China is the birthplace of silkworms and silkworms. Through long-term practice in planting, raising, spinning, and weaving silkworms, a unique and charming culture of silkworms and silkworms has emerged, reflecting the profound agricultural wisdom of the Chinese nation. As a major silk country, China has made significant contributions to the invention and improvement of weaving machines. China's weaving machines have a long history and a wide variety. According to its evolutionary history, it can be roughly divided into primitive waist looms, pedal looms, jacquard looms, etc; According to the different types of silk fabrics, they can be divided into silk weaving machines, ribbed weaving machines, velvet weaving machines, etc. The evolution of ancient weaving machines and weaving techniques in China has become the foundation for the continuous enrichment of silk fabric varieties and the growth and development of the silk industry. The famous Chinese historian of science and technology, Joseph Needham, said in his book "A History of Science and Technology in China": "The Chinese people gave weaving tools an excellent name: machine. From then on, machine became synonymous with wit, cleverness, and agility."
The early weaving machines in China were generally referred to as primitive waist looms. During weaving, the weaver sits on the ground, uses his body as a frame, pedals the warp with his feet, ties a roll of cloth to his waist, and holds a crossbar to form a shed. He then throws the shuttle and beats the weft to weave the fabric. The earliest known primitive waist machine components were unearthed from the Hemudu and Tianluoshan sites in Zhejiang over 7000 years ago. The most complete primitive waist machine combination is the weaving machine jade ornaments from the Zhejiang Fanshan Cemetery, which dates back more than 4000 years. This set of jade ornaments consists of three pairs of six pieces, symmetrically distributed on both sides when unearthed, with a distance of about 35 centimeters. On the Han Dynasty bronze shell storage vessels unearthed in Shizhaishan, Yunnan, scenes of people using primitive waist machines to weave fabrics can also be seen. This type of primitive waist loom is still used in ethnic minority areas in southwestern China, Hainan, Taiwan, and other places, and is also quite common around the world. It is the earliest weaving machine invented and used by humans. Although the original waist machine structure was simple, consisting only of a few wooden sticks, it was still able to successfully weave simple fabrics. Its emergence not only greatly improved the original weaving technology, but also laid the foundation for the emergence of various weaving machines in later generations.
A pedal loom is a general term for a loom with a foot operated lifting and opening device. The original loom requires the use of a handheld heald opening during operation, while a pedal loom uses a foot pedal to lift or press down on the heald to control the opening. It adopts the lever principle in physics and uses a foot pedal to control the lifting of the heald, dividing the warp into upper and lower layers, forming a triangular opening that allows the weaver to free up their hands specifically for shuttle and weft picking. It also uses a frame instead of a human body as a support, greatly improving production efficiency and weaving quality. The pedal loom had already appeared during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, but its true image was not until the Eastern Han period that it could be seen in a large number of Han painted stones. By the Qin and Han dynasties, it had been widely used in the vast areas of the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins. There are several types of pedal looms, including double warp single loom, single warp single loom, and double warp double loom. (Note: "Heel" refers to a device on a weaving machine that separates the warp threads in a staggered manner for the shuttle to pass through; "tiptoe" is also known as a foot, which is a pedal connected to the warp frame and controls the lifting movement of the warp frame with a foot tiptoe.)