Sericulture production has a long history in China. According to legend, sericulture and silk weaving were invented by Lei Zu, the wife of the Yellow Emperor.
After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), a batch of silk products packed in bamboo baskets, including silk chips, ribbons and silk threads, were found in the Neolithic site in Qianshanyang, Xing Wu, Zhejiang Province. This shows that sericulture production was developed in China 4000 years ago. In addition, archaeologists in China found a cut cocoon in the Neolithic site in Yin Xi Village, Xia County, Shaanxi Province, which was earlier than the Qianshanyang site in 1926.
Silkworms used to live on natural mulberry trees and eat mulberry leaves for a living, so they are also called silkworms. As early as the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, the sericulture production in China had made great progress, which shows that artificial sericulture was far before the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. Many bronzes handed down from ancient times in the Yin Dynasty have traces of silk weaving, or are accompanied by silk fragments. Through research, we know that there was quite advanced silk weaving technology at that time.
Jade silkworms with realistic shapes were found in Yin tombs in Anyang, Henan Province and Yidu, Shandong Province. Silkworms were also used as decorative patterns on Shang bronzes. This shows that silkworm has occupied an important position in people's minds.
The ancient agricultural book Xia Zhengxiao said: "Mulberries are picked in March, and my concubine begins to silkworm." This means that in March of the summer calendar, mulberry trees will be pruned and women will start sericulture. There are records of silkworm gods and sacrifices to silkworm gods in the book of Yin people's armour, which shows that people sacrifice silkworm gods with cows in order to raise silkworms well.
In order to provide high-quality mulberry leaves for silkworms to eat and ensure the robust growth of silkworms and the quality of silk, our ancestors invented the technology of pruning mulberry leaves very early, so that high-quality mulberry leaves can be produced on new branches, and new branches can be promoted by pruning and cutting off old branches. Because the new branches absorb a lot of water and nutrients, the leaves are thick and dark green, which not only increases the yield, but also improves the quality of the leaves, which is beneficial to sericulture production. This is also the original of our ancestors.
/kloc-In the second half of the 9th century, the Japanese cultivated mulberry trees into various forms according to the records of Qi Shu and other ancient books.
After several generations of long-term breeding, the characters of silkworm have changed greatly, and various types of varieties have been formed in various historical periods and regions. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, although the three-dormancy silkworm was mainly bred in the north of China, the four-dormancy silkworm was mainly bred in the south. The disease resistance of three-dormancy silkworm is stronger than that of four-dormancy silkworm, and it is easy to raise. But from the point of view of silk production, the cocoon silk of four-dormancy silkworm is better than that of three-dormancy silkworm. After long-term cultivation, the four-sleeping silkworm has been successfully raised in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in southern China, and many excellent new varieties have been cultivated. The successful breeding and popularization of the hard-to-raise four-sleeping silkworm is a great progress in sericulture production.
In ancient China, besides raising spring silkworms, summer silkworms and autumn silkworms were also raised, and even many batches of silkworms were raised in one year. In order to raise many batches of silkworms a year, the ancients not only used the multi-sex silkworm to spread seeds naturally, but also invented the method of low temperature incubation to obtain the original seeds more than 600 years ago. This method is to use low temperature to inhibit silkworm eggs and delay their hatching. Therefore, a silkworm can hatch several generations a year, which creates favorable conditions for raising silkworms in batches within one year. This is another great creation of sericulture production technology in ancient China.
Silkworm farmers in Ming Dynasty found the heterosis of silkworm in the production of summer silkworm eggs. Song said in "Heavenly Creations": "Today, some people in the Han nationality match early males with late females, and they have turned into beautiful species. This is different. " The so-called "early males and late females" means that a male silkworm of one sex crosses with a female silkworm of two sexes to produce "fine varieties" (excellent silkworm eggs). This is the earliest record about the utilization of heterosis of livestock in the world.
Silk has always been an export commodity of China. In ancient times, there was a "Silk Road" leading to Eurasian countries. At present, cocoon production still ranks first in the world, and exported silk accounts for about 70% of the total silk trade in the international market. In recent years, cocoon production has developed rapidly. 198 1 year, the national cocoon output was 6.98 million tons, an increase of10.92 million tons compared with 1980. It is the year with the highest output and the largest increase since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Since 1969, China's silk output has surpassed that of Japan, ranking first in the world. 198 1 year, cocoon production accounts for 46% of the world's total output.
In all sericulture countries in the world, the original silkworm eggs and sericulture methods were directly or indirectly transmitted from China.