This shows that China is the first country in the world to start sericulture, reeling and weaving.
The ancient "Silk Road" is proof.
Silkworm, native to natural mulberry, mainly eats mulberry leaves, so it is also called silkworm.
Before sericulture, our ancestors knew how to reel silk with wild cocoons long ago. It is still difficult to determine when to start artificial sericulture.
But as early as the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, the sericulture production in China had made great progress, which shows that the development of artificial sericulture was far before the Yin and Zhou Dynasties.
From ancient literature, we can see the direct records about sericulture.
Xia, who reflected the production situation of Huaihe River and Yangtze River in late summer and early Yin Dynasty, said: "Mulberries are taken in March, and my concubine begins to silkworm.
"This means that mulberry trees will be pruned in March of the summer calendar (April of the lunar calendar) and women will start sericulture.
There are not only words such as silkworm, mulberry, silk and silks in the book of Yin Renjia, but also some complete Oracle Bone Inscriptions related to silk production.
According to the research of Oracle Bone Inscriptions scientist Hu Houxuan, it is recorded in some Oracle Bone Inscriptions that it takes nine hexagrams to inspect silkworm affairs.
It can be seen that sericulture was a very important production undertaking at that time.
There are also records about the silkworm god and its worship in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. At that time, in order to raise silkworms well, people sacrificed silkworms with rich sacrifices such as cattle or sheep.
It is not the first time that archaeologists have found lifelike jade silkworms in tombs of Yin Ruins, such as the tombs in Anyang, Henan Province and the Shang Dynasty jade silkworms unearthed in Subutun, Shandong Province.
Silkworms are often found as decorative patterns on bronzes in Shang Dynasty.
All these show the important position of silkworm in people's minds at that time.
Many bronzes handed down from ancient times in the Yin Dynasty were accompanied by traces of silk or silk fragments.
Through research, some silk fabrics reflect that there was already quite advanced silk weaving technology at that time; A large number of facts show that silk became more and more important in the social and economic life at that time and became the intermediate medium of commodity exchange.
To produce a large number of silk products, only by developing artificial sericulture can we provide enough silk raw materials.
By the Zhou Dynasty, mulberry planting and sericulture had flourished in the vast areas of northern and southern China.
Silk has become the main raw material of the ruling class at that time.
Silkworm rearing and silk weaving are the main productive activities of women.
There are many poems in The Book of Songs that mention sericulture.
Like The Book of Songs? Hurricane? July: "The sun shines in spring, and Amin ploughs.
The woman holds the basket, obeys it and loves the soft mulberry.
It means: it's sunny in spring, and orioles sing.
Women are carrying laundry baskets, walking along endless paths, picking tender mulberry for silkworms.
This vividly depicts the labor scene of women picking mulberry and raising silkworms at that time.
Mulberry was planted on a large scale in the Zhou Dynasty.
The Book of Songs? Feng Wei? Between ten acres, there is a poem "between ten acres, mulberries are idle", which means: between ten acres of mulberries, how leisurely mulberry picking is.
This shows that mulberry trees have been planted in pieces in the Spring and Autumn Period, and a mulberry garden is as big as ten acres.
Mulberry trees planted at that time were probably shrub type and arbor type.
Now, we can also see the vivid images of ancient working women picking mulberry trees with baskets on bronzes during the Warring States period, and we can also see two kinds of mulberry trees planted at that time: trees and shrubs.
According to the book of songs, Zuo Zhuan, Yili and other ancient books, silkworms were not only kept indoors at that time, but also had special silkworm houses and equipment.
These utensils include silkworm racks ("squares" or "hammers"), silkworm foils ("bends") and so on.
It can be seen that in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, China already had a set of mature mulberry planting and sericulture techniques.
"Pipe" in the Warring States Period? "A few articles on the mountain" said: "Anyone who raises silkworms and makes them disease-free will be given a catty of gold and eat eight stones directly. I'd like to hear what they have to say, but the officials who are hiding make things between teachers and tourists irrelevant.
"That is to say, people who are proficient in sericulture can raise silkworms and prevent them from getting sick. Ask him to introduce his experience and give him gold and exemption from military service.
Indeed, the most experienced and knowledgeable people are the vast number of people engaged in production practice.
Among them, there are many experts and experts in sericulture. In their long-term sericulture practice, they have constantly created inventions and accumulated extremely rich and valuable experience for sericulture in China and the world.