The intangible cultural heritage of Kesi silk : As valuable as gold

Chinese silk tapestry, also named ‘Kesi,’ is an essence of Chinese traditional silk art.

The Kesi has a feature that is similar to an engraving

Kesi silk uses raw silk threads as its warp and colored ripe silk threads as its weft,

weft silk threads are woven in accordance with the images and colors

of the pre-drawn patterns with a number of small shuttles.

The edges of the pattern on the fabric look like they are cut out from the areas without patterns

which is called “passing the warp and breaking the weft.”

The ancients described Kesi silk as “It looks like it's engraved.”

Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, Kesi silk has been one of the imperial fabrics,

which is often reputed as “valuable as gold.”