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Textile cultural relics are the precious heritage of human history and culture, colors are an important expression of textile cultural relics, and dyes are the basic core of color expression. Dye archaeology is an important branch in the study of textile relics. By testing the colors and dyes of cultural relics and combining with ancient literature records, important historical information such as dye source, dyeing process, internal aesthetics, commodity circulation, age and origin of cultural relics can be obtained. The azurite satin with a crane roundel pattern in the Qing Dynasty is well preserved and rich in color, which to some extent represents the dyeing technology level of the Qing Dynasty, so it is of great value to study the history and culture of this silk cultural relic and the dyeing technology of China in the Qing Dynasty. To learn about the historical information contained in silk textile cultural relics of the Qing Dynasty and excavate the artistic value, the natural dyes used in the azurite satin with a crane roundel pattern collected in China National Silk Museum were detected by using HPLC-MS technology. The retention time of chromatography, the maximum absorption wavelength of the ultraviolet-visible spectrum, and primary and secondary mass spectrometry of the dye pigments were combined to identify the dye raw materials used in the cultural relics. In addition, the use of textile colors in the Qing Dynasty was analyzed by combining the identification results with relevant historical documents in the Qing Dynasty, such as Book of Cloth and Settlement Archives of Dyeing Workshops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The results showed that urolithin C, brazilien, curcumin and its two derivatives were detected in the orange embroidery thread of the azurite satin with a crane roundel pattern of the Qing Dynasty. Berberine, palmatine and indirubin were detected in the light green embroidery thread. Isoorientin, luteolin-O-glucoside, and indirubin were detected in the dark green embroidery thread. Indirubin was detected in the blue embroidery thread. It can be concluded that the orange yarn was dyed with sappanwood and turmeric, consistent with the color and dyes used to dye “apricot yellow” recorded in Book of Cloth, the light green yarn was dyed with barberry and indigo, which was similar to the dyeing process of sand green and bean green recorded in the ancient books of Settlement Archives of Dyeing Workshops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Qing Dynasty and The Exploitation of the Works of Nature of the Ming Dynasty. The dark green yarn was dyed with Vitex negundo and indigo, the blue yarn was dyed with indigo. The above colors and dyes correspond to the records in ancient literature, indicating that the process of dyeing secondary colors with multiple dyes in the Ming and Qing dyes was very mature, and people knew about the use of different dyes to obtain different shades of the same color. In this research, natural dyes used on the azurite satin with a crane roundel pattern of the Qing Dynasty collected by China National Silk Museum were detected and successfully identified, and this cultural relic is also the first case of Vitex negundo to be identified among Qing Dynasty silk fabric artifacts. Based on the dye records in ancient documents, this research speculates the dyeing process corresponding to the color of the cultural relics, and analyzes other information such as the production area of the cultural relics through the corresponding process characteristics and dye distribution in ancient books. The results can provide reference for the color restoration of the Qing Dynasty silk fabrics, and provide a scientific basis for the research on the dyeing history, the protection and display of the silk cultural relics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the natural dyes used in ancient times were plant dyes, with rich varieties, and the dyed colors were also very rich. In the Ming Dynasty, the ancients had mastered the basic process of dyeing, and the techniques of direct dyeing and mordant dyeing, as well as single dyeing and mixed dyeing, were also very mature. Various kinds of natural dyes and their dyeing methods were recorded in ancient books such as Heavenly Creations and Compendium of Materia Medica. For example, Heavenly Creations recorded the dyeing methods for colors such as bean green, wood red and purple, while Compendium of Materia Medica recorded that gardenia, turmeric, pagoda tree flower, young fustic and amur-cork tree alone can be used to dye yellow. Identifying the dyes in cultural relics can provide a theoretical basis for color recovery and color protection of textile relics, and promote the understanding of clothing quality and color standards at that time. To identify the natural dyes used in mandarin square robe with cranes embroidered on the red yarn ground in the Ming Dynasty, and to identify the botanical origin of the dyes, we used a non-destructive testing method, fiber-optic reflectance spectroscopy, to identify the dyes in the cultural relic. First, eight dyes (safflower, sappanwood, gardenia, turmeric, pagoda tree flower, young fustic, amur-cork tree, and indigo) frequently mentioned in ancient books of the Ming Dynasty were used to prepare reference materials for dyeing silk. Then, the absorption spectra of the dyed silk reference materials were obtained by using FORS technology, and the corresponding first-order derivative eigenvalues were made to obtain the maximum absorption wavelengths and first-order derivative eigenvalue positions in the spectra. Finally, we identified the dyes by comparing the differences in the absorption spectra and first-order derivative eigenvalues obtained from dyed silk reference materials and mandarin square robe with cranes embroidered on the red yarn ground in the Ming Dynasty. We detailed the maximum value of the absorption spectrogram of each dye, and took the first-order derivative of the curve in the spectrogram to obtain the first-order derivative eigenvalue. The maximum visible light absorption wavelength of safflower was located at 521 nm, and the first-order derivative eigenvalues were at 478 nm and 563 nm. The maximum absorption wavelengths of amur-cork tree were located at 346 nm and 429 nm, and the first-order derivative eigenvalues were located near 377 nm and 478 nm. The maximum absorption wavelengths of pagoda tree flower were located at 330 nm and 421 nm, and the pagoda tree flower of the first-order derivative eigenvalue was located near 473 nm. The maximum absorption wavelength of visible light of indigo was located near 634 nm, and the first-order derivative eigenvalue was located at 694 nm. By comparing the absorption spectra and first-order derivative diagrams of this cultural relic with those of the dyed silk reference materials, we identified that the red yarn was dyed by amur-cork tree and safflower, the yellow yarn was dyed by pagoda tree flower, the blue yarn was dyed by indigo dyes, and the green yarn was made by mixed dyeing of pagoda tree flower and indigo dyes. The dyeing techniques of the Ming Dynasty were highly sophisticated, with a wide variety of dyes, comprehensive chromatograms, and harmonious color matching, all of which demonstrated the wisdom of the ancient workers and the craftsmanship of the time. This study confirms that the dyes used in this cultural relic are consistent with the dyes of safflower, amur-cork tree, pagoda tree flower, and indigo recorded in ancient books such as Heavenly Creations, which can help to restore the historical appearance, protect the cultural heritage, and promote the research of dyes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]