Evolution Of Socks

vocabulary evolution

The word "socks" first appeared in the "Annotation of Ancient and Modern China", which said: "Three generations and Zhou wear horns, tied with belts around the ankles." "Three generations" refers to the earliest recorded Xia, Shang and Zhou periods in China, which have been around since then. There are three or four thousand years of history. "Jiaoyu" should be the original socks made of animal skins, so it is written "韈". Later, with the advent of textiles, socks were developed from animal cloth to cloth, linen, and silk, and "韈" was changed to "socks" accordingly, and finally simplified to what we call "socks" today. The evolution process of the word "sock" actually contains the development process of the history of Chinese civilization.

ancient socks

The shape of ancient socks can be roughly divided into six types: tube socks, lace-up socks, pantyhose, tabi socks, bald socks and bottomless socks. There are tube stockings of different lengths, some as long as the abdomen, and some only to the ankle. Lace-up socks are not easy to fall off when wearing. Split-toed stockings separate the big toe from the other four toes, shaped like a crotch. Bald socks and bottomless socks were mostly used for women with bound feet in ancient times, commonly known as half socks.

socks of all dynasties

Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties

The socks in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties are triangular in shape and belong to lace-up socks, which can only be worn on the feet, and then tied to the ankle joints with ropes. This kind of socks lasted until the Han Dynasty. It was recorded in "Han Feizi": "King Wen attacked Chong and went to Fenghuang (Huang) Ruins. He solved it by hand, because it was knotted by himself." Garter belt. It was not until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period that triangle socks began to be replaced by a new type of socks.

Since the advent of textiles, although people's socks have been made of textiles, leather socks still exist, especially in the cold winter, leather socks are often more warm and practical than cloth socks.

There are very strict etiquette rules when people wear socks during the week. When the servants see the monarch, they must take off their socks before they can enter the court, otherwise it will be disrespectful. "Zuo Zhuan: Twenty-five years of Duke Ai" records such a story. It was common sense at that time to take off your socks and go to court. For people of the same generation and commensurate with their status, after taking off their shoes, whether to take off their socks indoors is a matter of respect. But if it is an elder or someone with a higher status than you is with you, you can't wear socks, you can only take off your socks. This situation is also reflected in the folk. For example, women at that time could not wear socks when serving Wenggu, and they respected their feet.

Of course, poor people could not often wear socks made of cotton and cotton. Socks were mostly worn by the upper class at that time, so they were a symbol of people's identity and social status at that time to a certain extent.

Qin and Han Dynasties

Western Han women's socks

Socks in the Qin and Han Dynasties were made of cooked leather and cloth, and rich people could wear silk socks. The socks are generally more than one foot high, with a belt at the top, which is tied with a belt when worn. The color is mostly white, but red is used for sacrifices. The most refined socks use silk yarn and embroidered patterns. Socks are mostly made of sock toe, with an opening at the back, and a garter belt attached to the opening, which is made of silk and yarn. The socks are double-layered, with finer silk on the top and thicker silk on the inside. The entire sock can be made from one piece of cloth.

Women's socks unearthed from the Han Tomb No. 1 Mawangdui in Changsha are made of plain silk. This kind of socks is made of high technology. If this is the beginning, the process of sewing socks in my country has a history of more than 2,000 years, which is much earlier than that in Western countries.

Another pair of women's socks unearthed from the Western Han tomb in Fenghuang Mountain, Jiangling, Hubei, was made of hemp. In this period, there are also brocade socks, silk socks, silk socks, fleece socks, felt socks and so on.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the hosiery technology was relatively high. For example, the treasures of the Eastern Han foot clothes unearthed from the Tomb No. 1 in the Minfeng Desert in Xinjiang, the brocade used requires 75 jacquard healds to be woven.

Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, socks were mostly made of linen, silk and cooked leather. Legend has it that Emperor Weiwen Cao Pi had a beautiful and clever concubine. She felt that the horn socks were clumsy, ugly and inconvenient to wear, so she tried to weave socks from sparse and soft silk, and changed the socks from triangles to modern ones. Sock type. As a result, the socks have been replaced by the "attached type" of the past to the "attached type" of the foot. Of course, such a story may not be credible, but silk socks, called Luo socks, did appear at this time. There is a description of this kind of socks in Cao Zhi's "Luo Shen Fu": "Lingbo micro-steps, Luo socks are dusty."

Tang and Song Dynasties

The socks of the nobles in the Tang Dynasty were mostly made of brocade. In Tang Fengzhi's "Notes Pearl", it was recorded that Yang Guifei left a brocade stocking in Feng Wei after her death: "On the day of Yang Guifei's death, Feng Wei received a brocade stocking."

Pantyhose appeared in the Song Dynasty. Judging from the silk women's pantyhose unearthed in De'an, Jiangxi, this kind of socks is generally in the shape of a round head, with an opening at the back, and two ribbons are nailed. The bottom edge of the socks is sewn with a circle of silk threads. Knit the bottom of the socks with silk thread.

Yuan Ming and Qing Dynasties

sock

After cotton was widely planted in the Yuan Dynasty, socks were mostly made of cotton.

White cloth with fragrant borders, Gaojin cotton, Qing Dynasty

During the Jiajing period, Zhenjiang felt socks were popular. After Wanli, men began to wear oil mop socks. With the development of handicraft industry, white cashmere socks appeared for nobles, while commoners wore dry cashmere socks.

Folk socks in the Qing Dynasty were also generally made of cotton, while the nobles used silk and satin socks. Most of the emperor's socks in the Forbidden City are bordered with gold satin and are embroidered with patterns and colors. In 1879, European countries imported knitwear into China, and foreign socks, gloves and other knitwear were introduced to the mainland through Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other ports. Affected by this, businessmen have successively set up knitting enterprises in the main import ports along the coast, and socks are mostly knitted products since then.