Yellow-background Samite Featuring Kissing Turkeys in Petalled Floral Roundels Front

Weft-faced samite is a kind of textile woven by two or more weft threads crossing one single warp yarn. Patterns can be created based on variation of colors on the weft threads. Although evidence indicates that weft-faced samite appeared as early as in the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) of China, it is the warp-faced fabric that had been much more popular from the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BC-220 AD) to the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). It is thanks to the Silk Road which made interaction between western and eastern civilizations possible that the weft-faced technique often used in wool fabrics by people in Persia and the western regions of China was introduced to the Central Plain of China, heralding the emergence of weft-faced silk samite as the main fabric across ancient China. Easier to manage and accessible to more complicated yet splendid floral patterns, the weft-faced technique reached its heyday during the Tang dynasty.