In the Northern Song Dynasty, cotton was widely planted in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places, and it was extended to the Yangtze River valley in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, the cotton planted in the south was kapok imported from Southeast Asia, with many peaches and high yield. There is a saying in the Fujian generation that "there are thousands of kapok plants, and eight people are not poor." In Song Dynasty, cotton gradually became an important cash crop, which created conditions for the rise of cotton textile industry. At that time, there was already a set of cotton textile tools for rolling, elastic, spinning and weaving. Such as "Spinning Wheel Map of Song Dynasty" and "Cotton Blanket Unearthed in Southern Song Dynasty" reflect the superb cotton textile technology in Song Dynasty. ) because the cotton textile industry rose not long ago, cotton textile did not occupy a major position in residents' clothing at that time. After the Yuan Dynasty, especially in the Ming Dynasty, with the large-scale planting of cotton and the development of cotton textile technology, cotton textile also flourished. Cotton cloth has gradually become the main clothing material in the whole country. With the further development of cotton production, there is a trend of high-priced silk products and low-yield hemp products. Song, the author of Heavenly Creations, said: "Every piece of cotton cloth has an inch of land" and "there must be a loom in every ten rooms". ("Heavenly Creations" Volume II) The cotton textile industry in Songjiang area of the south of the Yangtze River is very developed, and it is known as "the world is covered with cotton clothes".

The processing tools used in cotton spinning industry have been significantly improved. The mixer of cotton seeder used to be operated by two people, but only one person was used in the late Ming Dynasty. Xu Guangqi pointed out: "In today's traffic, one person can be three people. As you can see, one person can have four people, and two people in Taicang can have eight people. " In the late Ming Dynasty, the spinning wheel was changed from a "three-way" spinning wheel to a "four-way" or even a "five-way" spinning wheel since the Yuan Dynasty, which greatly improved the efficiency of spinning cotton yarn. (Encyclopedia of Agricultural Management, Volume 35)

The development of cotton spinning industry was directly related to the expansion of cotton planting area and the increase of output at that time. According to records, "officers and men at sea cultivate millions of acres of land, most of which grow cotton, more than one million acres." Shanghai to Taicang is a cotton-producing area and a distribution center for commercial cotton. Wu, a great poet in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote "Mu Mian Yin", saying, "See the rich households (cotton) piled up like mountains during the Wanli period. Fuzhou's green socks are all words, and his waist is full of money. The flower watcher went to the house full of flowers and boards and tiles. Yellow chickens peck at flowers, and the streets are as white as jade. The lights of the city bridge are even windy, and the teeth are in the middle of the road. ..... In the past, flowers were planted in Hebei, and now they are also planted all over Chyi Yu. The flowers in the north are in Jiangnan, and southerners know how to plant them. " (Wu Mei Cun Ji, Volume 12, Episode 2) As can be seen from this poem, by the Wanli period, the cotton production and trade in the south of the Yangtze River were unprecedented. By the Wanli period, large-scale cotton planting had gradually spread in Lu Yu, and the flowers in the north had been dumped to the south. The surge of cotton production in North and South directly promoted the development of cotton spinning industry. The "standard cloth" produced in Shanghai County of Songjiang Prefecture sells well. "Rich businessmen and tycoons come to the market with heavy capital, with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of silver." ("Reading the World" Volume 7) Kapok in Suzhou is also very famous.

Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province has developed cotton yarn and cotton production. At that time, there was a rumor that "Songjiang cloth was not enough and Tang Wei yarn was not enough". (Zhejiang Tongzhi, Volume 102, Product) Due to the dry climate, cotton wool can't be bundled. Although it can be made into cloth, its quality is not good and cotton production is difficult. During the Wanli period, weavers in Suning County, North Zhili created a method to improve the quality of cotton cloth. "Wear more cellars, a few feet deep, and build houses on them. The eaves are only two feet higher than the ground, and there are windows to let the sunlight through. Living in it, you can spin with moisture, thus weaving high-quality cotton cloth. The market horses produced in Suning County account for one-tenth of Songjiang's output, and the quality is getting better and better, and the fineness is similar to that of Songjiang's Chinese products. (Encyclopedia of Agricultural Management, Volume 35)