76 I China: Dawn of a Golden Age

By the High Tang, samite had become the major type of woven , but it is hard to find the source of the weave struc­ ture. There are two basic elements in samite weave, the weft­ faced patterning method and the 2.1 weave. Weft-faced patterning obviously derived from taquete. The source of the 2.1 twill is more difficult to identify. There are three possibili­ ties-twill jin, Tang samite, or western samite-but it is not known which used twill first, because both twill jin and samite occurred at the same time, and the 2.1 twill weave is not found in China or in western areas before the fifth century. Samite is a very important type of weave. After the mid­ Tang, samite, which combines the weft-faced patterning prin­ ciple and a twill foundation, became the dominant type of patterning method. In the late Tang, Liao, and Song dynasties (mid-eighth century-1273), samite was still used, though in a new version, the so-called Liao samite.48

CoNCLUSION

]in, taquete, and samite were three major types of woven found along the during the Han and Tang dynas­ Figure 75· Sutra wrapper with pattern of lions. Late 8th-9th century. ties. They also represent three stages in the development of Silk samite, 31 x 12 in. (78.6 x 30.6 em). Excavated at the Library Cave, silk . From the preliminary discussion above, a basic Dunhuang, Gansu Province, 1907. British Museum, London progression can be delineated. During the Han, jin (warp­ faced compound tabby) was the traditional silk-weaving several groups based on color and motif. 44 Examples are found technique in central China. When introduced to regions north­ in museum collections all over the world, including the tex­ west of China or even farther west, jin was copied or imitated tiles with lions from the Library Cave at Dunhuang (fig. 75 t by the local people, with either or silk, and took the form and the with duck at The Cleveland Museum of Art.46 of jin ribbons (silk ribbons woven in warp-faced compound One piece (cat. no. 244) features a woven Middle Persian tabby), wool taquete, and silk taquete (weft-faced compound inscription, so that some scholars attribute this group of tex­ tabby); made in the area of Xinjiang. Based on the combina­ tiles to Sasanian Persia.47 However, it is not known who wove tion of the weft-faced patterning method and a 2.1 twill foun­ this group of samites-Persian weavers in western areas, dation weave, samite (weft-faced compound twill) came into Sogdian weavers in Central Asia, or even Chinese weavers in existence and became the dominant technique for weaving northwestern China. They are mostly dated from the second patterns after the early Tang. Samite then evolved into Liao­ half of the eighth to the first half of the ninth century. style samite in the late Tang, Liao, and Song dynasties.