The Silk Secret

Chinese legend gives the title Goddess of silk to Lei Zu (Lady Xiling),wife of the mythical Yellow Emperor ,who was said to have ruled china in about 3000BC. She was attributed to with the introduction of silk worm rearing and invention of the loom. Ritual and sacrifices to Lei Zu were made annually by the imperial court. Court regulations of the Zhou dynasty decreed that the empress and royal concubines fast before making their offering and gather mulberry leaves in person in order to encourage the silk industry. During the Han dynasty, the heyday of Silk Road , the annual celebration of Lei Zu was held during the third lunar month in splendid style. The empress and the ladies of the court road in grand procession to the temple of the silkworms in horse _drawn carriage accompanied by tens of thousands of horsemen carrying Dragon banners and silk pennants to the altar of the silkworms. in Beijing 's Beihai park, once part of the forbidden City, stands a temple to the Goddess of the silk built in 1742.the age old annual silk ritual continued until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Half a silkworm cocoon unearthed in 1927 from the loess soil astride the Yellow River in Shanxi province, in northern china, has been dated between 2600 and 2300 BC. More recent archeological finds-a small ivory cup carved with a silkworm designs and thought to be between 6000 and 7000 years old, and spinning tools, silk threads and fabric fragments from sites along the lower Yangzi River -reveal the origins of sericulture to be even earlier. Some Shang Dynasty (1600-1027BC) oracle-bone inscriptions bear the earliest known pictographic characters for silk "silkworm" and mulberry.

The fifth century BC Book of Annals catalogued tributes to emperor Yu of length of silk of blue or red from six provinces of china. At that time, not only the production of silk widespread, but the colors and designs were rich and varied. By the Han dynasty sericulture was practiced from Gansu in the west, where painted Tomb bricks show scene of silkworm breeding and silk weaving, to Sichuan in the south, where the ancient capital of chengdu was dubbed "brocade city", and Shandong on the east coast, which was famous for it's wild silk.

From about the fourth century BC, the Greeks and Romans began talking of seres, the king of silk. Some historians believe the first Romans set eyes upon the fabulous fabric were the legions of Marcus Licinius Grassus, governor of Syria . At the fateful battle of carrhae near Euphrates river in 53 BC, the soldiers were so startled by the bright silken banners of the Persian troops that they fled in panic. Within decades Chinese silks were widely worn by the rich and noble families of Rome . It's production remained a mystery, however; pliny, the Roman Historian, believed that the silk was obtained by removing the down from the leaves with the help of water.

The flimsy transparency of the silken glass togas so loved by the Roman elite was soon to bring moral condemnation, Seneca, the Roman philosopher, wrote in the first century; I see silken clothes, if one can call them if one can call them clothes at all, that in no degree afford protection either to the body or the modesty of the wearer, and clad in which no woman could honestly swear she is not naked.' Silk drained the Roman Empire of its gold, and by the fourth century two-thirds of the Byzantine Empire 's treasury went to imports of luxury items from the East. High court and church dignatories dressed lavishly in imperial purple silk, and important personages were buried in winding sheets.

The Chinese sealously guarded their secret, but around AD 440( according to legend) a Chinese princess hid silkworm eggs in her head_dress and carried them to hetian upon her marriage to the king, brings the art to present day Xinjiang . Around AD 550, two Nestorian monks introduced the silk worm to Byzantium , where the church and state created imperial workshops, monopolizing production and keeping the secret to themselves. By the sixth century the Persian, too, had mastered the art of silk weaving, developing their own rich patterns and techniques. It was only in the 13th century-the time of the second Crusades __theat Italy began silk production with the in troduction of 2000 skilled silk weavers from constantinopol, by that time silk production was widespread in Europe .

In the Tang Dynasty the main silk centers were south of the Yang River around Taihu Lake , were factory looms produced exquisite brocades highlighted with gold threat. To stock the wardrobe of Yang Guifei, precious Consort of Emperor XuanZang, 700 weavers were employed full time. While in Beijing , Marco Polo noted that every day more than 1000 cart loads of silk enter the city. Bolts of silk and silken robes were essential gifts to political envoys, princess and tribute missions to the Tang. Ming and Qing courts. A mission of 2000 men to the ming Dynasty capital of Beijing returned laden with 8000 bolts of coarse silk, 2000 lined satin robes and 2000 pairs of boots and leggings. As well as many other presents.

The breeding of silkworm is side line of the Chinese peasant one that has remained unchanged through the ages. During the summer families take care of large round rattan trays of voracious bombyx mori caterpillars, which feed day and night on fresh, hand picked mulberry leaves. Around the Tai lake and Grand Canal china's main silk production area the mulberry tree grows to about man's height, making it easy to pick the leaves.

The newly hatched silkworm, like a tiny piece of black thread, multiplies its weight 10000 times within a month, changing color and shedding its whitish grey skin several times. After 30 odd days the peasants place the silkworms on bunches of straw or twig, to which attach the cocoons they spin from a single thread of silk about kilometer long. The cocoons then heated to kill the pupa and sent to silk reeling mills. There, they are sorted hand and boiled at 48c for softening and releasing the thread . the workers plunge the their hands continually into the hot water, plucking the threads from about eight cocoons and feeding them into reeling machine to form a single strand. The reinding process, resulting in skeins of pure white silk, is usually automatic. The silk from rejected cocoons is made into floss silk, and the pupae are source of protein for animal fodder