中国古代科技史：英文 by 中国科学院自然科学史研究所

Author:中国科学院自然科学史研究所
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 外文出版社
Published: 2009-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Silkworm decorations on bronze objects of the Shang Dynasty （c. 16th-llth century B.C.）.

We have also seen in ancient documents original records concerning silkworm rearing. Xia Xiao Zheng (Lesser Annuary of the Xia Dynasty), which reflects productive activity of the late Xia Dynasty (c. 21st-16th century B.C.) and the early Shang Dynasty, says, “In the third lunar month mulberry trees have to be pruned and women begin to rear silkworms.” Bone and tortoise shell inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty include the characters for silkworm, mulberry tree, silk floss and silk fabrics, and there are also oracle inscriptions concerning sericulture preserved intact. Among these is the advice to consider raising silkworms only after as many as nine divinations. Sericulture had certainly become a very serious and important undertaking.

In the Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-221 B.C.) cultivation of mulberry trees and rearing of silkworms flourished widely in both north and south China. Silk was the main material used in clothing the ruling class. Silk production from worm to fabric was women's chief productive activity. Many sections and chapters of Shi Jing (Book of Odes) contain descriptions of sericulture. “Qi Yue” (“Seventh Month”) in “You Feng” of Shi Jing says,

On sunny spring days

Orioles sing in happiness.

Baskets in hand, women

Follow the footpath in endless stream

To pluck tender mulberry leaves for silkworms.

By the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-770 B.C.) mulberry trees were already being cultivated on a large scale. “Within the Ten Mu” in “Wei Feng” of Shi Jing contains this description: “Within the ten mu of mulberry trees, pickers are coming and going.” According to archaeologists, two types of mulberry trees were grown in the Zhou Dynasty, the arbor type and the shrub type. Bronzes of the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) show women with baskets picking mulberry leaves and also the two types of mulberry.

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