"Silkworm Moon Tape Mulberry" means that mulberry leaves should be pruned and raised in February of the ancient calendar. It only takes fifty to sixty days from larvae to silk collection. The second information below It shows that April is the busiest season because of the need to recycle silk.
The information is as follows: Information 1:
The weaving of silkworms has been started as early as the primitive society. Fragments of silk fabrics unearthed from the Yangshao Cultural Site in Qingtai Village, Xingyang, Henan and money from Huzhou, Zhejiang Silk threads, ribbons and silk fabrics unearthed from the Shanyang Liangzhu Cultural Site indicate that silk production occurred in both the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins about five thousand years ago. By the Yin and Shang Dynasties, it was very common to raise domestic silkworms indoors. There are words such as "silkworm", "mulberry" and "silk" in the oracle bone inscriptions. At present, it can be seen that most of the silk fabrics of the Shang Dynasty are attached to the unearthed bronze vessels. On the bronze vessels unearthed in Anyang, there are traces of silk fabrics with plain weave and pick-woven rhombus patterns. To a certain extent, this reflects the development status of the sericulture industry at that time.
By the Zhou Dynasty, sericulture and silk weaving had occupied a prominent position in the social and economic life at that time, and sericulture became an important sideline production for women at that time. It can be seen from the Book of Songs that there are poems with sericulture and silk weaving as the theme in various parts of the Central Plains. For example, "The Book of Songs. Xiaoya. Ximulberry":
There are Ximulberry trees, (the mulberry trees in the low fields are so beautiful,)
The leaves are difficult. (How plump the mulberry leaves are.)
Now that I have met a gentleman, (I have met our human son,)
What a pleasure it is! (How happy my heart is!)
There are mulberry trees in Xi, (How beautiful the mulberry trees in the low fields are,)
Their leaves are fertile. (The mulberry leaves are tender green and bright.)
Now that I have met a gentleman, (I have met my person,)
How can I not be happy! (How can you not be elated!)
This poem is a woman's love confession, which links love with mulberry trees, reflecting the status of sericulture in people's minds.
"The Book of Songs·Binfeng·July" vividly reflects the scene of working people picking mulberry, raising silkworms, weaving and making clothes at that time:
Women hold Yi baskets, (women hold baskets) Carrying a deep basket,)
Follow him and walk slightly, (walk along the path,)
Love and seek soft mulberry. (Go and collect fresh mulberry leaves.)
Silkworm moon sash mulberry, (Prune the mulberry strips in February,)
Take the axe, (pick up the ax and the mulberry ,)
Cut off all the branches that are too long, (cut off all the branches that are too long,)
Yi Bi Nv Sang. (Pull the branches to pick the young leaves.)
In July, the shrike sings. (In July, the shrike sings) Silk is busy,)
Zi Xuan Zai Huang, (dyed silk can be either black or yellow,)
I, Zhu Kongyang, (the color of vermilion is particularly bright,)
For the public good. (Make clothes for the young master.)
From the poems "Zai Xuan Zai Huang" and "I Zhu Kong Yang", reflecting the application of mines and plant dyes at that time, painted and printed silk fabrics appeared. "Wei Feng. Between Ten Mu" reflects the emergence of large-scale mulberry gardens at that time:
Between Ten Mu, (a mulberry field is ten acres wide,)
The mulberry gardener Come leisurely, (all the mulberry pickers have rested,)
Xing and Zi are back. (Let's go home with you.)
In addition, judging from the poem "Wei Feng. Meng", silk and linen were already traded as commodities in the market at that time:
Chi Ying, the gangster, (the man is smiling,)
Holding the cloth and trading silk, (holding the cloth in exchange for silk.)
There are many chapters in the "Book of Songs" that reflect The situation of sericulture production, such as "Qin Feng. Che Lin": "There are mulberries on the side and poplars on Xi"; "Zheng Feng. Jiang Zhongzi": "I am in the mulberry"; "Cao Feng. Corou": "Corvette" "Doves in the mulberry"; "Tang Feng. Thrush Yu": "The fluttering pelicans travel and gather in Basang", "Owl Four Chapters": The octopuses are in Shu, steaming in the mulberry fields, etc. Judging from the above poems, Taiyue is now Sericulture is commonly practiced in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in Shaanxi, Henan, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Sichuan.
During the Warring States Period, ribbed fabrics made of silk were all the rage. There were all kinds of tents, mantles, clothes and quilts, all light and fluffy, and a dazzling array of products. In ancient times, the so-called rib weave refers to a fabric in which light yarns are twisted with each other, and weft yarns are passed through the twisted areas. The holes are uniform in size and the warp and weft lines are very sparse. Song Yu, a litterateur of the Chu State, praised "Luo Wanqi's great achievements in articles" in "The Goddess Fu Divination", saying that the exquisite silk gauze is like the lively and literary articles.
Wang Chong of the Han Dynasty said that Confucian scholars were more talented and learned than women in brocade and embroidery. Later, the Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin's poem "Spring Rain" included the poem "Thousands of miles of clouds and a wild goose flying", comparing the exquisite ribbed silk fabrics to the clouds and wild geese in the sky.
Xun Kuang, a writer during the Warring States Period, carefully summarized the working people’s experience in raising silkworms and wrote "Silkworm Fu", a poem about silkworms. In this poem, he pointed out the functions of silkworms, described the shape of silkworms, and narrated Its life history, habits, and how to master the regularity of silkworm breeding. "Ode on Silkworms" is the earliest work written in rhyme in my country. Its appearance illustrates the great development of the sericulture industry, which attracted the attention of writers and began to seriously summarize the experience in this area.
2. Sericulture production during the Han Dynasty
Weaving and woven products using silk as raw material. There are many types of silk weaving, such as brocade, satin, silk, silk, damask, Luo, yarn and dozens of other types. Silk is the general name for all silk fabrics. There are so many silk fabrics mainly due to different weaving techniques and the textile structure of the silk fabric itself. They may be textured or plain, thick or light.
After the Qin and Han Dynasties, my country's sericulture and silk weaving production entered a period of prosperous development. In the early Western Han Dynasty, a system of policies and measures conducive to farming and mulberry farming were implemented to promote the development of the textile industry. Many silk objects from the Han Dynasty have been discovered in archaeological excavations. They are admired for their superb craftsmanship, wide variety, and rich patterns. In 1972, a large number of silk fabrics were unearthed from the tomb of the wife of Che (Dahou) Lilun in the early Western Han Dynasty at Mawangdui, Changsha, including silk, Luosha, brocade, embroidery, Qi and other varieties, including brown, crimson and so on. There are more than 20 colors including red, yellow-brown, light yellow, cyan, green and white. Production techniques include weaving, embroidery, painting and other methods. There are animals, flowers, clouds and geometric patterns. A piece of plain gauze Zen clothing, as light as smoke and as thin as cicada wings, is 128 cm long and 190 cm long sleeves, but weighs only 49 grams, less than one tael. This shows that more than 2,000 years ago, my country's silk reeling and silk weaving technology reached a very high level. There are many poems about silk weaving in the Han Dynasty Yuefu "Peacock Flying Southeast" and "Mo Shang Mulang", which to a certain extent reflect the development of sericulture at that time. In the narrative poem "The Peacock Flies Southeast", Jiao Zhongqing's wife was able to weave at the age of thirteen, and the rooster's crow entered the weaving machine and she could not rest every night. She was dressed like this: "I have an embroidered waistband, and the richness shines by itself." The decoration on her bed is: "A red Rorschach tent with sachets hanging from the four corners. The incense curtain is six to seven inches tall and has green silk ropes." Jiao Zhongqing's wife was the wife of an ordinary young official. The fact that she was dressed and decorated like this shows that silk production was very developed at that time.
During the Han Dynasty, tens of thousands of silk products were produced every year, and these silk products were not only for domestic consumption. In the western region of our country, there are endless deserts and high mountains covered with snow all year round. Camels, cattle and horses, known as the ships of the desert, ring their bells and carry heavy bundles of silk from Chang'an through the Hexi Corridor and across the Tianshan Mountains. The rugged mountain roads from north to south are the famous "Silk Road". Through this road, a large amount of Chinese silk fabrics were exported to Central Asia and European countries. Ma Zuchang, a Uighur poet in the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in his poem:
The old Persian Jia traveled through the quicksand and listened to the camel bells at night to know the way.
I picked jade and bluestones by the river, and collected mulberry and hemp from the Eastern Kingdom.
This poem describes the bustling traffic on the ancient Silk Road, friendly exchanges with countries in West Asia, and the scene of silk trade. Traveling westward and westward again, this grand event continued until the middle of the Tang Dynasty. Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ji's "Liangzhou Ci" also reflects this situation:
In the border town, the geese fly low in the dusk rain, and the asparagus is starting to grow.
Countless bells ring through Qi, and Bai Lian should be carried to Anxi.
3. The development focus of the silk weaving industry in the Tang Dynasty moved southward
The silk weaving industry in the Tang Dynasty had a finer division of labor, more varieties, more novel and exquisite patterns, and more advanced weaving technology. And the silk production areas gradually expanded from north to south, and the center of gravity began to shift to the south. Silk fabrics became the basic wealth of society. During the Kaiyuan period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the economic prosperity of the Tang Dynasty reached its peak. Du Fu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, recalled the economic prosperity during the prosperous Tang Dynasty in his poem "Remembering the Past":
Recalling the past when the Kaiyuan was in its heyday, the small town still had thousands of households,
rice The greasy corn is white, and both the public and private barns are abundant.
……
Qi Wan and Lu’s carriages and carriages work every day, and the men plowing the fields and the women weaving work together.
The so-called "Qiwan and Lu's carriages are always running" means that the transportation of textile products is always on the road. The Anshi Rebellion broke out in the 14th year of Tang Tianbao's reign, which was a turning point for the center of gravity of my country's silk weaving industry to shift southward. During this war, the northern economy suffered extremely serious damage, but the economy in the Jiangnan region continued to develop during this period. Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, once said in "The System of Granting Li Na the Observer and Imperial Censor in Eastern Zhejiang" that the eastern Zhejiang region "cultivated crops with machines and granted titles to Jiuzhou, during which time the cocoons were taxed, fish and salt were collected, and the world was fed and clothed." By the late Tang Dynasty, the Taihu Lake Basin had become the richest place in the south of the Yangtze River. Lu Guimeng, a poet at the end of the Tang Dynasty, said in "Twenty Poems about Fenghe and the Beauty of Taihu Lake. Huan Bao":
The mountains are as wide as the sky, and the olives turn to meet the plains.
The water and trees in the Sichuan are secluded, and there are fertile fields both high and low.
The ditch is slightly wet, and the mulberry trees contain smoke.
There are silkworm foils everywhere, and fish traps are placed in every house.
Silkworm boxes for raising silkworms are piled up everywhere on the shores of Taihu Lake, and every household uses a bamboo fishing trap (a bamboo vessel used for fishing) to catch fish. Isn’t this a reflection of the economic prosperity of Jiangnan at that time?
Among the sericulture in the south, the silk ribbons from Yuezhou (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) and the red thread blankets from Xuanzhou (now Xuancheng, Anhui) are the most valuable. According to the National History Supplement by Li Zhao, who served as the governor of Taizhou, Zhejiang during the Dazhong period of the Tang Dynasty, in the early Tang Dynasty, Xue Jianxun was the governor of Zhejiang Province. He recruited unmarried men in the army and gave them more property to marry weavers in the north. There are hundreds of people every year. From then on, Yuezhou silk reeling technology improved rapidly.
The silk fabric produced in Yuezhou is an exquisite silk fabric. Du Fu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, repeatedly praised it. Bai Juyi compared it to the waterfall in Tiantai Mountain. Bai Juyi's poem "Liao Ling":
What does "Liao Ling" look like? Unlike Luo Xiao and Dan Qi.
It should be like a forty-five-foot waterfall in front of the bright moon on Tiantai Mountain;
There are articles in it and it is very strange, and the ground is covered with white fireworks and snow.
Who weaves clothes and who clothes them? The cold girl in Yuexi is the concubine of Han Dynasty.
Last year, the envoy declared pardon, and heaven took samples from the earth.
Weaved with the colors of autumn geese outside the clouds, dyed with the colors of the spring water in the south of the Yangtze River.
Wide-cut shirt with long sleeves and long skirt, with gold iron ripple cut pattern.
The colorful and strange patterns are reflected in each other, and the flowers are uncertain when you turn to the side.
The dancers in Zhaoyang are very kind, and a pair of spring clothes is worth a thousand pieces of gold.
No longer stained by sweat, dragging dirt and stepping on mud without regret.
The achievements in weaving silk damask are incomparable to ordinary silk silk.
Many women’s hands hurt from the fine silk reeling, and a thousand sounds are not enough.
If you see the singers and dancers in Zhaoyang Palace weaving, you should feel sorry for them.
This poem truly describes the beauty of the Tang Dynasty damask patterns, its exquisite quality, the difficulty of weaving, and its high value. At the same time, this poem vividly describes the process of weaving, dyeing, cutting and ironing of Liao Ling clothes. Liao Ling is used to make court dance clothes, so it requires very fine silk. Particularly labor-intensive and difficult. Not only that, its patterns are to be woven in accordance with "the envoy's decree, taking samples from the sky and woven on earth.", "Weaving is like the autumn geese flying outside the clouds, dyed with the color of the spring water in the south of the Yangtze River.", the poet uses "the colorful and strange words to reflect each other, and convey "The flowers look uncertain when you look at them from the side." and other sentences describe its ingenious craftsmanship. This poem mentions the names of various silk fabrics, such as "Luohuan", "Wanqi", "缯", "Silk", etc., which shows that there were many varieties of silk in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Damask is made of twill weave or twill jacquard fabric. The flowers on the silk damask are woven flowers. The poet Yuan Zhen of the Tang Dynasty said in his poem "Yinshan Road":
It takes twice as much effort to pick out the grain and change the tweezers, abandon the old and adopt the new.
On one end of the silk fabric, ten bolts of plain silk have not yet been made.
The so-called "grain picking and tweezing" refers to turning the jacquard machine to weave complex patterns by changing the warp or weft. Bai Juyi said that the pattern of the silk damask, "the colorful and wonderful characters are reflected in each other, and the flowers are uncertain when you turn to the side." This means that when you look at the silk damask from different angles, it will show different colors. This is not an exaggeration. "Zizhi Tongjian" records: In the second year of Jinglong, Emperor Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty, Princess Anle "had a knitted skirt with 100 million straight lines. Flowers, birds and beasts were all like millet grains. Looking directly at the side, and in the shadow of the sun, they all had the same color. .”
Xuanzhou’s red thread carpet is a kind of silk carpet, most of which are woven for singing and dancing venues in the palace. Bai Juyi also wrote a poem about "Red Thread Blanket":
Red Thread Blanket,
Choose cocoons, reel the silk and boil it in water, select the silk and practice the thread to dye it red and blue.
Dye the red thread into red flowers and weave it into a blanket for the incense palace.
The Hall of Phi Xiang is more than ten feet wide, with red threads woven into the hall pavilion.
Colorful silks, velvets and velvets are fragrant, and soft velvet flowers are numerous.
The beauties come to sing and dance, and their stockings and shoes disappear with them.
The blankets in Taiyuan are astringent and hard, while the mattresses in Shu are thin and the brocade flowers are cold.
It’s not like this blanket is gentle and soft, and I come to Xuanzhou every October.
...
In this poem, the red thread carpet is described in detail from the process of cocoon selection, silk reeling, cocoon cooking, thread selection, thread dyeing, and weaving. The first sentence says that to weave a red thread blanket, you need to select the best silkworm cocoons, boil them in clean water and draw out the silk. This is the method of boiling cocoons and reeling silk invented in ancient times. Regarding the quality of the red thread blanket, the poem uses "colorful silk and velvety silk, soft and fragrant silk, soft and fluffy flowers," to describe the red thread blanket. The characteristics that would be buried in the blanket are written vividly. In the poem, two other advantages of the red thread blanket are described in a sideways way: the Taiyuan blanket is hard and the Sichuan cotton mattress is too thin and not as "gentle and soft" as the Xuanzhou red thread blanket.
This poem reflects the amazing level reached by silk fabrics in the Tang Dynasty.
While Bai Juyi tried his best to depict the exquisiteness of silk fabrics, he did not forget to sympathize with the suffering of the working people and expose the extravagance and waste of the rulers. The poem says that more than ten thousand taels of silk are needed to weave this kind of carpet, which is more than ten feet tall. However, this kind of exquisite carpet is only for "beauties to sing and dance on." Liao Ling is the weaver's "silk silk, so many women's hands hurt, and a thousand sounds are not enough," and it is only used as a dance costume for the palace maids. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty once received a finely woven silk vest, which cost a hundred gold. At the same time, he was given a brocade of characters woven into the "Orchid Pavilion Collection", which was kept in the palace along with Lei Gongsuo, rhinoceros hairpins, and Nuanjin. Emperor Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty was able to catch up with his predecessors in luxury. When Princess Anle got married, she blackmailed Sichuan for a "single silk blue cage skirt", which was made of gold thread "as thin as hair" and woven into flowers and birds. The birds were very small, but they were woven into Eyes, nose, mouth, and nails, "looking directly at each other, looking at each other, in the sun and in the shadow, each has the same color." Later, if something was good at the top, it would be bad at the bottom, and extravagance became common.
4. Gorgeous Shu Brocade
Shu Brocade is a famous silk fabric in Sichuan. Together with Nanjing’s Yun Brocade, Suzhou’s Song Brocade, and Guangxi’s Zhuang Brocade, Shu Brocade is known as the Four Famous Brocades of China. Brocade. Chengdu Shu Brocade has a long history and formed an important industry as early as the fourth century BC. The government of the Han Dynasty once specially set up Jinguan to manage it, so it was known as "Jincheng" and "Jincheng".
Brocade is a high-grade silk fabric with colorful woven flowers, and is the most precious among silk fabrics. Brocade is a multiple jacquard fabric made of two or more colored silk threads. It not only uses changes in warp and weft threads, but also uses changes in warp and weft colors to show patterns. Shu Brocade is a pure silk fabric with soft texture and bright colors. As early as Yang Xiong's "Ode to the Capital of Shu", there is a line about "waving brocade cloth and embroidery, looking at the bright light without any frame". In the early Western Han Dynasty, Sima Xiangru, a litterateur living in Chengdu, was good at composing poems. His friends asked him for advice on the techniques of composing poems. He said: "The Heqi group is written in writing, and the brocade is the quality. One longitude, one latitude, one palace, one business, this is the trace of Fu." "One latitude and longitude" refers to the interlaced texture of the pattern, and "one palace and one commerce" refers to the harmony of colors like the coordination of music. Shu embroidery is the twin sister of Shu brocade. In the late Western Han Dynasty, the writer Yang Xiong wrote "Ode to the Capital of Shu" to praise Shu brocade and Shu embroidery: "If you wear brocade and embroider, you will not be blessed if you look at the light. You are the person who made your own wonderful brocade. ... The glory of the text is endless. The cloth is thin and weak, the brocade cocoons are folded, the Ali is slender, avoiding Yan and Yin, the spiders are making silk, and the wind is invisible."
During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang actively promoted the policy of rewarding farming and weaving and developing sericulture. He regarded Shu brocade as the country's main financial revenue for the war of unification. In his decree, he said: "Today, the people are poor and the country is weak, and the only way to defeat the enemy is to rely on brocade ears." He also actively spread brocade weaving skills to ethnic minorities in central and southern China. People in Nanzhong area affectionately call him Zhuge Meijin. People also wrote a poem "Zhuge Jin" to praise Zhuge Liang's achievements:
The prime minister marched south to the sun and returned to millet valley spring.
Use it for fighting and fighting anywhere, and wear new clothes and colors.
The scallops are embroidered with Chinese characters, and the flowers and branches are evenly woven.
The girl with a bun in her hair from a barbaric country is also clever in her skills.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Shu brocade flourished greatly. The Wei and Jin poet Zuo Si's "Ode to the Capital of Shu" described the brocade on both sides of the Jinjiang River at that time as "the sound of the machine can be heard by each other" and "the brocade on the shell is so complete that the waves of the river are colored". The production of damask is flourishing and the colors and patterns are bright. The weaving skills of Shu brocade in the Tang Dynasty reached a new height, and gorgeous and vivid natural flower and bird patterns were integrated into Shu brocade. The Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi's poem "Lang Tao Sha. Brocade" goes:
There are flowers on both sides of the Zhuo Jin River, and the spring breeze blows the waves washing the sand.
The girl cuts off the mandarin duck brocade and sets the sunset in the sky.
You see, the flowers on the riverside, the mandarin ducks, and the colorful clouds in the sky are woven into natural patterns. Zhang He of the Tang Dynasty wrote a very detailed description of the Shu brocade pattern in the Tang Dynasty in "Wen Jun Zhuo Brocade on a Spring Day on the Shu River": "The leaves should be sparse, the flowers should be arranged skillfully and densely, and the flowers in the courtyard should not be missing, and they can be understood by imitating mountain birds. ... As the spring flows, the sound of the ring comes out. So, when you are close to the deep place, the red face begins to shine, and the precious basket is opened. When you first enter, the fragrant trees are reflected in the stream, and the young general is like an eye. The glow shines on the bottom of the pool. ...The luan is slightly distinguishable, and the phoenix is ??dancing around. The green is the forbidden willow, and the red is the palace flower."
Zhang Hefu said. , the brocade has sparse leaves and dense flowers, the layout is appropriate, the butterflies are flying and the phoenixes are dancing, lifelike. When bathing in the Jinjiang River, it seems like the fragrant trees are reflected in the stream, and the clear clouds shine on the bottom of the pond. The green one looks like "forbidden willow" and the red one looks like "palace flower".
The development of silk weaving production is closely related to the development of sericulture exchange trade. The "Silkworm Market" in Chengdu was very prosperous during the Song Dynasty. The silkworm market exchanges silkworm seeds, mulberry strips, and breeding equipment, and there is also a special cocoon house. The Silkworm Market starts from the first month of the year and ends in March every year. During the Silkworm Market, there were huge crowds of people, thousands of people moving around, and it was extremely lively. Zhang Zhongshu of the Song Dynasty wrote in his "Silkworm Market Ci":
Chengdu is great, take advantage of the Silkworm Market.
The purple streets are noisy with music and music at night, the lights are shining on the red building in spring, and the carriages and horses are overflowing in Yingzhou.
After everyone disperses, Cocoon House likes to take precautions.
The willow leaves are thick with smoke, and the mulberry strips are as delicate as jade.
Immediately watch the romance.
The literati regarded the Silkworm Market as a romantic and recreational place with "night music" and "spring lights", but the working people regarded the annual Silkworm Market as a good opportunity for sericulture exchange and trade. It is "Fashion in leisure time to enjoy the good market of silkworms, and forget the hard work to pursue the joys and sorrows".
5. The Taihu Basin is a land of plenty and silk
To the south of the Yangtze River, especially in the Taihu Basin, the society has been relatively stable and the natural conditions are superior for a long time. The sericulture industry there is In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it had caught up with and surpassed the Yellow River Basin and became the most developed region in the country's silk weaving industry. By the Song Dynasty, it became even more prominent. Liu Yong, a poet in the late Northern Song Dynasty, once wrote the famous poem "Looking at the Sea Tide", which once described the beautiful scenery and prosperity of Hangzhou, and also reflected the prosperity and prosperity of silk production at that time. In the poem, "the city is lined with pearls, and the households are filled with silk, and they are extravagant." "sentence. Among silk fabrics, tapestry and brocade were mainly developed during the Northern Song Dynasty, among which the tapestry produced in Dingzhou was the most valuable. Kesi is different from brocade and embroidery. It adopts the weaving method of "opening the warp and breaking the weft". During weaving, various colored silks are used to make weft threads, and they are interlaced with the warp threads along the required places of the pattern, so that the pattern is woven piece by piece. out, so the weft threads do not run through the entire fabric, but the warp threads run through the fabric. The texture of tapestry is relatively simple from a weaving point of view, but because it is broken weft, it can be woven as desired and very detailed patterns can be woven. Most of the silk weavings at that time were calligraphy and paintings by famous painters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, mostly showing landscapes, flowers, birds and figures, reflecting the differentiation of silk weaving technology from practicality to appreciation. Especially after the Song Dynasty, with the further maturity of Chinese painting art, Kesi paintings have developed into paintings that are almost the same as scrolls. Kesi paintings were popular in the Song Dynasty, and the main production area was Suzhou. The techniques are exquisite, the production is fine, and there are many famous artists, especially Zhu Kerou is the most famous. Her tapestry works are characterized by expressive and natural techniques and ingenious art. The meticulous flower and bird scrolls she weaves are as good as the original paintings, achieving an artistic conception that combines both form and spirit. Later generations praised him and said: "Exquisite craftsmanship, high price of workmanship... His silk manipulation is like a pen, which is a unique skill, beyond the dreams of today's people." Zhu Kerou's silk tapestry became the object of vying for purchase by literati and bureaucrats at that time, and even the emperor He also sent eunuchs to the south of the Yangtze River to search for it. Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, wrote a poem on the tapestry silk "Picture of Peach Butterfly and Bird" with his own hands:
The bird steps on the flower branch and emerges from the plain silk. I have heard that it is difficult to carve silk tapestry.
You must know that it is a Xuanhe object, and do not look at it as ordinary embroidery.
After the Southern Song Dynasty established its capital in Hangzhou, Jiangnan became a place where the ruling class and wealthy merchants concentrated. Their luxurious consumption greatly stimulated sericulture production in this area. Until the Qing Dynasty in the 16th century, the area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang became the only place for high-quality silk in the country, and is still known as the "Land of Fish and Rice, the House of Silk." Fan Chengda, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, lived in Shihu Town, Wu County. In his poem "Pastoral Miscellany", he repeatedly described the scene of sericulture and weaving at that time: There is no trace of the song.
It’s still dawn and the wind is clear, and we meet again during the mulberry picking season.
During the sericulture season, every house is closed and everyone is raising sericulture. People have no leisure time to interact with each other. They can only meet each other occasionally at dawn on the road to the mulberry garden.
The young woman spent the whole night on the silk screen, while the old man urged the tax collectors and was eager to fly.
Fortunately, the silkworms are ripe this year, so I have enough yellow silk to weave summer clothes.
During the busy silkworm season, people are so busy. After raising silkworms, they immediately harvest the cocoons, reel them all night long, and put them on the machine to weave silk.
Shengze Town, located at the junction of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, was originally a small village with dozens of households. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the silk industry here developed rapidly with the prosperity of the southern region. Silks from far and near Merchants came here to purchase silk, and it became an important silk distribution center. Later, there was a saying that "the clouds in the sky are full of brocade and silk". Zhou Can, a poet in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote a poem called "Shengze":
At the crossroads between Wu and Yue, the green forest is close to the distant trees.
The water town became a city, and Luo Qi traveled to the Central Plains.
……
People are working hard, and their machines are working well into the dusk.
In the early Qing Dynasty, sericulture production became more prosperous in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, and mulberry trees were planted in large areas of farmland. Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty took boats to visit the south of the Yangtze River many times. When passing through Jiaxing, Huzhou and other places on the way, they saw the endless mulberry forests on both sides of the canal, and they both wrote poems to praise it. "Farming and Weaving Pictures" was created by the painter Lou Shou during the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty. It was highly praised and praised by emperors of all dynasties. Kangxi once wrote the inscription for "Farming and Weaving Pictures".
Silk fabrics and porcelain in ancient China are the most prominent. These two occupy such a unique position in the history of Chinese culture. From a practical point of view, silk fabrics are clothing and quilts for thousands of families and benefit the world. The brocades of China's Han Dynasty once fascinated the Romans. However, ancient silk fabrics are difficult to pass down to the present, and are mainly obtained through archaeological excavations. Because of the scarcity of materials, there was naturally a lack of researchers at first.
By this century, especially since the 1950s, the number of newly discovered ancient silk fabrics has gradually increased, and some people with knowledge of modern textile science have invested more in the study of ancient silk fabrics. In the 1980s, the China Silk Museum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province and the Suzhou Silk Museum in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province were established. The emergence of these two specialized museums marks that the study of ancient silk in my country has begun to have its own system.
I am a layman on silk fabrics. This article only reflects the development process of ancient Chinese silk fabrics from the perspective of poetry. I am ignorant and may be biased and general. Please forgive me.
Information 2:
Even if there are poems describing silkworm rearing, they must be "sad songs", and most of them are sung after the season, the sighs of bystanders, or, It is simply a depiction of this cautious life. It is absolutely impossible to work while singing as much as you like in "Sang Song". The following selected songs are of this nature.
Ci of Silkworms
[Tang Dynasty] Wang Jian
Silkworms are getting old, and their foil heads are making bright cocoons.
The venue is wide, the ground is high and the wind is strong, so the wormwood is not exposed to the atrium.
The sacred silkworms are in a hurry, so don’t worry about them. I have been offering sacrifices to the sacred mulberry trees for you all year round.
But the sky will be blue without rain, and there will be no flies above and no mice below.
The bride pays homage to the bride and wishes for the thick silkworms, the woman sprinkles peach syrup and the man plays drums.
In three days, the snowflakes will be opened, and the new cocoons will be sent to the county magistrate first.
I heard that weaving was being urged in the countryside, so I went to wear it with someone.
Pastoral Miscellany in Late Spring (Part 6)
[Song Dynasty] Fan Chengda
Three-year-old silkworms are forbidden to stay behind closed doors, and there is no trace of the neighbors. .
It is still the clear morning breeze, and the mulberry picking season temporarily meets.
Poems about Silkworm Raising
[Ming Dynasty] Gao Qi
While the east and west families were coming and going, the wind and rain sounded outside the window on a sunny day.
Sanmian ① Silkworms eat many leaves, and the mulberry trees in the streets have empty branches.
The bride is busy guarding the foil basket and does not comb her hair for a month.
After Sangu’s sacrifice, it’s a good year, and the clouds are full of cocoons.
The wheeling machine in front of the eaves is in a hurry to make silk, and it is the summer tax time.
The Ballad of the Silkworm Woman
[Qing Dynasty] Zhu Yizeng
Prevent silkworms from being hungry during the day, and prevent rat bites at night.
Protecting silkworms is like protecting a baby. It is difficult to leave your arms at all times.
The Silkworm Moon Melancholy Song
[Qing Dynasty] Xu Zhuo
Putting on coir raincoats and picking mulberry trees when he returned home, there was not a single wall left unfinished.
I know that the silkworm foil is wet, but I am also afraid that the silkworm body is cold.
When will the leaks in the house be repaired? When will the leaks in the sky dry up?
Nuwa’s hand can be used to mend the leaks in the sky.
Bin Feng Guangyi·Illustration·Great Sleep Picture
[Qing Dynasty] Yang Shuangshan
After three sleeps and a great awakening, all the efforts were spent on seven days.
The old silkworm is about to be fed again and again, so don’t let it go for a while.
①Three sleeps: In ancient silkworm poems, "three sleeps" are mentioned a lot. It refers to the "sleep" before the silkworm's last molt, also known as the "big sleep". Since then, the amount of mulberry eaten by silkworms has increased significantly, which is the main period for silkworms to accumulate nutrients. It is also the busiest period in the silkworm rearing process, and the period when silkworm farmers are most worried about lack of leaves.
We can also learn from this that the ancient silkworm species was the three-sleeping silkworm, not the modern four-sleeping silkworm. Among modern silkworm varieties, "Si Mian" is called "Da Mian" because with one more age, the amount of mulberry eaten and the production of cocoons are of course much more than those of ancient silkworm varieties. See "Magical Chapter" for details.
Rate Silkworms
[Qing Dynasty] Shen Bingcheng
Watch the silkworms as they roll up the curtains, and they go all over the place to beg for food.
The new leaves collected by Qingqing return, and the branches eat the leaves as fast as flying.
In a moment, the basket of food is even more empty, and the leaves are added again to make Ning Ling hungry.
The paid silkworms came to the door, and I happened to watch my neighbor's aunt return home from picking leaves.
I heard that the first leaf in the market is very expensive, but only the leaves are worth the money.
I went to buy some clothes from the Eastern family, but the bride from the Western family had no rings in her ears.
After returning home, I whispered to my husband and asked him to count the silkworm leaves in detail.
Don’t worry, Mr. Ye will be happy and keep the silver hairpin in a long bun.
This poem is one of the few silkworm poems that directly describes the life of sericulture. Even so, the author still focuses on the word "sorrow". The Great Mian Festival is the time when silkworms eat the leaves most vigorously. At this time, the hard work of the silkworm mother is no longer a problem. The biggest problem is whether the mulberry leaves can be supplied. The price of leaves in the market has skyrocketed. People only asked about the mulberry leaves but not the price. In order to buy the leaves, the neighbors pawned their clothes and earrings in pawn shops. Fortunately, I have enough mulberry leaves and the silver hairpin is still stuck in my head.
Rate silkworms, also known as rate feed, refers to the eating of silkworms starting a new age after they go to sleep.
The Qing Dynasty scholar Shen Bingcheng compiled a silkworm book called "Sericulture Collection". At the back of the book, there are twenty Yuefu poems describing various aspects of the silk industry. This is one of them.
He said in the preface to the book that one year during the Silkworm Moon, he went to the countryside to avoid the hustle and bustle. He saw that his neighbors were busy raising silkworms and worshiping gods while the silkworms were sleeping. He then asked the villagers, "There are sacrificial words to worship the gods. Why didn't I hear you read them?" The villagers replied that songs to worship gods are not elegant. Why don't you write some for us? So he wrote these poems.
In addition to the melodious songs expressed by literati who lamented the sorrow of raising silkworms, the common people naturally also have their own songs. After all, this is their life. Of course, the main theme of the song is still the word "sorrow".
For example, the "Song of Silkworm Raising" circulated in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province is catchy, but the theme it expresses is obviously very different from the "Song of Mulberry".
Songs of raising silkworms
[Modern] folk songs
One silkworm plaque is round and round, ten silkworm plaques are ten stories high①,
After three sleeps, silkworms start eating big leaves, and the lady raising silkworms is worried day and night.
Carrying a basket to collect mulberry leaves, waiting for the silkworms to keep the silkworms from sleeping.
Scraping off all the flesh of the silkworm girl, leaving a half-cocoon of thin skin.
The silkworms eat the mulberry leaves and make a rustling sound. I am busy raising silkworms in April. I don’t know how hard it is to wear silkworms and raise silkworms. I combed my head and feet and they were still dirty.
White dragon dragon ②, white dragon dragon, all the cocoon dragons, white dragon dragons, don’t have empty hands, don’t have empty feet, white dragon makes ③ in vain.
①Ten floors: refers to the layers of silkworm plaques stacked on the shelf when raising silkworms. ②Bailonglong: In the past, the most commonly used silkworm stalk was a long silkworm stalk made of straw, which looked like a long dragon, commonly known as a centipede stalk. After the silkworm spins its cocoon on the centipede, the snow-white cocoon becomes like a white dragon. ③Bainong: Wu language means hard work in vain.
Similarly, "The Bitterness of Canniang" sings the bitter blood and tears of Canniang in the form of a song of the four seasons.
The Silkworm Mothers Are Suffering
[Modern] Folk Songs
In the spring, silkworm mothers are busy raising silkworms, and all the silkworm mothers come to the silkworm house. Don’t be sleepy day and night, work hard, and be happy with the twenty-four-point harvest.
In summer, lotus flowers grow through water, and silkworm ladies are all busy making silk. The wood and silk cart squeaked, making Silkworm Mother's hands and feet feel cold.
In autumn, when the chrysanthemums turn yellow, Silkworm Lady sells silk to the neighbors. Don't sell the snow-white filaments for a price. You will be forced to do anything with your hands.
In the winter, when I was busy celebrating the New Year, Canniang went out to help. From early in the morning until dusk, I was still wearing shabby clothes.
①Twenty-four cents: The Jiangsu and Zhejiang Silkworm Areas describe the bumper harvest of silkworm cocoons as "Twenty-four cents of silkworm flowers."
In the old days when silkworms were raised, it was called "fire" when the silkworms were sleeping for the third time, because at this time the silkworms were getting bigger and the temperature was getting warmer, so the brazier was usually removed at this time. There is a custom of weighing the sleeping silkworms after "bringing out the fire", which is called "weighing the sleeping head of the fire". In the past, the calculation method of silkworm cocoon harvest was based on the number of kilograms of cocoons produced by one kilogram of "chuhuomiantou". The number of kilograms of cocoons produced was the number of silkworm flowers. Generally, "ten silkworm flowers" was already a good harvest. Therefore, on the 24th Sharing the harvest is nothing more than a good wish.
Although sericulture is painful, the means of livelihood that has been passed down from generation to generation will not give up because of the sorrow. Instead, the people have honed their extraordinary optimism in the long-term hardship and learned to enjoy the hardships and to live in sorrow. The ability to seek pleasure. Therefore, although the word "sorrow" is prominent, we can still find folk silkworm songs that take pleasure in sadness. The "Qingming Festival in March" spread in Huzhou, Zhejiang fully embodies this spirit.
The Tomb Sweeping Day passed in March
[Modern] Folk Songs
The Tomb Sweeping Festival passed in March, and the Grain Rain came in a blink of an eye, and I saw the Silkworm Lady laughing. Red rice, which is still too coarse, and white rice with bacon and bacon cooked with bamboo shoots, plus lard. Men, if they want to please, soak red wine with white sugar. It was so sweet and so spicy that I poured three cups of muddy soup into my mouth. I was top-heavy and staggering after eating, and in a daze I planted silkworms on the stove for baking.
The green charcoal is added quite high, it’s a bit shaky, ahhh