Where did the red underwear for the birth year come from?

The New Year is coming, and from the city to the home, everything is surrounded by red. Especially for friends born in the Year of the Tiger, whether you are usually the exquisite Amy or the fashionable Jeremy, are you forced to wear red pants and red belts at this moment?

Are you forced to abandon the urban beauty fashion and wondering: Why red?

During the Spring Festival, red elements are everywhere｜Pixabay

Red worship: a color not suitable for ordinary people to wear

Wearing red belts and red pants both originated from the custom of "hanging red" in the year of one's birth.

The ancients witnessed the sunrise and sunset in 12 hours a day, and summarized the law of spring birth, summer growth, autumn harvest and winter death in the rotation of 12 months; therefore, they believed that humans, like all things, also have their own life cycle, and the length of this cycle is 12 years. The ancients believed that every time a person goes through a cycle, he will experience reincarnation, and the birth year is the last year of this cycle. Successfully going through the birth year means the beginning of a new life cycle.

Based on this folk psychology, over the past thousands of years, many folk customs have gradually formed to ward off evil and pray for blessings. Among them, the custom of "hanging red" is the most widely spread. Simply put, "hanging red" means wearing red accessories on the New Year's Eve of the birth year to ward off evil and pray for blessings. Today, wearing red belts and red pants that we are familiar with is a manifestation of the custom of hanging red.

Jade Chinese Zodiac Signs｜Rosemania / flikckr

However, why do we choose to "hang red" instead of "hang green" or "hang purple"? Many scholars believe that the folk custom of "preferring red" in my country originated from the ancient people's awe of blood, sun and fire. These three elements brought the initial shock to ancient humans, and they are visually close to red, so red was given a sacred meaning by the ancestors, which may be the source of the secular meaning of red "warding off evil and avoiding evil". In addition to "warding off evil and avoiding evil", under the logic of the five elements in China, red also echoes the "joy" in the five emotions of "joy, anger, sadness, fear and worry", and also refers to auspiciousness and auspiciousness. This is why every Spring Festival, everyone wants to be red from head to toe and use red to the extreme.

However, in ancient times, red was not a color that anyone could wear. As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, red was listed as one of the five primary colors of "black, red, blue, white, and yellow", and was endowed with a strong ritual meaning, becoming a symbol of nobility and authority. The Zhou Dynasty even regarded red as the color of the dynasty. "The Book of Rites: Tan Gong Shang" records that "the Zhou people valued red, used the sun for major events, used military uniforms for military events, and used red horses for sacrificial animals." This means that the Zhou people admired red, and even the horses used for sacrifices had to be red. Before the Sui and Tang dynasties, red clothing had always been exclusive to the royal family and was even banned among the people.

The Forbidden City also has many red elements｜Pixabay

It was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty that red really "flew into the homes of ordinary people". In the early Ming Dynasty, ordinary women were not allowed to wear bright red. But by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the court was too busy to take care of itself, and the ban was gradually relaxed. The ordinary people's "love of red" that had been suppressed for thousands of years quickly spread. The Qing Dynasty's "Yueshi Bian" wrote that "the family carrying stones would not be dressed unless they wore embroidered clothes in bright red, and the maids on missions would not be gorgeous unless they wore bright red linings." It had reached the point where they would not go out without wearing red. In the Qing Dynasty, the use of red among the ruling class began to decrease, and the people finally achieved "red freedom" - in the classic novel "Dream of Red Mansions", there were 31 color words for red. Red is the color word with the widest color range in ancient Chinese color words. Zhu, Chi, Fei, 縓, 纁, and Fei Se can all be classified as "red", which can be said to be "colorful red".

Although red was highly valued in ancient my country, it was not easy to obtain it. What is even more unimaginable is that in an era when only the royal family and nobles could enjoy red, this noble color actually came from an inconspicuous "grassroots".

Madder Cordyceps: A small grass root dyed the emperor's clothes

Before the Tang Dynasty, Rubia cordifolia was the main plant used to extract red dye in China. On the surface, this climbing herb seems to have nothing to do with red - it has small white flowers and four whorled small leaves that are emerald green, without any trace of red. However, when the ancients carefully observed the madder, they found that its underground part was obviously red, so they thought of using it to dye fabrics red.

Rubia cordifolia leaves | Vinayaraj / Wikimedia Commons

From ordinary "little grass roots" to noble red, madder has come a long way. In many people's minds, the ancients dyed fabrics by simply putting plants with natural colors together with fabrics, soaking them, and boiling them. In fact, the technical content of the ancients' dyeing cloth is much higher than we think.

It is the red rhizome that makes madder a dye | Amit Verma / indiamart.com

The coloring substances in madder have no affinity for fabric fibers, so madder dyeing requires "mordant dyeing". The fabric needs to be soaked in a mordant solution containing a mordant, and then the fabric is dyed with the dye solution boiled with madder.

The color of madder dyeing is closely related to the mordant. Only when aluminum salt is used as a mordant can the red color be the brightest. It is shocking that thousands of years ago, our clever ancestors had already mastered the madder dyeing method using materials containing aluminum salts such as toon ash and alum as mordants, and could even use the methods of adding dyeing and over-dyeing to control the depth of the color.

Linen dyed with Alizarin Crimson | CATHARINE ELLIS / ellistextiles.com

In the "Kaogong Ji" of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there is a record that "the first dye is called 縓, the second dye is called 赪, and the third dye is called 纁". The deep red dye in the unearthed cultural relics of Mawangdui is also the color obtained by dyeing with aluminum salt mordant and madder.

The base color of the "Longevity Embroidery" unearthed from the No. 1 Han Tomb of Mawangdui was dyed with madder｜Hunan Provincial Museum

The red color dyed by madder root is somewhat different from the bright red in our modern sense. Although repeated dyeing can increase the saturation of madder root dyeing, the overall color of the dyed fabric is darker. This color has a special term called Turkey red in the printing and dyeing industry. Although it can only dye earthy red, madder root still occupies the dominant position in the world of red dyes. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that a plant from the Western Regions broke this situation and brought a more saturated and brighter red.

Red flower: determines the color of lipstick

Starting from the Tang Dynasty, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), a plant of the Asteraceae family imported from the Western Regions, replaced madder and dominated the red dye market.

It's called red flower, but the flower is yellow | Pseudoanas / Wikipedia

Safflower has been used by humans for a long time, but its main business at that time was not textile dyeing, but the funeral industry. Yes, you read that right, the funeral industry. The earliest record of using safflower as a dye can be traced back to Egypt in the 25th century BC. At that time, the yellow pigment of safflower was believed to have an antiseptic effect, so it was used by the Egyptians to make bandages for wrapping mummies.

During the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian went on a diplomatic mission to the Western Regions and brought safflower back to the Central Plains. By the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, safflower dyeing technology had become very mature. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the "real red" dyed from safflower began to lead the fashion trend. The poet Li Zhong wrote the following poem for safflower: "The color of safflower overshadows thousands of flowers, even scarlet blood has not been added. Dyed light red is not expensive, the ancients respected frugality and warned against luxury." This means that the red dyed from safflower is redder than the color of all flowers, even redder than orangutan blood. This shows that the red dyed from safflower has a higher saturation and is much brighter than the red dyed from madder.

Clothes dyed with safflower｜japanesetex-style

However, it is not easy to get a beautiful red color from safflower. Modern scientists have discovered that the petals of safflower contain two pigments, one red and one yellow. To get a beautiful red dye, the yellow must be removed first.

Silk thread dyed with red and yellow pigments from safflower｜Yuki

Fortunately, the two pigments have very different temperaments. Yellow pigment is soluble in water and acidic solutions, while red pigment is only soluble in alkaline solutions and will precipitate in acidic solutions. Therefore, the ancients came up with a way to remove the yellow and keep the red - the killing flower method.

According to the "Qimin Yaoshu", in order to make safflower dye, the ancients would collect safflower petals in the morning before the dew dried, then crush them, wash off part of the yellow pigment with water, then use a weak acid solution such as rice washing water to remove the remaining yellow pigment, press the remaining flowers containing red pigment into cakes, sterilize them with Artemisia annua juice and store them. When they are needed, soak these flower cakes in alkaline water to extract the red pigment, and then you can get a stable red dye.

Drying red cakes｜Soumuzume/ photozou.jp

Such flower cakes are convenient for transportation and storage, and can better meet the requirements of large-scale production. It is worth mentioning that safflower is not only popular in the weaving and dyeing industry, but also in the cosmetics industry - safflower cakes can not only be used for dyeing, but also for making rouge and lipstick, dominating the lipstick colors of ancient ladies.

In this way, it is natural that safflower, an all-round player, replaced madder to become the "world leader". However, during the Tang Dynasty when safflower dyeing was popular, a new dyeing force was rising in the south, quietly waiting for its own era to come.

Sumu: Give you "colorful red"

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a plant called Caesalpinia sappan from the Leguminosae family quietly entered the Central Plains from Lingnan. From the appearance, it may be hard to imagine that it can bring the richest and most gorgeous red.

Sumac doesn't seem to have anything to do with red.｜Forestowlet / Wikimedia Commons

Sumu, also known as Sufangmu and red wood, is a small tree with beautiful pinnate leaves, yellow flowers, and small conical thorns on its stems. From the outside, Sumu, like madder, seems to have nothing to do with red, but the red of Sumu is hidden in its "core" - after removing the outer bark and sapwood of Sumu, the core wood of Sumu is dried in the shade and can be used as a dye.

Split Sumac wood | David E Mead / Wikimedia Commons

Sumac dyeing also requires the use of mordants. Compared with madder, the biggest advantage of Sumac dyeing is its variability. In the process of Sumac dyeing, different mordants can be used to obtain various colors from red, crimson to dark purple and even black. In the Ming Dynasty, Song Yingxing's "Heavenly Creations" used Sumac in five colors, including wood red, ling color, lotus brown, sky blue and grape green. It is no exaggeration to say that Sumac can not only dye "colorful" red, but also many other colors, which can be called an "all-round player" among dyes.

Changing the conditions to dye different colors with hematoxylin | Reference [5]

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, when red entered the lives of ordinary people, the diverse Sumac satisfied people's more diversified demands for red, and naturally became the last overlord of the plant red dye world.

After the Opium War, with the introduction of industrial dyes into China, hematoxylin dyeing gradually withdrew from the historical stage. But now, hematoxylin still finds a place in the kitchens of Lingnan. It is said that in Boluo County, Huizhou, Guangdong, people still retain the custom of using hematoxylin core wood to boil water to dye food.

The hematoxylin stain familiar to lab dogs comes from logwood rather than hematoxylin | Reefmonky / Wikimedia Commons

Finally, I have to say to friends who are born in the Year of the Tiger that there is no scientific basis for the saying that people born in the Year of the Tiger have bad luck. Looking back on one’s life, one’s Year of the Tiger is the age with the most changes in life—12 years old is when one enters puberty, 24 years old is when one first enters society, and 36 years old is when one really takes on the burden of life… At this age, one will naturally face all kinds of new challenges.

Besides, life has its ups and downs, and it is not just in this year of birth that things go wrong...

References

[1] Lang Qing. Research on the Red Dyeing of Plants and Trees and Its Culture[D]. China Academy of Art, 2018.

[2] Wang Xingye. An analysis of multiple metaphors in the ancient custom of favoring red[J]. Folk Art History, 2021.

[3] Guo Xinru, Wang Na, Chen Tianyu. A study of the cultural customs of the Chinese zodiac year from the perspective of transitional rituals [J]. Art Circles, 1996.

[4] Liang Jiaou. Exploring the worship phenomenon of the year of birth from the perspective of communication rituals[J]. Cultural Synthesis, 2020.

[5] Takahashi, Tetsuya & Tsurunaga, Yoko & Aso, Yuji & Yoshino, Katsumi. (2016). Color Fastness of Sappanwood-Dyed Silk and Insights into the Clothing Life of the Heian Period. Journal of Fiber Science and Technology. 72. 206-219. 10.2115/fiberst.fiberst.2016-0031.

Author: Ren Duoben Duoduo

Editor: Mai Mai

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