Huang Daopo

Timeline

1. c. 1245–1260Wunijing, Songjiang Prefecture · SongjiangTao Zongyi's Nancun Chuogeng Lu and Wang Feng's Wuxi Ji record her as a native of Wunijing, Songjiang. Poor as a girl, she was sold as a child bride, unable to bear abuse, she traveled south by sea along the Huangpu River, and is one of the few named female artisans in the history of Jiangnan cotton textiles.
2. c. 1260–1295Yazhou · YazhouShe lived in Yazhou, Hainan for about thirty years, learning cotton spinning and weaving 'Yazhou quilts' and other kapok crafts from Li women. She cross-referenced Li brocade techniques of patterned yarn, color matching, heddling and pattern-picking with mainland hemp and silk experience, accumulating technical knowledge for later tool improvements.
3. 1295–1320Wunijing, Songjiang Prefecture · SongjiangDuring the Yuanzhen era she returned to Wunijing by sea, 'personally spinning cotton and weaving Yazhou quilts for her own use, teaching the women of other families without tiring.' She improved the treadle ginning cart and the bow for fluffing cotton, and with a foot-treadle spinning wheel drew three threads at once, weaving quilt bands bright as patterned silk; Songjiang cotton cloth thereby spread across the commanderies.
4. c. 1320–1330Wunijing, Songjiang Prefecture · SongjiangIn her later years she continued teaching textile work, dying around 1330. In 1337 local people built a shrine in her memory. Her techniques shifted Jiangnan from silk and hemp dominance to widespread cotton cloth, making her a key transmitter of craft in the context of the Song–Yuan economic center's southward shift.