History of sericulture in my country

1. The history of sericulture in China

Silkworms were originally born on naturally growing mulberry trees and mainly eat mulberry leaves, so they are also called mulberry silkworms.

Before silkworms were raised, our ancestors had long known how to use wild silkworm cocoons to spin silk. It is still difficult to determine when artificial silkworm rearing began. However, as early as the Yin and Zhou dynasties, my country's sericulture production had already developed greatly. It can be seen that the development of artificial sericulture occurred long before the Yin and Zhou dynasties.

From ancient documents, we see direct records of silkworm rearing. "Xia Xiaozheng", which reflects the production conditions along the Huaihe River and Yangtze River in the late summer and early Yin Dynasty, says: "In March... mulberry trees are taken, and... concubines start silkworms."

This means that in March of the Xia calendar (lunar calendar) During April) to prune mulberry trees, women began to raise silkworms. The oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty not only include the words silkworm, mulberry, silk, and silk, but also some complete inscriptions related to silk production.

According to the research of the oracle bone writer Hu Houxuan, some oracles record that asking people to inspect silkworm affairs requires nine divination times. It can be seen that sericulture was a very important production enterprise at that time.

There are also records about the Silkworm God and sacrifices to the Silkworm God in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. At that time, in order to raise silkworms well, people used rich sacrifices such as cattle or sheep to worship the Silkworm God. This is not the first time that archaeologists have discovered lifelike jade silkworms in Yin tombs. For example, jade silkworms from the Shang Dynasty were unearthed from the Anyang tomb in Henan and Subutun in Shandong.

Silkworms are often found on Yin and Shang bronzes with decorative patterns. All this shows that silkworms held an important position in people's minds at that time.

Many handed down bronze objects from the Yin Dynasty have traces of silk fabrics or fragments of silk attached to them. After research, some silk fabrics reflect that there was already quite advanced silk weaving technology at that time; and there are a lot of facts that prove that silk fabrics became more and more important in the social and economic life at that time and had become an intermediate medium for the exchange of goods.

To produce a large amount of silk fabrics, only by developing artificial sericulture can we provide sufficient silk raw materials. By the Zhou Dynasty, mulberry planting and sericulture had flourished in vast areas in the north and south of my country.

Silk has become the main raw material for the clothing of the ruling class at that time. Sericulture and silk weaving are the main productive activities of women.

There are many poems in the Book of Songs that mention sericulture. For example, "The Book of Songs·Binfeng·July": "The spring is full of sunshine, and there is a sound of Cang Geng.

The woman holds the Yi basket, follows the slightest movement, and loves the soft mulberry." It means: a piece of spring. Sunshine, oriole birds are singing.

Women carrying baskets walked along the path to pick mulberries for silkworms. This vividly depicts the labor scene of women collecting mulberry and raising silkworms at that time.

Mulberry trees were planted on a large scale during the Zhou Dynasty. "The Book of Songs Wei Feng Between Ten Acres" contains the poem "Among the ten acres, the mulberries are leisurely", which means: Among the green trees in the ten acres of mulberry garden, it is so leisurely to pick mulberries.

This shows that during the Spring and Autumn Period, mulberry trees had been planted in large areas, and a mulberry field was ten acres in size. The mulberry trees planted at that time were either shrub-like or tree-like.

Now, we can still see vivid images of ancient working women picking mulberries in baskets in the mulberry picking on bronze vessels during the Warring States Period. We can also see the two types of mulberry trees planted at that time, the arbor type and the shrub type. According to records in ancient books such as "The Book of Songs", "Zuo Zhuan" and "Yili", silkworms were not only raised in rooms at that time, but also had special silkworm rooms and equipment for raising silkworms.

These utensils include silkworm racks ("栠" or "mallet"), silkworm foil ("qu"), etc. It can be seen that by the Yin and Zhou dynasties, my country already had a mature technology for planting mulberry and raising silkworms.

During the Warring States Period, "Guan Zi·Shan Quan Shu Pian" said: "Those who are familiar with sericulture and prevent silkworms from getting sick will buy a pound of gold and eat eight stones directly, and listen carefully to their words. , and the hidden officials have nothing to do with the divisions and brigade. "This means that if there are people among the masses who are proficient in sericulture technology, can raise silkworms well, and protect silkworms from diseases, please introduce their experience and be given gold and exemption from military service. rewards.

Indeed, the most experienced and knowledgeable people are the broad masses of people engaged in production practice. There are many sericulture experts and experts among them. They have continuously created and invented in their long-term sericulture production practice, and have accumulated extremely rich and valuable experience for the sericulture industry in my country and the world.

In ancient China, there were many books describing the techniques of planting mulberry and raising silkworms. The Han Dynasty once mentioned that there were sericulture works in ancient my country such as "The Method of Silkworms", "The Book of Silkworms", "Planting Trees to Hidden Fruits to Seek Silkworms".

Unfortunately, these ancient books have been lost. However, since the Han Dynasty, for more than two thousand years, there are still many ancient books on sericulture left, such as "The Book of Bin Sheng", "The Essentials of Qi Min", "The Book of Qin Guan's Silkworms", and "Bin Feng Guangyi" , "Guang Sericulture Theory", "Sericulture Collection", "Wild Silkworm Records", "Cocoon Pu" and so on, some of them are dedicated to sericulture, or some are about sericulture.

These secretaries have recorded the rich experience of the working people of our country in the past generations in planting mulberry and raising silkworms. To develop sericulture, it is necessary to propagate mulberry trees and develop mulberry orchards.

As far back as the Western Zhou Dynasty, people used scattering trees to propagate mulberry trees. As late as the fifth century AD during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the layering method had been applied to mulberry tree propagation.

This method is described in "Qi Min Yao Yao". The layering method uses mulberry branches to propagate new mulberry trees, which shortens the growth time much compared to sowing seeds.

Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, silkworm farmers in southern my country have invented the mulberry tree grafting technology, which is an advanced mulberry planting technology. It rejuvenates and renews old mulberry trees, preserves the excellent traits of mulberry trees, and accelerates the reproduction of mulberry seedlings. Cultivate fine varieties. All have important significance, and they still play a major role in production to this day.

Mulberry leaves are the main food for silkworms. The quality of mulberry leaves is directly related to the health of silkworms and the quality of silk. Our country invented the technology of trimming mulberry trees very early.

As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were already low mulberry trees, which may be the "ground mulberry" (Lu mulberry) mentioned later. The "Book of Bin Sheng" of the Western Han Dynasty describes in detail the cultivation method of this kind of ground mulberry: in the first year, mulberry and millet are planted together. When the mulberry tree grows to be as tall as millet, the mulberry tree is cut from the flat ground. In the second year, the mulberry tree grows from New branches grow from the roots.

Such mulberries are low and easy to pick mulberry leaves and manage. What's more important is that the young leaves of such mulberry branches are fertile and suitable for raising silkworms.

Jia Sixie quoted a farmer's proverb in "Qimin Yaoshu" and made a positive evaluation of Disang (Rusang), saying: "There are hundreds of Rusangs, abundant cotton and silk. It is said that the mulberry trees are good and the merits are saved." Use more.” The famous Hu mulberry originated from Lu mulberry. Since the Song Dynasty, people have introduced Lu mulberry, an excellent mulberry species from the north, to the south using grafting technology.

People used the local Jing mulberry as the rootstock and Lu mulberry as the scion. After long-term practice, they gradually developed a new type of Lu mulberry called "Hu mulberry". The formation of Humulberry has greatly promoted the development of my country's sericulture industry.

Mulberry tree. 2. Introduce the history of sericulture in China

The oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty not only contain the words silkworm, mulberry, silk, silk, etc., but also some complete inscriptions related to silk production.

According to the research of the oracle bone writer Hu Houxuan, some oracles record that asking people to inspect silkworm affairs requires nine divination times. It can be seen that sericulture was a very important production enterprise at that time.

There are also records about the Silkworm God and sacrifices to the Silkworm God in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. At that time, in order to raise silkworms well, people used rich sacrifices such as cattle or sheep to worship the Silkworm God. This is not the first time that archaeologists have discovered lifelike jade silkworms in Yin tombs. For example, jade silkworms from the Shang Dynasty were unearthed from the Anyang tomb in Henan and Subutun in Shandong.

Silkworms are often found on Yin and Shang bronzes with decorative patterns. All this shows that silkworms held an important position in people's minds at that time.

By the Zhou Dynasty, mulberry planting and silkworm rearing had flourished in vast areas in the north and south of my country. Silk has become the main raw material for the clothing of the ruling class at that time.

Sericulture and silk weaving are women’s main production activities. Mulberry trees were planted on a large scale in the Zhou Dynasty. The Warring States Period's "Guanzi·Shan Quan" said: "Those who are well versed in sericulture and can prevent silkworms from getting sick should buy a pound of gold and eat eight stones. Listen carefully to what they say, and hide it from the officials.

"This means that if there are people among the masses who are proficient in sericulture technology, can raise silkworms well, and protect silkworms from diseases, please introduce their experience and be given gold and exemption from military service. rewards. There are many books in ancient China describing the techniques of planting mulberry and raising silkworms.

The Han Dynasty once mentioned that there were sericulture works in ancient my country such as "The Law of Silkworms", "The Book of Silkworms", and "Planting Trees to Hidden Fruits to Seek Silkworms". Unfortunately, these ancient books have been lost.

However, since the Han Dynasty, for more than two thousand years, there are still many ancient books on sericulture left, such as "The Book of Bin Sheng", "The Essential Art of Qi Min", "The Book of Qin Guan's Silkworms" ", "Bin Feng Guangyi", "Guang Sericulture Theory", "Sericulture Collection", "Wild Silkworm Records", "Cocoon Pu" and so on, some of them are dedicated to sericulture, or they talk about sericulture. These secretaries have recorded the rich experience of the working people of our country in the past generations in planting mulberry and raising silkworms.

To develop sericulture, it is necessary to propagate mulberry trees and develop mulberry orchards. As far back as the Western Zhou Dynasty, people used scattering trees to propagate mulberry trees.

As late as the fifth century AD during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the layering method had been applied to mulberry tree propagation. This method is described in "Qi Min Yao Yao".

The layering method uses mulberry branches to propagate new mulberry trees, which shortens the growth time much compared to sowing seeds. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, sericulture farmers in southern my country have invented the mulberry grafting technology, which is an advanced mulberry planting technology. It can rejuvenate and renew old mulberry trees, preserve the excellent traits of mulberry trees, accelerate the reproduction of mulberry seedlings, and cultivate excellent varieties.

They all have important significance, and they still play an important role in production to this day. Since the Ming Dynasty, some infectious silkworm diseases, such as abscess, softening disease and stiffness, have been understood to a certain extent, and elimination or isolation measures have been taken to prevent the spread of silkworm diseases.

In the writings of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are even more descriptions of myiasis and fly prevention.

Extended information: Things to note when raising silkworms in summer and autumn: 1. Prevent pesticide poisoning.

During the sericulture season, do not spray insecticides and other organic pesticides in the silkworm houses and farmland near the mulberry fields. The odor will cause poisoning of the silkworms. Feeding mulberry leaves to silkworms must be tested and confirmed to be non-toxic before harvesting the leaves. Feed the silkworms. 2. Mosquito-repellent incense or mosquito killers or insecticides are prohibited in the silkworm room.

When using it in a house adjacent to the silkworm room, the doors and windows of the silkworm room should also be closed to prevent silkworm poisoning. 3. Screen doors and screen windows should be installed in the silkworm room to prevent flies from entering the room and harming the silkworms, and "silkworm fly killing" emulsion should be added or silkworm bodies should be sprayed to kill fly maggots.

4. Before raising silkworms, mouse holes should be blocked, a certain distance should be maintained between the silkworm rack and the wall, and lime powder or silkworm pesticide should be sprinkled around the legs of the silkworm rack to prevent mice from climbing up. When raising ground silkworms, you need to use drugs to eliminate rats.

5. When raising silkworms in summer and autumn, the temperature is relatively high. Doors and windows should be opened to enhance indoor ventilation. Spraying mulberry leaves with clean water and using an electric fan to blow a breeze indoors will also help cool down the room.

6. When diseased silkworms are found, they should be cleaned up promptly and put into a sterilized basin filled with bleaching powder solution or lime slurry. It is forbidden to feed diseased silkworms to livestock and poultry to prevent the spread of pathogens and environmental pollution. 7. Silkworm excrement contains a large number of pathogens. Do not spread it around the silkworm house. It should be piled outdoors or placed in a manure pit for retting to prevent the spread of pathogens.

8. Summer and autumn are hot and pathogens reproduce quickly. Pay attention to picking leaves as needed, transporting leaves in a timely manner, and storing leaves reasonably. The mulberry storage pond should be disinfected once at each age, and do not feed mulberry leaves overnight.

9. Do not feed wet leaves in hot and humid weather. Do not sprinkle water on stored mulberry leaves. Remove sand frequently and sprinkle more fresh lime powder, dry straw and other materials to inhibit the growth and reproduction of germs. 10. When it is not the sericulture season, do not store grains, bran, etc. in the silkworm room to prevent moisture from causing mites, which may harm the silkworms during sericulture.