysanthemum," "Lion Rolling the Embroidered Ball," "Five Seals of the Tujia King," "Zhangjiajie Scenery," "Seventy-Two Hooks," and "Longevity Star Flower," adding brand-new content to the prosperity of ethnic art.
Characteristics of Tujia Brocade Products
Tujia brocade is a handmade art piece woven entirely by hand by Tujia women using an ancient wooden waist loom, with cotton yarn as the warp and colorful silk or cotton threads (now sometimes wool) as the weft.
The artistic varieties of Tujia brocade, after more than two thousand years of evolution, have expanded beyond the original "Xilankapu" (i.e., bedspread flower) to include various patterned wall hangings, sachets, clothing, travel bags, sofa covers, cushions, carpets, interior decorations, and many other arts and crafts based on the changes of the times. The clever Tujia women, with their skillful hands and nimble minds, depict landscapes, figures, trees, flowers, birds, and beasts with vivid and lifelike images.
Tujia brocade has a long history. As early as the Han Dynasty, it began to emerge. The Book of Later Han: Biographies of the Southwestern Barbarians records: "The Wuling Man weave and twist tree bark, dye with plant fruits, their clothes are brightly colored..." The Yongding County Gazetteer compiled during the Qing Tongzhi period also says: "Tujia brocade is woven with five-colored warp threads, its patterns are brilliantly colorful and lovely, used as bedspreads or for making clothes and skirts, or for making kerchiefs, hence also called 'tube kerchief.'" "Xilankapu" is also called "flower bedspread." "Xilan" means bedspread; "Kapu" means flower. Joined together, it means a "flowered bedspread."
Traditional Xilankapu was formerly produced and used domestically, rarely known to outsiders, let alone famous worldwide. From the 1950s to the early 1980s, it gradually stepped out of Xiangxi, moving toward China and the world. In 1985, five "Developing the Mountain Areas" brocade wall hangings, jointly created by Tujia veteran artisan and "Chinese Arts and Crafts Master" Ye Yucui and Han arts and crafts artist Li Chang'e, were exhibited at the London International Exposition and received high praise. Two wall hangings woven by veteran flower-weaving artisans Zhu Momei and Xiong Jingwen were exhibited—one at the China Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Canada, and one at the China Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Tanzania and Zambia.
Elder Ye Yucui later created a series of Tujia brocade works, many of which were collected by the Ministry of Light Industry, the National Art Museum of China, and the Nanjing Silk Weaving Center. Some were even sent as artistic treasures for exhibition in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and the Philippines, winning many honors for the motherland. In February 1989, when former U.S. President Bush visited China, Premier Li Peng, in addition to giving Mr. and Mrs. Bush two "Flying Pigeon" brand bicycles, specially presented two Xiangxi Tujia brocade sachets. After looking at them, Mr. and Mrs. Bush praised them in unison, saying they were a rare "treasure of the world."
Today, Tujia brocade produced in Xiangxi has become a hot commodity for out-of-town visitors, and some are bought by compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan as well as foreign guests for their collections. The artistic characteristics of Tujia brocade mainly emphasize expression and creativity, excelling in spiritual resemblance. Its colors are bright and vibrant, with strong contrasts, symmetrical lines, and rich ethnic features. The products are durable and are handicraft treasures that visitors can both use and appreciate.
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