According to archaeological findings, about 4,700 years ago China has been using silkworm silk to make silk thread, woven silk
Cocoon? silk
bands and simple silk fabrics. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, silk was used to weave silk fabrics such as Luo, damask, lace, yarn, crepe, chiffon, brocade and embroidery. Silkworms are mulberry silkworms, serpentine silkworms, castor silkworms, cassava silkworms, willow silkworms and tengzhi silkworms. The silk drawn from a single cocoon is called cocoon silk. It consists of two single fibers through the silk glue adhesive coating and become. Reeling, the cocoon of several cocoons out of the cocoon, through the silk glue into the silk, collectively known as silk. Remove the silk glue of the silk, known as refined silk. The largest amount of silk is mulberry silk, followed by quercus silk, other silk due to the limited number of resources have not been formed. Silk is light and slender, fabric luster, comfortable to wear, feel smooth and plump, poor thermal conductivity, moisture absorption and breathable, used for weaving a variety of satin and knitted fabrics, and used in industry, national defense and medicine and other fields. China, Japan, India, the former Soviet Union and North Korea is the main silk-producing countries, the total output accounted for more than 90% of world production. [1]?
Silk is one of the products of ancient Chinese civilization, the Chinese working people invented the production of very early things, according to legend, the Yellow Emperor's consort screw ancestor began to teach the people to raise silkworms; oracle bones have the word silk and silk beside the word is very much.
Chinese silk in the Han Dynasty has been exported abroad, the "Historical Records" Dawan biography recorded Zhang Qian mission to the Western Regions to return to the country, to the Emperor to report on this trip: Qian said: "I was in Daxia, see Qiong Qiong bamboo cane, Shu cloth, asked: 'An get this? Daxia people said: our country Jia people to the city of body poison. Body poison in the southeast of Daxia, can be thousands of miles, its common indigenous, large and Daxia with, and mean wet summer heat cloud; its people take the elephant to fight, its country facing the big water. Zhang Qian mission when in the second century B.C., its in Daxia see Shu cloth, Qiong staff is from India resale, India can have surplus goods for sale, see its territory supply and demand has been very abundant. According to the Indian expert Jacobi (HermanJacobi) test: the fourth century BC, India's Peacock Dynasty Chandragupta (Candragupta) on the throne, the minister of Gaudharya (Kautilya) written in the book not only the name of the Chinas, and said that the silk has been trafficked to India; silk in India in addition to do clothes, but also used as the emperor's flag, the wind to show, valiantly sound. In other commodities shipped to India, such as camphor, iron, lead, tea, silver Zhu, lychee, beans, horses, peanuts, silk is the first best-selling things. The famous ancient Indian Manusmrti (Code of Manu) places China (Cina) alongside the Greeks. The epic Mahabharata (Mahabharata) also has a record of Chinese silk (Cinamsuka); many silk-related words in Sanskrit, such as Cinapatta (bundles of silk) as well as the aforementioned Cinamsuka (silk clothes), are composed of the word Cina, which can be seen as the influence of Chinese silk on ancient India.
From
-The Legend of Rayon's Creation of Silkworm Reeling Method
"The spring silkworm is not finished until it dies, and it is given to others to protect them from the wind and cold." Spring silkworms, this lovely little life, eat mulberry leaves, spit out a wisp of silk; it is
Silkworms life
Private will be white silk dedication to mankind to weave silk, but their own exhaustion of a lifetime of hard work, into a chrysalis, silently secluded in the cocoon of their own creation.
How was the silkworm discovered? And who discovered the silkworm's spitting silk?
Ancient times, the sky and the earth were long, and the weather was vast. At that time, people dressed very simple. Some people put a piece of leaf string together and draped over the body, some people peeled off the animal skin after drying and wrapped around the body, even if it is clothes.
But, the string of leaves, wearing the body of the sizzling, a little movement will have scattered. What about animal skin? Its cold performance is good, but also very durable, but, heavy and hard, very uncomfortable to wear on the body, in the summer, sweating, hot and stuffy, make people unbearable.
Later, people found that the hemp plant, the outer layer of skin can be peeled off and torn into a strip, processed by hand into a linen line, and then woven into a piece of linen cloth, made of clothes, worn on the body than to wear leaves or cloak the animal skin to be much more comfortable. So, people began to grow hemp, weaving hemp cloth, making hemp clothes.
Wearing clothes made of hemp cloth, although lightweight, breathable, and wearable, but after all, very rough, wear on the body is not soft. So, in the search for new raw materials for clothing, people discovered silk, and used to weave silk clothing.
Talking about the discovery of silk, there is a beautiful and moving legend! In more than 4,500 years ago, living in the Yellow River Basin, the Yellow Emperor defeated Chiyu, the establishment of a tribal alliance, the Yellow Emperor was elected as the head of the tribal alliance. After the establishment of the tribal alliance, according to the departmental division of labor management operations, there is the management of planting grains, there is the management of manufacturing production tools, there is the management of the production of clothes, etc., each in its own way. The clothing department was managed by the Yellow Emperor's wife, Rayon (lei) Zu, who was personally in charge of the department.
Slave in the management of the production of clothing and accessories in the process, but also to find the Yellow Emperor's ministry of three ministers to assist, they are: management of the production of hats Hu Cao, management of the production of clothing Bo Yu, management of the production of shoes, Yu Zai. There are three ministers directly responsible for the management, Rayon would have been able to sit back and enjoy the success, however, Rayon is a hard-working women, do not want to be idle, often during the day to lead the tribe's women on the mountain peeling the bark, down to the field peeling the hemp, and then at night with the other women, the men back to the hunting of the beasts peeled off the fur, for processing and production. Not long after, the tribe's big and small chiefs all wear clothes. However, due to overwork, Rayon finally fell ill and did not think about food and drink all day. The caretaker women tried their best to make a lot of Rayon's favorite food, but Rayon shook her head when she looked at it. Three days passed, and the women were all anxious because they hadn't eaten anything. At this time, one of the women suggested to go up the mountain to pick some delicious fresh fruits for Rayon Zu to eat. All of them thought it was a good idea and rushed up the mountain. They ran all over the near and far peaks, picked a lot of fruit, but once on the mouth, either sour, or astringent, it is difficult to import. Until the sun is going down, suddenly a woman in a mulberry forest found full of trees bearing a small white fruit, they thought they had found a good fresh fruit, hastily picked a few, they hurried down the mountain. When they arrived home, they bit into it with their mouths, and no one could bite it, nor did it have any flavor. Several women stood together, you look at me, I look at you, sad and froze.
While this was going on, a woman who was helping with the kitchen walked past them, heard the problem they were having, and casually said, "Now that there's a fire and you can't bite it, why don't you use water to boil it?" "Fair enough! It makes sense!" The women agreed in unison. They hurriedly poured the white fruit into the pot, added water, and then set up a fire to cook it. However, after burning for a while, fishing up a mouth with a bite, or not bite, at this time, next to a woman, thought floating on the top of the bite is not, those Jue in the bottom of the pot must be cooked rotten. So, she took a twig in the pot stirred up. Stirred a few times, pulling out, found that the twig is wrapped in a lot of hair-like white silk. They pulled and twisted it, and in no time at all, all the white fruits cooked in the pot turned into fine white threads.
The sound of the women's voices startled the bedridden Rayon next door. The noise grew louder and louder, and Rayon insisted on getting up and going over to see what was going on, so she moved step by step, with the help of the women in her care. When she came to the women, they told her about this new story in colorful detail. After hearing the story, Rayon Zu was very excited and her condition was alleviated for the most part, so she immediately wanted to try her hand at it. The women around her refused to let her do it, and showed her the fine silk threads wrapped around the branches. Rayon Zu is a very smart woman, she looked at the fine silk thread wrapped around the branch, then said to the women around her, "This is not the fruit of the tree, can not eat, but it can come in handy." Rayon then asked in detail where the fruit had been picked from, on which mountain, and from which tree.
Strange as it may seem, on the second day of this incident, Rayon was completely cured, began to eat, and regained her strength, so she went up to the mountain to see for herself, in spite of the discouragement of the others, and with the women leading the way. They came to the grove of mulberry trees, and sat down on a large stone, resting and watching. When they quieted down, only to hear the trees came from a burst of "sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle" sound, like the autumn rain on the leaves like. Closer to look up, it turned out that the tree is full of big soft worms, is wriggling body, greedily eating the mulberry leaves. Not long after, the surrounding mulberry leaves are eaten up. Later, Rayon Zu went up the mountain a few times to observe, figured out hanging in the tree a white fruit, is that those big bugs in the tree spit out the filaments of a small oval-shaped bag, not the tree fruit.
From then on, people will be able to spit out the big bugs called "silkworms", silkworms knotted small bags of children called "cocoon", silkworms eat the leaves called "mulberry leaves". From this time onward, Rayon ancestor personally planted mulberry, raising silkworms, reeling (sao) silk, and the technology in this area to others. In this way, year after year, people learned how to plant mulberry, raise silkworms, and invented the use of silk to weave silk. At that time, the Yellow Emperor saw this miraculous treasure, joyful, full of praise, and immediately ordered Bo Yu woven into silk, made of dresses. Silk is gentle and flowing, like clouds and water, exquisite, compared with the rough animal skin, linen, there is a world of difference. In this way, Rayon ancestor was worshiped as the "first silkworm" (silkworm seed), as the creator of sericulture, reeling (sao) silk.
"Rayon silkworms" is just a legend, but the legend tells us that the ancient Chinese working people discovered the silk worm a long time ago. At that time, it was people found on the tree wild silkworms into cocoons, and then from the cocoon out of the long silk, and it will be woven into clothing. Later, they gradually learned to feed the wild silkworms at home and planted mulberry trees in order to provide mulberry leaves for the silkworms. The legend of Rayon is just a story made up to attribute the creation of the Chinese working people to Rayon alone.
Origin
Silk
Silk is one of the products of ancient Chinese civilization, the invention of its very early things, according to legend, the Yellow Emperor's consort screw ancestor began to teach the people of sericulture; oracle bone inscriptions in the word silk and silk beside the word many. In the biography of Mu Tian Zi, there is a record that King Mu of Zhou "rested in the Zee (now Yang County, Shanxi Province) to see the mulberry, and then drank in the mulberry forest"; "Shangshu", Yugong said: "Yanzhou, the tribute to the lacquer silk, covered with weaving; Qingzhou, pouting covered with silk; Xuzhou, covered with yuan fibers, onyx; Yangzhou, covered with weaving shells...". ..." This shows the wide range of silk-producing areas in ancient times.
Chinese silk has been exported as early as before the Han Dynasty, and is known abroad, the "Records of the Grand Historian" cargo colonization biography said:
Wu's toms shoes, animal husbandry. And the crowd reprimanded, seeking strange fabrics, asked to dedicate to the king of the Rong. Rong Wang Shibe its compensation, and the animal. The first thing you need to do is to use the grain to measure the horses and cows. Qin Shihuang this toms shoes outlet is more than a feudal monarch, to the time with the ministers of the court please. Wu's toms shoes sale silk goods, shipping foreign countries, and even become a huge wealth, the same position as the feudal monarchs, the columns of the court deliberations. Chinese silk in the international market at the time of the price, from this can be seen. No wonder later Emperor Wu wanted to pass the Southwest, all for the Kunming barbarians blocked, can not pass 21, its purpose or in the monopoly of business. Gan Ying wants to go to the Qin, the Anxi people to monopolize the benefits of color, but also to prevent from it.
But China's silk exports, and in the Han has been a large and plentiful exported around the world, the "Historical Records" Dawan biography recorded Zhang Qian mission to the Western Regions returned to the country, to the Wuchang report on the trip:
Qian said: "I was in the Daxia, Qiong Qiong bamboo cane, Shu cloth, asked: 'An get this? Daxia said: our country Jia people to the city of the body poison. Body poison in the southeast of Daxia, can be thousands of miles, its common indigenous, large and Daxia with, and mean wet summer heat cloud; its people take the elephant to fight, its country facing the big water. Zhang Qian when the mission in the second century B.C., the Shu cloth in Daxia, Qiong staff is from India resale, India can have surplus goods for sale, see its territory supply and demand has been very abundant. India's ancient famous "Manu Code" (Manusmrti) will be China (Cina) and the Greeks side by side.
Research Conclusions
Editorial
Silkworm Cocoons
According to expert research, the initial discovery that silkworm cocoons can be used to draw silk, there are a variety of possibilities. Silkworm pupae were probably one of the foods of the first people, and the cocoon coat was torn off before the cocoon shell was bitten off when peeling the food. Due to chance, someone will put the cocoon into the mouth, cocoon shell in saliva after a long period of infiltration, the silk glue dissolved, densely entangled cocoon silk separation, and thus inadvertently found entangled in the cocoon on the cocoon silk. In addition, in the process of tearing the cocoon shell, it is also possible to pull out the silk. After repeated practice, realized that in the right water temperature can be extracted from the cocoon reasoning, so the cocoon in hot water immersion, remove the silk glue, in the silk thread floating, and then reeling silk thread. This is the earliest reeling technology.
Reeling before the first to peel the cocoon, because the silkworm began to spit is a layer of messy silk, because wrapped in the cocoon shell outside, so called "cocoon". Only peel off the cocoon, silk will be exposed. Peel off the cocoon called "silk floss", low strength, can not be used for weaving, but can be filled in the middle of the jacket to keep warm. After peeling the cocoon, in order to prevent the chrysalis into a moth, bite through the cocoon shell, to reel in time.
The silk fiber of the cocoon is very thin, only 20 to 30 microns, it is difficult to use a single, so the reeling to set the thread, winding silk, that is, a number of cocoon silk twisted together to form a raw silk.
Regional differences
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Zhenze Town, Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province (referred to as Su Silkworm) has been called since ancient times, "Wu head of the end of the Vietnam", since ancient times the town's sericulture industry has always flourished, one of the five major towns of Jiangnan (one of the birthplaces of the ancient Silk Road), from the 1980s onwards, the town of Zhenze for the silk as the main source of silk. Zhenze town for the silk for natural animal protein fiber, with essential amino acids, cold, dehumidification, nourishing human skin and other efficacy and vigorously develop the silk industry, and in the Taihu Lake Basin (Su Silkworms) set up the only local "Jiangsu Taihu Cocoon Silk Market" (referred to as Su Silkworms market), a large number of merchants engaged in the cocoon silk industry came into being.
Zhejiang Wuxing (now Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province) Qianshanyang site unearthed silk, smooth and even surface, silk cross-section was triangular, indicating that the silk glue has been shed, should be reeling in hot water silk. Qianshanyang also unearthed a small broom made of grass stems, handle tied with twine, very similar to the reeling tool Suoxu broom, this object unearthed together with the silk piece, is no accident.
Mulberry picker
Huzhou is famous for its silk, and its "Zhuli Lake Silk" (produced in Zhuli Village, Nanxun Town) is even more internationally renowned. In 1851, the Shanghai merchant Xu Rongcun with the Huzhou Nanxun series of village production of raw silk to participate in the first World Expo held in London, England, and won the gold and silver awards. 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the series of lake silk will appear in the pavilion.
Silk reeled in hot water is raw silk. Raw silk contains a variety of impurities, only through the refinement, the impurities removed, in order to bleach, dyeing, silk luster, feel and sound of silk can be revealed, which became a cooked silk. Ancient people will be refined called "practice" or "boil". Silk, silk practice with ash, mirage and other alkali substances.
The domestic silkworm was domesticated from the wild silkworm. The initial source of silk came exclusively from wild silkworms. With the development of silk production, the demand expanded, and so the domestication of wild silkworms began, leading to the emergence of the domestic silkworm.
Identification
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Check the appearance
Quality silk is milky white and slightly yellow, the silk surface has a soft luster, not black, not astringent, the silk quality is long, pulling open the surface of the silk, the internal flocculent without clusters of broken silk.
Burning identification
Ignited, there is a burnt feather odor because it contains protein, burned to become a wildfire-colored powder, burning hair burning odor, no fire.
Color reaction
The addition of concentrated nitric acid turns yellow
Touch
Quality silk is soft to the touch, slippery, elastic, no clumping, poor quality silk is rough to the touch, no pliability, no sense of moistness.
Fiber strength
The better the silk stretch, the better the quality of the same length of silk thread, stretch, the longer the better quality.
Advantages
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Silkworm thread
Silkworm is the lightest, softest and finest natural fiber in nature, can be easily restored to its original state after the withdrawal of the external force, the inner tube does not cake, does not smother, does not shrink and gather, uniformly soft and can be used permanently free of turning. Silk quilt, using the finest silk, with a novel fiber structure, so that the free flow of water vapor. Together with the unique breathability and moisture permeability of silk itself, it makes the silk quilt feel more slippery, cool and not warm, warm but not dry. Mulberry silk is mainly composed of animal protein, rich in eighteen kinds of amino acids necessary for the human body, can promote skin cell vitality, anti-vascular sclerosis, long-term use of skin aging can be prevented, some skin diseases have a special anti-itching effect, arthritis, frozen shoulder, asthma has a certain health role. It is known as "the second skin of human body", "fiber queen" reputation.
Classification
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Silk fabrics
Silk, silk cocoon secretion of mature silkworms cocoon solidified into a continuous long fiber, also known as "natural silk". It is the same as wool, is one of the earliest human use of animal fibers, according to the different food, but also divided into mulberry silkworms, sericulture, cassava silkworms, camphor silkworms, willow silkworms and silkworms. From a single cocoon drawn from the silk called cocoon silk, which consists of two single fibers through the silk glue adhesive coating and become. Several cocoons of cocoon silk extraction, through the silk glue adhesive package made of silk, mulberry silk (also known as raw silk) and quercus silk points, collectively referred to as silk. Remove the silk glue of the silk, called refined silk. With them as raw materials, it can be processed into various varieties of fabrics on the loom. Often referred to as mulberry silk, is planted to raise silkworm cocoons drawn from the cocoon, the color of this silk white with a slight yellow, delicate feel, smooth, with a faint odor unique to animal fibers. The quilts made from mulberry silk are especially soft and snug, and the handmade layered silk quilts are more durable. Another type of silk is Quercus serrata, which is made from the cocoon of the Quercus serrata silkworm. Quercus serrata is commonly known as the wild silkworm, mainly living in the northern region, it is artificially reared in the wild Quercus forest, to Quercus leaves for food. Compared with mulberry silk, the color of sericulture is darker, the fiber is thicker, its natural color is black and gray, need to be bleached to become a consumer accepted silk quilt, although the finished product appearance is similar to the mulberry silk, the quality of the two, there is a big difference in price.
Selection method
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Silk quilt
First of all, usually referred to as silk quilt refers to the mulberry silk quilt, with mulberry silk, mulberry is the main food of the mulberry leaves of the domesticated species of silkworms, mulberry silk spit out the color of the silk white with yellow, delicate feel, smooth, with the quilt made of this silk is soft, close to the body. Mulberry silk quilt fluffiness, warmth, breathability, are better than the quercus silk quilt, the service life is longer than the quercus silk quilt, a bed of mulberry silk quilt service life of about 10 to 15 years, while the quercus silk quilt can only be used two to three years.