Sericulture technology mainly includes what?

Commercial and Zhou Dynasty, China's sericulture production has been a great development, the ancient Chinese sericulture technology mainly includes: bath seed, warm seed, collect ants, give mulberry, split foils, on the nest and other important technical aspects.

Before the silkworm seed hatching, the ancient people on the silkworm seed to bath seed treatment. Initially only the silkworm seed in the river immersion, in order to remove the dirt on the egg surface; Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jiahu sericulturist changed to a dilute salt water solution, or lime water, or with mulberry ash, straw ash shower juice bath seeds, with these water solutions bath seeds, playing a weak egg surface disinfection. In ancient times, there is also a day bath, choose the cold winter months, take the silkworm seed placed in the cage, hanging in the mulberry tree, let the frost and dew, rain and snow drifting freezing, through the day bath, to low temperature elimination of sick and weak eggs.

The warmth of the seed is to promote the hatching of silkworms. The Yangtze River Basin and its northern regions, commonly used the following two methods of seed warming: one is indoor artificial heating; the other is to use the sun's heat to warm the seeds. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most sericulturists in Jiangsu and Zhejiang utilized human body heat to warm the seeds. These methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Silkworm eggs hatch into ants after seed warming. In order to collect silkworm ants, the ancients first thought of using to make brooms to sweep silkworm ants, and later found that "use to sweep the silkworm is injured," and then changed to use the hair sweeping, but there is still the problem of injury to the silkworms, so the ancients thought of using mulberry leaves to attract the "mulberry collection method". And the Yuan dynasty northern farmers are more peach stick flip knocking method, is to turn the silkworm seed paper, with peach stick in the back of the paper gently knocking, ants and silkworms are shocked, will fall from the silkworm seed paper, this collection of ants method, now known as the method of playing down.

After collecting ants, it is necessary to feed the silkworms. Feeding the silkworms is the key to raising silkworms. In the silkworm's life, when should it be fed a few more times? When can you feed them less? How much of the mulberry each time? There are rules and regulations. Ancient people found that the silkworm's appetite and its body color changes. Give mulberry can be based on the silkworm body color changes, to determine the time and amount of mulberry. For example, the silkworm body color from yellow and since the period of change, it is the sleep up after the silkworm body soft, weak digestive organs, appetite is not yet strong stage, so this period should be "appropriate fine feeding", so that the method of giving the silkworm body physiological requirements. Ancient people also according to the silkworm head color changes to judge the silkworm sleep and eat.

With the growth of the silkworm, the need to remove sand and sub-foil, in order to facilitate the health of the silkworm. Sand removal and foil separation are often carried out in combination. Ancient methods of sand removal mainly include: unarmed sand removal method, net removal method and chaff removal method. Ancient northern farmers in the mulberry silkworm after the first sleep will be a silkworm foil rearing ant silkworms into 2 foils, the second age of full-feeding period is divided into 3 foils, the three sleep up into 6 foils, the third age of full-feeding period is divided into 12 foils, the third sleep up into 25 foils, the fourth age of full-feeding period is divided into 30 foils.

After three or four sleeps, the silkworms finally tend to mature. The same foil of silkworms often sleep up unevenly, so it is difficult to all mature at the same time. For the uneven maturity of silkworms, it is best to first mature silkworms on the nest first, after the mature silkworms on the nest. For the silkworms can not be ripe at the same time on the nest, the Qing Dynasty "wide silkworm said" recorded method is: when a small number of ripe silkworms found in the foil, it is a thin layer of mulberry leaves, not ripe silkworms are bound to eat the leaves as usual, ripe silkworms do not eat the leaves, but climbed to the leaf surface, head up, if there is something to be done, and then hand-picked, sent to the silkworm nests. Later, the number of mature silkworms gradually increased, more than enough to pick pick, will use willow branches resting on the mulberry leaf layer, to be mature silkworms climbed on the willow branches, and then put forward the silkworms climbed on the willow branches on the silkworm nests. This method is known as the "method of luring silkworms".

Ming and Qing dynasties, the main production areas of sericulture Jiahu area, in the mature silkworm cocoon, nest under the charcoal heating, in order to "cocoon speed and reeling easy". Warming under the nest, silk from the mouth of the silkworm that is dry, known as the "export dry", so that the quality of silk is also better, well received by the people at that time.