The origin of silk

Silk and silk originated very early. There are traces of yunlei silk on the fishing songs of Shang Dynasty in the Palace Museum, which are early silk fabrics. Diamond silks unearthed from Chu Tomb in Changtaiguan, Xinyang, Henan Province, and dragon and phoenix silks unearthed from Mashan Warring States Tomb in Jiangling, Hubei Province. Have excellent knitting skills. In the sixth year of Taiyuan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (38 1), when Wang Xianzhi, the magistrate, was in office, he wrote in white, recording that "Wang Xianzhi wrote a book and Yang Xinbai practiced his skirts and silk". Ji Ling was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, and his works spread all over the country. At that time, silk was a tribute. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, silk products produced everywhere mushroomed. According to the Records of Geography of New Tang Dynasty, there are water silk, square silk, fish mouth silk, embroidered leaf silk, patterned silk and Suzhou silk in Runzhou, and black eye silk in Huzhou. There are white woven silk and trip wire in Hangzhou ... there are countless varieties. The same is true of silk. The finer the texture, the wider the origin. In the Tang dynasty, in addition to white silk, silk picking and printing silk appeared. In the Song Dynasty, silk and silk fabrics were more abundant, and Ji Jin Academy and Siwen Academy under the supervision of Shaofu produced silk fabrics in large quantities. In the Song Dynasty, silk was widely used in official clothes, officials, degrees r3 and painting and calligraphy mounting. Almost all tombs in the Song Dynasty have unearthed slow fabrics. In the Song Dynasty, there were white silk, five-color silk and red soap silk. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the production of twisted silk was still very prosperous.

Since modern times, due to more and more varieties of silk fabrics, clothing fabrics have been constantly introduced, and the use of ancient silk and silk fabrics as clothing fabrics has also decreased accordingly. Silk and silk fabrics are mainly used for mounting paintings and handicrafts. At present, there are not many producing areas specializing in the production of mounting silk in China. Only Sara Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, still maintains a prosperous scene of silk and silk production. According to historical records, Huzhou began to produce silk and silk products in the Song Dynasty. Before the first year of the Northern Song Dynasty (976), Huzhou set up an official camp to weave silk for the imperial court. In the Southern Song Dynasty, a silk market was set up in Dongxilin (now Sara Town), and 5000 silks and 10000 clothes were presented to the imperial court every year. In Yuan Dynasty, Huzhou silk specialized in production, weaving, printing and dyeing, and silk production and marketing flourished. "Invasion of Silk Village, the lights on the street are like dusk." This is a poem in Song of Double Streams by Yao in Qing Dynasty, which describes the prosperity of silk and silk industry at that time. The Ming Dynasty was the heyday of silk production in Huzhou, and Wuling was called Hu Ling at this time. There are two kinds of silk: wide and long palace silk and narrow and small silk. There are paper twill woven from loose silk and line twill woven from twine, which are smooth and radiant. After Wanli, silk and silk fabrics have undergone great changes, with various names, including flowers, light and heavy, especially Dong's silk fabrics. Silk has official silk and raw silk, but local silk has five colors and is famous for its double-forest Baotou silk and Baotou yarn. Liang Xiaoyu, a Wulin woman in the Ming Dynasty, wrote the poem "Baotou, Sara": "There is a little fragrance in the light fog, and there is more fragrance beside the cicada. I love Chunshan and the light green snail in Hengzhuang area. " During the Chongzhen period, the varieties of silk produced in Sara Town were more refined, including Baotou silk and hat top silk. There are paintings and calligraphy; There is Ni Ling on the cover of the imperial court; There are Anle silk for shroud, sea quilt for the elderly: board silk for flag, etc. Besides Baotou silk, there are Dusheng silk, Dongsheng silk, Xiasheng silk, Busy silk, Palace silk, filament, Geng silk (for decoration) and alum silk (for writing and painting). In the Qing dynasty, the main products were framed silk and silk. Mounted silk is divided into dragon silk, cloud crane silk and foreign silk. There are three or two plain silks, eight-foot yarn and six-foot yarn. The original "familiar people twist, living silk" has evolved into "flower silk, vegetarian silk." 1919-1921year, silk production in Sara is the most prosperous, with 100 weavers, more than 5,000 employees and more than 2,000 wood machines, with an annual output of 7.2 million feet.

Huzhou silk production was seriously damaged during the Japanese invasion of China, and many silk factories closed down and stopped production. After the founding of New China, silk production resumed. 1958, lingsi weaving factory was founded by individual family weavers. Since 2000, Lingsi shares have been restructured and reorganized. Traditional twisted silk reproduces brilliance, and the products are light and soft, simple and elegant, and full of rich national characteristics.

Huzhou Sara Silk is famous for its light as cicada, thin as morning mist, soft texture and bright color, and is known as "the flower of silk weaving technology".

Unfortunately, at present, silk is basically chemically dyed. If natural dyeing can be used to restore the style of ancient silk, the value of silk will be greatly improved.