Chinese carpet

The Chinese carpet has its origins in the north-west of the country in the area around Xinjiang. Sadly, there is no contemporary record from which we can determine with any real accuracy how and when carpets were first created and began to be used. However, it is significant that in 1978 an archaeologist working from Xinjiang discovered a fragment of woollen fabric thought to be three thousand years old and which is likely to be the forerunner of the tufted carpet.
The traditional Chinese knotted carpets were normally made from wool but northern nomads would also use goat and camel hair. Early weavers found that silk had special qualities that gave nuances of colour as the light source changed or was varied. A quality that gave rise to the legend of the magic carpet! Pure silk is cool to the touch and this gave the silk carpet a further 'magical' and special quality.
The designs developed by the carpet weaver followed those in other established art forms and so we find Buddhist and Taoist symbols such as the swastika, the yin and yang motif as well as other religious imagery. Popular designs included lotus flowers, clouds as well as a variety of real and mythical animals such as dragons, the phoenix, elephants, horses and bats. The bat (fu) sharing its name with the Chinese word for luck was a particular symbol of good fortune.
These designs were largely symbolic rather than purely decorative and the colours used were those which were considered to be both elegant and of good taste. These included black, blue, red, white, beige and yellow.