Silk Interwoven with Chinese History

June 1980

中文

armer inspects the nursery beds where the silkworms are growing.

China is the cradle of sericulture. Classical writings describe how the Chinese people started to produce silk some 5,000 years ago. When Fu Hsi Shih was enthroned, he discovered that the thread derived from silk cocoons was soft, durable and lustrous, and suitable for making ropes and fabric. After Huang Ti (Yellow Emperor) came to power, his wife Lei Tsu started to raise silkworms indoors in large numbers, and taught people spinning and weaving techniques.

Relics from the Neolithic age, including spinning wheels, sewing needles, made of bone, and half a cocoon, reinforce the records in the classics. Shih Chin or the Book of Odes, written some 3,000 years ago, also describes vividly how women picked mulberry leaves, raised silkworms and wove and dyed the cloth.

Long ago, silk farmers paid homage to the goddess of silkworms before they started their annual feast. Because she is often clothed in the hide of a horse, the goddess is referred to as Ma Tou Niang Niang.

An old legend describes how a traveler failed to return from one of his journeys on time. His daughter jokingly told a horse stabled at the family home that if it brought her father back, she would marry it. The horse fulfilled its side of the bargain, and for a while after it returned with its master, it had little appetite. It became excited when the girl appeared, however. On learning about the marriage pledge, the father had the horse put to death, and dried its hide in the farmyard. Later the girl was seen kicking the horsehide, saying: "You are but a beast, how dare you ask me to marry you!" Even before she had finished speaking, she was swallowed up by the horsehide and disappeared. A few days later she was rediscovered--in the form a worm spinning cocoons in a mulberry tree.

Silk has for a long time played a major role in the economic history of China. During the reign of Wu Ti (140-87 B.C.) of the Western Han dynasty, Gen. Chang Chien headed out for the Western dominions carrying a consignment of silk, thereby introducing the fabric to the Western world. The trade continued for the next thousand years, until it was interrupted by the Ta Shih (Arabs), who had started extensive sericulture themselves in the Middle East.

A ban on exports of silkworms from China was broken when a princess hid the eggs in her hair on her marriage to a Western potentate. The legend is supported by a fresco excavated in the Middle East area.

Thereafter, silkworm culture became popular in Turkey, Iran, Arabia and India. Another legend has it that two Nestorian priests hid silkworm eggs in holes in their staffs and carried them off to the Roman Empire to introduce sericulture to Europe.

Silkworms were introduced to Taiwan some 300 years ago at the end of the Ming Dynasty when Cheng Cheng-kung (Koxinga) started to open up the island. The industry was stabilized in the Ching dynasty when Taiwan governor Liu Ming-chuan encouraged people to plant mulberry trees and raise silkworms.

In the past farmers regarded sericulture as a side line, and production was on a small scale. More recently, however, an improvement in living standards has created a larger market for silk worldwide. The government has therefore provided loans for silk farmers to enable them to enlarge mulberry tree plantation areas. Since 1973, specialized districts have been set up in Miaoli, Nantou, Tainan, Pingtung and Hualien counties for the systematic management of sericulture.

The specialized districts are split up into units of 20 hectares, each containing a community of 30 or 40 households. A director and vice director are elected from each unit to attend seminars given by the government on silk cultivation techniques. Each hectare of land supports about 6,000 mulberry trees, which sprout every year in the spring.

To start a sericulture business, the farmer usually buys several boxes each containing 20,000 frozen silkworm eggs at a cost of US$4 per box. After being treated and dried in the wind, the eggs are placed in a nursery where the temperature and humidity are carefully controlled. To thrive, the newly hatched ant-sized caterpillars must have ample light, and ventilation and be kept dry and pest-free.

The trays full of silkworms are covered with thin paper to prevent the mulberry leaves from withering, and as the caterpillars grow, they become soft and white. After molting three or four times, the silkworms are ready to spin their cocoons on specially provided wooden frames. Three or four days later, the cocoons become dry and hard and are ready for harvesting.

The cocoons are sent to factories for sorting, after which they are boiled and baked to prepare the filament. Then they are placed on spinning machines, and after the "glue" is removed, the thread can be woven into the familiar silk cloth. Only dyeing remains to create the finished product.

Since the government set up the specialized districts seven years ago, silk production has increased 10-fold from 123.8 metric tons a year to 1,342 metric tons. As a result, exports have been achieved to countries all over the world, including Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and nations in Africa.

An institute has been set up at Kungkuan village in Miaoli County to conduct experiments into producing better strains of mulberry trees and silkworms so as to further promote sericulture. Branches have been set up in Nantou, Tainan, Pingtung and Hualien at which the most up-to-date techniques have been introduced.

The National Taiwan University, College of Chinese Culture, and the Tahu Agricultural and Industrial High School have also set up sericulture departments to cultivate specialists in the field.

It is believed that with the introduction of these up-to-date techniques, the time-honored activity of silk production will once again flourish in its home, the Republic of China.

[Picture Caption]

A farmer inspects the nursery beds where the silkworms are growing.

1. Collecting mulberry leaves. 2. Feeding silkworms. 3. Wooden frameworks are placed on the beds to allow the silkworms to spin cocoons. 4 & 5. The rich harvest of cocoons.

1-3. Students of the sericulture department of Tahu Agricultural and Industrial High School cross-breed the silkworms. 4-6. An institution has been set up in Miaoli County to produce better strains of mulberry trees and silkworms.

1. Handicrafts made of silk. 2. Machines reel raw silk from cocoons.

3. Shining silk cloth after weaving.