Silk Fabric with Pattern of Intertwining Lotuses on Yellow Ground

This silk fabric consists of a right-hand twill weave. The ground weft is yellow thread and is interwoven with a pattern of intertwining red lotuses, seed pods, and leaves in a weft of twill. Silk fabric (chou) is a general name for silk textiles intricately woven with plain or twill weaves. First appearing in the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-8 CE) and reaching its peak during the Ming and Qing dynasties, this type of silk is considered one of the main categories of traditional silk textiles. Silk fabric woven with colored patterns is made with a weft pattern in one or more colors and using various techniques. For instance, one commonly used technique involved weaving a design into the ground with a separate thread on its own shuttle and then cutting the thread after the design was completed (called wa suo, lit. "digging [the] shuttle"). Conversely, another technique involved maintaining one thread throughout the weaving process without cutting it (called changpao suo, lit. "long-run shuttle").