The industry of making needles in China has a long history. According to the recordings of archaeological materials, a bone needle was excavated from the late Paleolithic Era’s ruins in Shangdingdong, Zhoukoudian, Beijing. It was created about 18,000 years ago. With the length of 8.2 cm, the needle is point in its body and sharp in the point. The needle’s eye was dug out. In the Hemudu Neolithic Cultural Ruins of Yuyao, Zhejiang, over a hundred of ground bone needles were excavated, which were created about 7,000 years ago.
In the antique era, humans made needles out of bones to withstand wind and cold, so as to seek survival. They used bone needles to turn animal skin into simple clothes. Therefore, needle is an important product of humans’ progress. After entering the Iron Era, humans began to use steel to make needles.
According to the recordings of relevant archaeological materials, iron needles were excavated from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty’s pottery kilns in Houma, Shanxi Province. In the No.2 Chu Dynasty tomb, a steel needle (see Figure 2) was excavated from the Baoshan Mountain, Jinmen, Hubei Province. The needle’s eye is flat and its cross section is round. At present, this needle is the earliest found steel needle in China.
The Heavenly Creations written by Song Yingxing in the middle Ming Dynasty recorded the process of making needles at that time. The specific techniques included drawing wire, cutting, cold forging, drilling the hole, annealing, surface carburizing treatment and quenching.
Between the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, the Chinese traditional needle-making industry flourished in some regions.
At that time, Dayang Town, Jincheng County of Shanxi Province enjoyed the good reputation of “China’s Needle Capital”, and the hand sewing needles it produced were famous throughout China. It was said that there were 72 procedures for producing Dayang’s hand needles and its process was all completed by hand. At that time, almost all families in Dayang Town made needles. Besides Shanxi’s Dayang Town, Guangdong’s Foshan, Shandong’s Linqing and Yunnan’s Heqing were also important towns for the needle-making industry. The needles produced by these needle-making towns were supplied to the market of the country.
Although the Chinese traditional needle-making industry flourished between the later Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty and even became the pillar industry of some towns and cities, they only expanded in terms of the production scale. The techniques of making needles had no substantial progress. They had always remained in the level of making by hand.