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904   TEXTILE REMAINS AND MSS. FROM CH`IEN-FO-TUNG [Chap. XXIV

them with other specimens of early Chinese textile art. But this is a task which must necessarily remain beyond my scope here. Apart from other limitations it will suffice to point out that reference to publications which show approximately datable decorated fabrics to be found in the great Shosbin collection (deposited in n. D. 749) and probably elsewhere in Japan is at present impossible to me, and that the study of the far more ancient decorated silks which my explorations of 1914 brought to light in abundance from cemeteries dating from Han times in the Lou-lan region is still far from being completed. Therefore I shall have to rest content with brief indications of the main types of Chinese design to be found among our Chien-fo-tung textiles and with references to such characteristic specimens as help best to illustrate them. For all details as well as for references, necessarily very incomplete, to works showing old products of Chinese industrial art with similar designs the entries in the Descriptive List will have to be consulted.

Two main types may be distinguished among the decorative designs of Chinese character. One comprises ' floral motifs pure and simple characterized by a tendency, varying in degree but always recognizable, towards naturalistic treatment, and often combined with animal figures, mostly birds. The other type is composed of geometric designs having for their base mostly one or another of such well-known and widely spread motifs as the ` lozenge diaper ' or ` repeating spot '. These motifs, too, often tend to become floral and even naturalistic in their application.°

As regards the first type it is significant, but scarcely surprising, that we should find it represented in greâtest freedom among the designs worked by embroidery ; for obviously the needle of the embroiderer is not affected by the technical limitations which are bound to assure preference for designs more formal and conventionalized in the case of the products of the weaver's loom. In fact, all our embroidered fabrics show exclusively free floral design, though with considerable variations of motifs and arrangement. A comparison of the embroidery specimens repro-

G I take from an instructive note prepared by Miss Lorimer the following general observations on geometric designs among our fabrics :

The geometric designs are based for the most part on one or other of two main motifs—the lozenge diaper or lattice-work ', and the ` repeating spot '. In their simplest forms they are found chiefly in the damasks and gauzes, and on a small scale. In these the lattice-work is woven in plain thread-like lines, and the lozenges formed by it are empty or contain small inner lozenges or rosettes (e. g., Ch. 00440, 00503-5, and damasks of Ch. 00279 ; i. 0020 ; ]v. 0028). Sometimes the junctions of the lattice-work are thickened by square spots or other ornaments producing a sort of octagonal diaper (Ch. 00312, PL CXX ; Ch. liv. oo5, Pl. CXXI) ; sometimes it breaks up into a complicated form of key-pattern (Ch. 00430. b, 00499-500). In a slightly different way it is sometimes formed of bands of chevron touching at their points and thus enclosing rows of lozenge-shaped spaces in which are rosettes (Çh. 00240 ; 00342. b, Pl. Cxxl; 00489). Plain hexagonal diapers also occur, though less frequently (cf., e.g., the ground pattern of Ch. 00306, Pl. CXIII, and the hexagonal diaper formed of interlacing ellipses of Ch. 00338, Pl. CXXI; also damask of 00513). The repeating spot patterns consist of small quatrefoils (Ch. 00341, Pl. CXXI; damask of Ch. 00382); lozenges or groups of concentric lozenges (damask of Ch. 00280, 00340, Pl. CXXI) ; hexagonal spots (Ch. 00243, Pl. CXXI), and rosettes of various kinds

(Ch. 00374 ; damask z3 of Ch. lv. 0028, etc.).

In the gauzes, strictly geometric forms only are found ; but in the polychrome figured silks and the printed silks both types of pattern are generally more elaborate and more floral in character. The diagonals of the lattice-work, for instance, may be formed of branches with leaves sprouting on either side and the junctions marked by large rosettes (Ch. 00227, Pl. CVI), or of scroll-like masses of leaves and flowers enclosing • lozenge-shaped groups of the same. The latter type is found especially in the printed gauzes (e.g., Ch. 00307, Pl. CXIII). The repeating spots in the same Way become more naturalistic and show a greater range of forms, including : circular rosettes with small rosette at centre or a double ray of large petals (Ch. 00173, Pl. CxI); rosettes with leaves radiating from between the petals and forming a halo round the flower (figured silks 2 and 3 of Ch. lv. 0028, Pl. CVII ; printed silk Ch. 00308, Pl. CXIII); circular or lozenge-shaped masses of small flowers and leaves,.common amongst the printed silks (e.g., Ch. 00309, Pl. CXIII ; Ch. 00360, P1. CXXIII); and many other forms. One figured silk, however, of excellent weave and quality, shows a pattern of plain repeating "hearts" (Ch. 00178, Pl. Cx!).

In their primary forms these patterns arise everywhere spontaneously, and likeness between any two on different sides of the globe is no proof of historical contact between the two countries. The lozenge and hexagonal diapers of the Stein silks and the repeating lozenge spot are certainly of

Main types of Chinese designs.

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Naturalistic floral designs in embroideries.