The status and role of ancient Chinese silk in national life?

Clothing, food, housing and transportation are the four essential elements of human life, and silk, as a clothing material, has a very special status in Chinese social life. On the one hand, silk beautifies and nourishes the life of the Chinese people. Colorful and soft damask silk decorated with men, women and children's clothing, decorated with the family mattress, decorated with the halls and temples and other public **** place, decorated with ancient books and paintings and other stationery. Even as small as handkerchiefs, purses and other small pieces, can be found in the silk. On the other hand, sericulture and silk weaving industry is the main dependence of China's rural economy, especially in the south, and one of the country's most important financial and foreign trade revenues, playing a great role in the construction of the national economy. In addition to the taking value and economic value closely related to these surfaces, silk is also tied to the traditional Chinese culture.

I. Silk and Language and Literature

In the oracle bone inscriptions that have been found, there are more than 100 with "ito" as a radical. In Xu Shen's Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Characters in Chinese), there are 260 characters with "糸", 75 with "巾", and more than 120 with "衣", all of which are directly or indirectly related to silk weaving. In the "ito" as the side of the text, about the textile and silk industry are reeling, deduction, warp, weft, drawing, weaving, synthesis, unification, discipline, spinning, absolute, following, continue, shao, twisting, about, turbulence, braiding, knotting, practicing, embroidery, multi-color, weaving, seizure, etc., about textile fibers and spinning and rolling the threads of the Og, Maine, pure, raw silk, skein, fine, level, line, strands, ropes, threading, Miu, silk, etc., on the textile types of fabrics, silk, dandy, chi, thick waterproof, coir, onyx, damask, aman, etc., on the textile color green, misty, tee, purple, red, blue, reel, black, red, etc., on the clothing accessories, tassels, gentry, ribbons, group, New Zealand, spandex, margins, dude, taping, etc., and other derivations of the meaning of the paper, Yi, Sui, and so on. Among them, about the silk craft and apparel accounted for the main position, about 50%; silk varieties followed, accounting for about 35%; fabric color names accounted for about 30%; other words accounted for about 15%.

By the period of the North and South Dynasties, the texts derived from textile and silk further increased. Liang Gu Nuwang's "The Jade Book" included seven parts related to "ito" (糸), which amounted to more than 400 words. In the Song version of the Jade Book, there are 459 characters in the "ito" section, 172 characters in the "towel" section, and 294 characters in the "clothes" section. In the Kangxi Dictionary of the Qing Dynasty, there are about 830 characters in the "糸" section, which is much more than that of the Song Dynasty. This shows that the relationship between the Chinese language and silk is quite close.

In modern Chinese, some words from the silk textile and many compound phrases and idioms, greatly enriching the language of our people, enhance the power of expression, such as "comprehensive", "continue", " clue", "bound", "edit", "organization", "agency ", "liaison", "contiguous", "warp and weft", "brocade heart and mind ", "outline", "cocooning", "blue is better than blue", "near vermilion is red, near ink is black" and so on. The one who is close to Zhu is red, and the one who is close to Mo is black", etc. Among them, "to be enmeshed in a cocoon" originally refers to the process of a silkworm spitting out silk and forming a cocoon, and is later used to refer to self-binding and self-enclosure; "brocade heart and embroidered mouth", "brocade river and mountains", "brocade on the flowers", etc. are used to describe the beauty of other things with the beauty of silk fabrics; "warp and woof" to take the meaning of the intersection of warp and woof to form the whole world, nowadays the geography used in "longitude ", "latitude" is derived from this; "organization" is the original meaning of the fabric warp and weft threads interwoven structure, and later referred to a variety of man-made combinations; "mechanism "is the structure of the loom, and later referred to all mechanical and organizational structure; "integrated" originally refers to the many threads through the heald eye and was orderly assembled together; "blue from blue but more than blue" for the bluegrass dyes in the dyeing can get a darker color than the grass color The idiom of "blue is darker than blue" is used to describe a person's ability to get a deeper color after dyeing bluegrass, and it is used to describe a person's ability to surpass his or her predecessors.

In addition to a large number of specialized textile scientific and technological works, such as "Silkworm Book", "Zi People's Legacy System", "Heavenly Works" and other direct accounts of silk production, there are also a large number of poems, novels and other works of literature related to silk production in ancient China. These literary works appeared on the basis of the feudal society of male farming and weaving production conditions. Because of the family silk weaving in ancient society has an extremely important position, women are more likely to become the object of literary depiction, therefore, "women weaving" has become an important subject for writers. There are many examples of this.

China's earliest literary work, the Book of Songs, has many descriptions of silk production. The famous "Bin Feng? July" there is a description of silk production of sericulture verses: "July fire, August reeds. Silkworms in the month of mulberry, to take their axe, in order to cut the far Yang, inter alia, female mulberry. July song, August load performance. I am Zhu Kongyang. I Zhu Kongyang, for the Duke's clothes." Another example is "Xiao Ya? Casting Green" is related to dyeing grass: "The green is picked at the end of the day, but it does not amount to one. I have a curved bureau of hair, and I return to the bath in a thin voice. I will be picking blue at the end of the day, not enough for leisure. Five days for a period of time, six days not Zhan." By the time of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, there were still a large number of silk-related poems recorded, such as the Han Dynasty "Ancient Poetry? Shangshan Gracilaria": "Shangshan Gracilaria, down the mountain to meet the old man. Kneel long and ask the old man, the new man as ...... new thick waterproof man weaving, the old man weaving vegetarian. The new man weaves thick waterproof silk, and the old man weaves thick pigment. When I compare thick waterproof silk to veil, the new man is not as good as the old one." The first five poems of the ancient Chinese poets, the poems of the first Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties, the poems of the Han Dynasty, Volume 1.2, "Ancient Poems", China Bookstore, 1983. Another example is the Han Lefu (汉乐府), Stranger's Mulberry (陌上桑), which depicts the story of a mulberry-picking woman, Luo Shi (罗敷), and is equally famous: "The sun rises in the southeast corner of the country and shines on my Qin's building. The Qin clan has a good girl, named herself Luo Shi. Luo Shi is good at silkworms and mulberry, picking mulberry in the south corner of the city. She was tied to a cage with green silk and hooked with a cinnamon stick. Her head is tied in a bun, and the moon beads in her ears. The light yellow silk is the lower skirt, and the purple silk is the upper jacket." (逮钦立辑校: "Stranger's Mulberry," Poems of the First Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties, Han Poetry, Volume IX, Ancient Rhetoric of the House of Music, Zhonghua Shuju Bureau, 1983.) In addition, many poems of the Six Dynasties, such as the Song of Silkworms and the Song of Mulberry Picking, were also about silk production.

The Tang Dynasty was the peak of China's poetic creation, and there were even more poems of various textile-related poems. Many famous poets wrote such poems or verses, such as Du Fu's "White Silk Row" and Li Shangyin's "Silkworms to the death of silk". Among the poets of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi and Wang Jian wrote the most poems on this subject. Bai Juyi is a realist poet, reflecting the life of the working people in many works, such as the "damask", "red thread carpet", "re-fu chanting", etc., dedicated to silk production as the theme. Among them, the song "Dazzling Damask" is widely sung: "Dazzling Damask Dazzling Damask is not like raw silk and dandy. It should be like Tiantai Mountain before the moon, forty-five feet of waterfalls and springs. The ground is covered with white smoke and snow. I'm not sure who the weavers are, but I'm sure the women of Yuexi and Han Palace are the ones. Last year, the Chinese ambassador proclaimed a verbal edict, the heavenly samples of earthly weaving. Weaving for the autumn geese outside the clouds, dyeing for the color of spring water in the south of the Yangtze River. The sleeves of the shirt are cut and the skirt is made long, and the golden bucket is ironed and the knife cuts the pattern. Different colors and strange writings are reflected in each other, and it is not easy to turn the side to look at the flowers." Wang Jian, a poet of the late Tang Dynasty, wrote many poems reflecting the production of silkworms, mulberry and silk weaving, such as "Silkworm Cluster Words", "Field House Walk", "Brocade Weaving Song" and "Clothes Pounding Song". Among them, the "Brocade Song" describes the life of brocade weavers in Sichuan: "The eldest daughter is a brocade weaver, and her name is in the county family for the book. The eldest daughter is a brocade weaver, and her name is in the county family for the book of entry. The first sample is presented to the government, and I heard about the hardship in the government family. The side leaves of the flowers are separated from the others, fearing that the silk threads will dry up in the fall. The red strands of Weiweiwei's purple velvet is soft, and the butterflies are flying in different directions."

The Song Dynasty is famous for its words, and there are many depictions of silkworms in the words. Su Shi's "Raccoon brocade" has depicted rural reeling production: "Hemp leaves layer by layer leaf light, who cooks cocoon a village incense, the hedge whispered beautiful silk." "Rustling scarf falling jujube flower, the village south and north of the village sound reeling car, cow clothes ancient willow selling cucumbers." Xin Qiji has "partridge sky" cloud: "strangers on the soft stripes of the first broken buds, east neighbor silkworms have been born some." There is also "Pink Butterfly" cloud: "Yesterday, spring as, thirteen daughters learn to embroider, a branch, do not teach the flower thin. Very merciless, will come down, rain and wind. To the garden, paved as lichen red crepe." All related to silk production. The best textile words written in the Song lyrics are counted in Anonymous' "nine machines", which writes the story of a tapestry woman who weaves her love for each other into the pattern: "A machine. Trying on spring clothes on the Cai Sang Stranger. The wind is clear and the sun is warm. On the peach blossom branches, the warblers speak, refusing to let anyone return. Two machines. The pedestrians are hesitant to stand on their horses. I can't bear to tell them what to do, but I turn around and smile, and I go back to the flowers for fear of being known by them. Three sheets. The silkworms have grown old and the swallows have fled. The east wind has finished the banquet at Cheung Chau Garden, and the light raw silk is urging the palace maidens to change their clothes for the dance. Four. The first time I saw you, I was so happy to see you. The first time I saw this, it was a very beautiful day. The heart of a sad man is hard to organize, and his veins are as messy as silk. Five machines. A poem by Shen Lang is woven in horizontal stripes. No one knows the center line. I do not speak of sadness or emaciation. I only send my love. Six machines. The rows and lines are all about playing with flowers. There are two butterflies among the flowers, stopping for a while in the shadow of the idle window. I have watched them alone for a long time. Seven machines. The mandarin ducks are weaving and hesitating. Fearing that they will be lightly cut, they will fly to two different places, and will be separated from each other, so they will not be able to follow each other again. Eight machines. I know who the poem is. It's a sad piece of writing, and I've read it all over again. I have read it all over, and I am so tired of it that I can't bear to think about it any more. Nine Sheets of Machine. Two flowers, two leaves and two branches. The love of the world is so often parted, from the beginning to the end. I'll be tied up in my heart. Through a silk."

The Ming and Qing dynasties, novels were prevalent, and the description of silkworms and silk was common in novels. Ming dynasty "three words and two beats" can often be seen in this kind of description, such as "wake up HengYan" has been written in the town of jiangsu shengze has a name of ShiFu handicraftsmen, originally a few baskets of sericulture each year, small machine households, but because of his sericulture, reeling technology is good, weaving silk quality is good, merchants scramble to increase the price of the purchase. In just a few years, he added three or four machines and hired weavers. Another Ming Dynasty novel "Plum in the Golden Vase" is to open the silk store Simon Qing as the main characters, which is written to the name of the silk products, trade is also very much (Figure 0?4?2). Cao Xueqin is the descendant of Jiangning weaver Cao Yin, has an extraordinary understanding of silk production and products, so his masterpiece "Dream of Red Mansions" also has a large number of depictions of silk textiles, such as locks of brocade, makeup satin, cicada wing yarn, light smoke Luo, cocoon silk, feather yarn, woof, popping ink, foreign crepe, Western cloth, bird gold tweed, dorot tweed, serge, jonquil satin, and so on, and so on, and the list goes on and on.

Two, silk and art

Silk since ancient times is one of the important materials for painting and calligraphy. As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, a large number of silk books and paintings with silk fabrics. Between the Tang and Song dynasties, silk was the main material for literati paintings, and most of the heirloom Tang and Song paintings were silk. By the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, silk gradually decreased, paper increased, but there are still a lot of paintings and calligraphy with silk as the background, known as silk or damask. From about the Song Dynasty, silk also became a painting and calligraphy framing materials. Song and yuan mainly use the woof and brocade to do framing materials and package head, Ming and qing dynasties more with the silk to frame painting and calligraphy. Therefore, silk and art have an inseparable relationship. Zhou Ying: "A Brief Discussion of the Influence of Silk on Chinese Painting", Silk History Research, No. 2, 1985.

In Chinese history, the relationship between silk and fine arts is more reflected in the fact that silk production scenes frequently appeared in ancient art works as common themes.

Silkworm decorations were already seen on bronzes in the Shang Dynasty, and many bronze pots with scenes of mulberry picking were unearthed in the Warring States Period. The mulberry picking pictures reflected the vivid scenes of labor, love, singing and dancing, and rituals of the mulberry pickers at that time. Han, Wei and six dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, silk production scenes often appear in the portrait stone, portrait bricks, murals, woodblock prints. Especially in the Han Dynasty, there are textile portrait stones found in Hongdaoyuan and Longyangdian in Tengxian, Shandong, Wuliang Ancestral Hall in Jiaxiang County, Shandong, Guo Ju Ancestral Hall in Xiaotang Mountain, northwest of Feicheng, Shandong, Ciyun Temple in Jining, Shandong, Liucheng Town in Peixian County, Jiangsu, Tongshan Honglou in Tongshan, Jiangsu, Sihong Caozhuang in Sihong, Jiangsu, and Zengjabao in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and so on, whose themes are mostly the breaking of the machine by the mother of a great man to train the son, and the machine tools shown in the picture are all slanting looms. Zhao Feng, "A Study of the Restoration of Pedal Looms in the Han Dynasty," Cultural Relics, No. 5, 1996. In the wall-painted tombs of the Wei and Jin dynasties in Jiayuguan, Gansu, a large number of painted bricks on mulberry picking and silk silk have been found. In the Tang Dynasty, there are two masterpieces related to silk production, i.e. "Pounding Practice" and "Tired Embroidery", which not only reflect the process of silk refining, embroidery and sewing, but also the costumes worn by the characters reflect the silk patterns of the time.

The most famous painting reflecting the process of silk production is the Plowing and Weaving Picture drawn by Yu Qian county magistrate Lou in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. Plowing and weaving map" to the agricultural and silk production at the time as the subject matter, *** set up plowing map 21 things, weaving map 24 things. The original was presented to Song Gaozong, was Hanlin Painting Institute facsimile painting into color silk, collected in the palace, became a member of the royal family to understand the sericulture and weaving production of reference and appreciation of the product; copy to stay at home. The Song and Yuan versions of "Plowing and Weaving" now in circulation include the Queen Wu's annotated version, Liang Kai's version, Cheng Kai's version, and so on. Among them, the Queen Wu's annotated version **** there are bathing silkworms, cutting leaves, warming seeds, whisking Wu'er, picking leaves, body feeding, one sleep, two sleeps, three sleeps, warming silkworms, big sleep, busy picking leaves, sleep up to feed the big leaves, picking up the skillful on the mountain, tufts, mounting the mountain, cocoon, cocoon, cocoons, silkworm moths out of the seed, cocoon, about cocoon, cocoon, peeling cocoon, weighing the cocoon, salt cocoon, urn hiding, reeling, thanking the gods for silk, winding stacks, spinning performance, the warp, the weft, wefting, weaving, pulling the flowers, down the machine, into the box and other images. The first foot-operated reeling carts and jacquard damask machines were also painted, which are vivid and detailed. In the Qianlong period, someone into the Yuan Cheng Kai-ben "plowing and weaving map", which is painted in strict accordance with the order of the Song building. The Qianlong emperor made an engraved stone of the "Cultivation and Weaving Diagram," which was hidden in the Summer Palace.

Ming and Qing dynasties, the "plow and weave map" facsimiles have come out, especially in the Qing Dynasty, special attention. Kangxi thirty-five years (1696) in February, the Kangxi Emperor ordered the court painter Jiao Bingzhen imitation building map painted into the "imperial plowing and weaving map", and personally write a preface to the poem, published around the world, advising the farmers and mulberry. Later, Yongzheng, Qianlong dynasty to be followed, a time to copy the engraving of the wind of "plowing and weaving map" is prevalent, some of the agricultural book, the square is also printed on the "plowing and weaving map", and even many of the stone carving, windows and wood carvings, porcelain paintings, paintings, banknotes, ink and ink slabs on the "plowing and weaving map". The prevalence of the Plowing and Weaving Map also led to the birth of the same type of Cotton Map.

Silk and other decorative arts is also very close. Silk was once used as wallcoverings for interior decoration, and therefore silk patterns were often imitated in architectural motifs. Bronze, ceramics, lacquer, gold and silver ware and other decorative patterns have also followed the wind of silk decoration, or with silk style mutual influence, reflecting the **** with the characteristics of the times. For example, from the middle of the Bronze Age, a variety of ritual objects appear on the animal pattern of the periphery and the gap filled with a variety of small geometric patterns, such as back to the pattern, thunder pattern, etc., may be due to the geometric pattern of dark patterned fabrics on the subject of animal embroidery to the influence of the result. After the Song and Yuan design can often be seen in the brocade ground open pattern, with a small geometric pattern such as water pattern, lock armor pattern, ball road pattern for the ground, on the cloth with a ring areal pattern for the theme, no doubt also comes from the design of silk patterns, and a large number of ceramics, metal, lacquer and architecture, and so on almost all of the art and household items.

The relationship between silk and art can also be found in the field of music. According to history, wild silk has been used to make strings, so it seems, as one of the main forms of Chinese instrumental music strings can not be separated from silk, ancient Chinese instrumental music is also called "silk bamboo".

Three, silk and religious rituals

Ancient China was a country with a strict ritual system. In ancient society, silk itself was a sign of nobility and status, while cotton and linen were for ordinary people.

The dress of the "Son of Heaven" was undoubtedly of the highest rank. The book "Shangshu" (尚书? Yiji" has seen the early coronation dress twelve chapters of the record: "I want to look at the ancients of the image, the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, dragons, Chinese insects, for the meeting; Zongyi, algae, fire, powdered rice, embroidery, embroidery; to the five picks of the five colors, for the service, you Ming." According to the interpretation of later generations, the meaning of these twelve chapters is: the sun, the moon, the stars, take the meaning of its illumination of the light; the dragon, can change and take the meaning of its God; the mountain, take the meaning of its ability to cloud and rain or the town of the heavy; Hua Bug, the genus of pheasants, take the virtues of the article; Zong Yi, the Zong Temple of the dignity of the temple, on the form of a tiger, the shape of the quail, take the meaning of its courageous and wise; Algae, the water and grass have the text, or take the meaning of its jie; the fire, take the meaning of its bright; the powdered rice, take the meaning of its nourishment; 黼, for the golden axe shape, take the meaning of its ability to cut off; 黻, take the meaning of its ability to cut off; qing, for the golden axe shape. Taking its ability to cut off the meaning; 黻, two of their own back shape, take the subjects have back to the meaning of good. Zhou Xibao, A History of Chinese Costume, China Theater Press, 1984, p. 15. Twelve chapters can be used in different quantities depending on the level. In the second year of Emperor Mingdi's Yongping reign in the Eastern Han Dynasty (59), it was decided that the Son of Heaven would use twelve chapters for the sun, the moon, and the stars; the three dukes and vassals would use nine chapters for the mountains and the dragons; and the nine ministers and below would use seven chapters for the Chinese insect. Zhou Xibao, A History of Chinese Costume, China Theater Press, 1984, p. 18. There are no images of the early twelve chapters of decoration that have survived, and the earliest twelve chapters of decoration that can be seen now are the portraits of emperors in the lacquer screens in the tomb of Sima Jinlong of the Northern Wei Dynasty in Datong, Shanxi Province, as well as the images of emperors depicted in the murals at Dunhuang in Gansu Province, but they are incomplete. The real object with the twelve chapters is the woof robe of Emperor Shenzong of Ming Dynasty unearthed from Dingling Mausoleum in Beijing.

Dragon pattern is also the emperor's clothing in the special pattern subject matter. From historical records and archaeological excavations, the dragon pattern has been used in the Liao Dynasty at the latest for the emperor's clothing. To the Yuan Dynasty, the five-clawed dragon was used exclusively in the emperor's clothing, while the smaller three-clawed dragon can still be used for general occasions. From the Ming Dynasty, there are five-clawed dragon and four-clawed python, and the dragon is very similar to the flying fish, bullfighting, in addition to the five-clawed dragon, python, flying fish and bullfighting are used to give clothing.

In addition to the pattern, the color is also an important factor in distinguishing grades. History shows that the Qin Dynasty sacrificial clothing is still black, the Western Han Dynasty is still yellow, the Eastern Han Dynasty is still red. But the Han Dynasty and according to the season for the color of the difference, "after the Han Book? With the service record" contains: five time color court dress for the spring green, summer Zhu, seasonal summer yellow, autumn white, winter black. Purple is generally for the nobility of the banquet dress, while the green for the people often dress. Tang dynasty, when the emperor with red and yellow robes and shirts, then prohibited subjects to take the color of red and yellow, and the provisions of the third grade above the purple service large section of silk damask and Luo; five grades above the vermilion service small section of silk damask and Luo; six grades above the service of yellow silk cloth, miscellaneous small damask, cross shuttle, double. Taizong ordered the seventh grade service green, tortoise shell double giant ten flowers damask, the ninth grade service green silk cloth and miscellaneous small damask. The old tangshu, volume 45, "public opinion and clothing". Roughly purple, scarlet, green, green four colors can determine the high and low official rank, that began in the Sui and Tang dynasties. Song dynasty official clothing color level with the same Tang, but there is a brocade pattern in the differentiation of clothing. The first class with the world music halo brocade, the second with the cluster of four pan carved fine brocade, the third with the yellow lion brocade, the fourth with the Cui Mao fine brocade, the fifth with the red brocade, the rest of the generals are given a narrow brocade robes, there are Cui Mao, Yiman, Yunyan fine brocade, lions, practicing magpies, Baozhuang large brocade and Baozhuang in brocade, seven and so on.

Ming and qing dynasty civil and military officials more with the complement that grade. Hongwu twenty-four years (1391) provided for the regular dress pattern grade as follows: "public, marquis, extra horse harnessed by the side of a team, the Bur service, embroidered unicorn, white zephyr. For civil officials, the first-ranking crane, the second-ranking golden pheasant, the third-ranking peacock, the fourth-ranking wild goose, the fifth-ranking white pheasant, the sixth-ranking heron, the seventh-ranking and eighth-ranking oriole, and the ninth-ranking quail; for miscellaneous posts, the magpie; for the Xiezhi of the wind constitution official; for military officials, the first-ranking and second-ranking lions, the third-ranking and fourth-ranking tigers and leopards, the fifth-ranking bear and warrior, the sixth-ranking and seventh-ranking piao, the eighth-ranking rhinoceros, and the ninth-ranking seahorse." (Ming History, vol. 67, Opinions and Clothing, III). Qing Dynasty filler has round, square points, round filler mainly for the dragon, python and so on, used for princes and nobles; square filler for the hundred officials. Among them, the civil officials: the first grade crane, the second grade golden pheasant, the third grade peacock, the fourth grade goose, the fifth grade white pheasant, the sixth grade heron, the seventh grade, the eighth grade quail, the ninth grade sparrow; the military officials: the first grade unicorn, the second grade lion, the third grade leopard, the fourth grade tiger, the fifth grade bear, the sixth grade puma, the seventh and eighth grade rhinoceros, the ninth grade seahorses.

In addition to the official clothes need to use the color of the silk fabric to differentiate between the ranks, to determine the rituals, agriculture, industry, commerce, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism also have their own specific costumes.

Silk is also used in large quantities for religious occasions. Whether it is a Buddhist temple, or Taoist temple, always covered with colorful silk. The Luoyang Galaxy Records, Song Yun, Huisheng make the Western Region, see the Silk Road along the Buddhist venues are always "hanging colorful streamers, there are also ten thousand". This kind of silk streamer cover has the Buddha's image in the block, at that time was called "embroidered image". This kind of embroidery in Tibetan Buddhism is called "thangka", until today, a large number of thangka is still preserved in Tibet, Qinghai Tibetan Buddhist temples.

Four, silk and customs

China's long history of silk has also had a great impact on folk customs. From the Tang Dynasty, Wang Jian's "cluster silkworm words", we can already see part of the content: "Silkworms want to be old, foil head for cocoon silk Hao Hao. The field is wide, the ground is high and windy, not to the center of the sunshine artemisia. The silkworms are in a hurry to make their cocoons, and I have been sacrificing to the gods for you for many years. But if the sky doesn't rain, there are no flies on top and no rats underneath. The new wife will worship the cocoon, and the woman will sprinkle peach syrup and the man will play the drum. In three days, the foils will be opened and the new cocoons will be sent to the county officials. I have heard that the countryside urges the weavers to weave, to go with whoever on the clothes." In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the famous silkworm hometown of Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou customs are more colorful.

In the ancient times when science was not developed, people put their expectations of a good harvest on the blessing of the gods, and therefore performed various sacrificial activities. According to historical records, from the Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, the rulers of the court attached great importance to the activities of sacrificing to the silkworm god. Throughout the dynasties, the palace is equipped with the first sericulture altar, for the Queen pro-sericulture rituals, whenever the sericulture before, shall kill a cow to sacrifice to the silkworm God Rayon, the sacrificial ceremony is very grand. Folk is also the same, the worship of the silkworm god is the most important activities in the custom of the silkworm village. In addition to the sacrifice of Rayon, according to local customs around the worshipped silkworm god, there are sacrifices to "Silkworm Mother", "Silkworm Flower Lady", there are sacrifices to "Silkworm Sangu", there are sacrifices to the There are also those who worship "Silkworm Flower Five Saints", "Qingyi God" and other silkworm gods. Folk enshrine sericulture God's place is not exactly the same, some built a special silkworm temple, sericulture King Hall, some in the Buddhist temple of the side of the temple or the enshrinement of the bodhisattva next to the sericulture God, some sericulturist home in the wall there is a shrine enshrinement of sericulture God's image of the "God code".

Sericulture generally begins around the time of the Qingming Festival, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, there are rolling silkworm flowers, rowing the Dragon Boat event, in fact, is the sericulture before the spiritual adjustment and preparation of sericulture equipment. Silkworms before to get rid of sericulture, that is, with a variety of idols, paintings or other spells to drive away all harmful to the silkworm ghosts, viruses, pests, but also a health measure. Silkworm room door with red paper book "Yuk Yue Zhi Li" or "Yuk Silkworm" and other words, tell each other not to interact, known as the "Silkworms close the door". Silkworms over three sleep, commonly known as "out of the fire", at this time the cocoon harvest has been finalized, sericulturists do a small rice flour dumplings, known as "cocoon round", in order to worship the silkworm God. Silkworms on the mountain cocoon, sericulturists can open the door to walk around, called "silkworms open the door", and between relatives to pig's trotters, fish, flowers and fruits, pastries and other food to each other and inquire about the success of sericulture, commonly known as "looking at the sericulture news". Dragon Boat Festival, before and after the small full, sericulturists often want to hold some celebrations, such as Huzhou, said "thank you silkworm flowers", Deqing said "eat silkworm flowers rice", Shengze is a small full of drama, please come to the theater troupe public performance.

There are many taboos when raising silkworms. Jin dynasty "business this new book" in the sericulture taboos are: "avoid eating wet leaves, avoid eating hot leaves. Silkworms were born, avoid sweeping dust in the house. Avoid frying fish. Do not blow out the fireworks paper twist in the silkworm room. Avoid pounding sideways. It is forbidden to knock on doors, windows, mallets, foils, and other sound objects. It is forbidden to cry or shout inside the silkworm house. Do not use obscene language. At night, do not let the light of lamps and fires shine through the windows of the silkworm house. It is not appropriate to be a silkworm mother if she has not had a full month of labor. Silkworm mothers are not allowed to change their colorful clothes frequently, and they should wash their hands long and cleanly. It is forbidden to bring alcohol to cut mulberry and feed silkworms, and to lift and relieve silkworms. Silkworms born to old, avoid smoke. Do not put the knife on the stove, foil. Avoid hot soup in front of the stove to pluck ash. It is forbidden for women in labor and filial sons to enter the house. Avoid burning skin, hair and hair. Avoid wine, vinegar, five pungent, no, fishy, musk and other things." The text is prohibited by the scientific reasoning, and now the silkworms also have such taboos. Jiahu area there are many language taboos, such as taboos "bright" word, taboo, "sauce", because bright silkworms, rigid (and "sauce" homophonic) silkworms are silkworm disease, and so on.

Silk production-related industries also have their own production practices, worshiped the invention of the gods of various industries. For example, the ancestral god of the silk weaving industry is the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan, in Suzhou city there is a Xuanyuan Palace, it is the Suzhou silk weaving industry to worship the ancestor god. The ancestor of the dyeing industry is Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty, Hangzhou scenic Ge Ling on the side of the Holding Park Taoist Temple unearthed Ge Weng dyeing industry stone tablets, Hangzhou dyeing workers will go here every year to worship. The ancestor god of the embroidery industry is the Gu family of Shanghai Lu Xiang Yuan, which is also revered by the Suzhou embroidery workers although it is of a later date.