When it comes to the south of the Yangtze River, people often think of many moist, soft and beautiful things, such as clear blue waves, passing bridges facing each other, rice fields and mulberry gardens, famous gardens, exquisite crafts, literati and scholars, etc., among which they will definitely think of the gorgeous silk that originated in the south of the Yangtze River and flourished in the south of the Yangtze River and spread around the world.
Jiangnan is an important birthplace of Chinese silk culture
In 1958, a very important event occurred in the history of silk culture in the world,—— Chinese archaeologists unearthed a "basket" (bamboo container) treasure in the lower cultural layer of the Qianshanyang Neolithic site in the southern suburbs of Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, which contained carbonized silk threads, ribbons and a piece of silk that had not been carbonized. The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has determined that silk pieces were born in the early Liangzhu culture 4,700 years ago, and are the earliest surviving silk fabric products so far. The textile experts of Zhejiang Silk Institute of Technology determined that the silk piece was made of filament after hot water silk reeling processing; Experts compare this ancestor product with modern H1153 silk power spinning, and its diameter, warp density, weft density and a series of indicators are surprisingly similar! The early time and the good technology cannot but be amazing, and we cannot but feel very proud of the ancestors of the Neolithic Age in Zhejiang. This reminds us of the incomparably exquisite jade cong found in the remains of the Liangzhu culture of the same period, and it is difficult to believe that this is a Neolithic artifact without metal tools. We have to admire the ability of the ancients to use poor production tools to make fine things, sometimes far higher than today!
The Qianshanyang site unearthed silk pieces from 4,750 years ago
Since then, the history of silk culture in China and even the world has entered a new period, that is, the silk created by human beings has entered the stage of consciousness from spontaneously, and has entered the stage of invention from discovery - it is found that silkworms can draw silk and silk can wrap the body, which is a great discovery of human beings; However, consciously weaving silk into silk and weaving into beautiful clothes and ornaments is a great invention of mankind. Therefore, some foreigners simply call silk China's "fifth greatest invention". It is also believed that two of the four major inventions of the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and movable type printing were actually inspired by silk production technology: the original meaning of paper is related to the silk accumulation of silk making, and papermaking is actually inspired by the use of waste silk; Printing is also associated with letterpress printing on silk. Therefore, if you look at it from the perspective of cultural history, silk should be ranked as China's "first great invention", and the interesting thing is that in the Wu dialect area of the south of the Yangtze River, the soft and glutinous word "silkworm" is almost the same as the pronunciation of "Ses", a novelty that the ancient Romans only saw in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. It shattered the previous academic belief that sericulture originated in the Yellow River basin and was later introduced to the Yangtze River basin. The source of the world's silk culture is in China, and there may be multiple sources of Chinese silk culture, and the earliest source that has been discovered through archaeological excavations is in Jiangnan.
Photograph/Dish
In fact, in 1975, the wooden and pottery spinning bindings, tubular bone needles used for weft insertion, weft beating wooden knives and bone knives and other textile tools unearthed in the fourth cultural layer of the Neolithic site in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, prove that the ancestors of Jiangnan have been spinning and weaving cloth as early as 6,000 years ago, and silk reeling and weaving are just their further development.
Jiangnan was the center of China's mulberry silk industry during the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties
In China's long agricultural society, sericulture has always been an important production content and source of livelihood for farmers in the Taihu Lake basin in the south of the Yangtze River, and the silk industry has always been the traditional feature and economic pillar of handicrafts and commerce in the south of the Yangtze River. After the Eastern Jin Dynasty crossed to the south, the mulberry silk industry in the south of the Yangtze River began to emerge; By the Tang Dynasty, Jiangnan had become an important silk producing area in the country; During the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the lack of war in the south, the silk production center moved further south; With the southern crossing of the Song Dynasty, Nanjing, Suzhou, Huzhou, Hangzhou, Xiuzhou, and Yuezhou sericulture and silk industry developed rapidly. Due to the maturity of grafting technology, "Lusang" moved south, complementing the advantages of the original Jiangnan mulberry trees, cultivating a better quality "Humulberry", coupled with the breeding technology is more perfect, the quality of silkworm cocoons and silk has also been greatly improved, the variety of flowers and colors has increased significantly, and the product style has also been greatly innovated. Yangzhou's white silk, Changzhou's tight yarn, Hangzhou's white edge silk and so on are all well-known throughout the country. Jiangnan began to become a veritable silk production center in the country.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, announced at the beginning of his ascension to the throne that the world was based on agriculture and mulberry. When the Yuan soldiers entered Zhejiang, they had basically changed their slaughter policy, and the degree of damage in Zhejiang was relatively light, and the silk production areas were still developing. Such as mulberry trees, the Yuan Dynasty on the basis of the good varieties of mulberry, and the high dry mulberry improved into a short dry mulberry, "the leaves are fat and tender and nutritious". Another example is boiling cocoons, paying more attention to the selection of water. In the silk weaving printing and dyeing process, it not only inherits the Jiangnan tradition, but also integrates the taste of the Mongolian people, and the gold printing process has been unprecedentedly developed. In the twenty-ninth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1292), Mark Polo traveled to Changxing and wrote in his "Travels": "The local residents are gentle and elegant, dressed in silk and satin, and live by industry and commerce. It records the life of the silk country at that time.
The Ming and Qing dynasties were still crawling in an agrarian society, but the budding capitalism began to appear, and the proportion of silk production in the commoditization of silk was increasing. Jiangnan has the convenience of time and place, overseas trade and technological progress have been greatly developed, and some excellent varieties have been produced, such as Yunjin and Ning silk in Nanjing, G wood satin in Suzhou, Hangzhou Luo, Hangzhou Textile and Flower Line Spring, and Huzhou Hu Crepe, representing the new level of Chinese silk weaving at that time. In the south of the Yangtze River, in addition to Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huzhou and other "silk houses", a large number of silk towns have also risen rapidly, and there is a saying that "no silk is not a town". Silk industry towns are represented by Zhenze in Jiangsu and Nanxun, Wuzhen, Qingzhen and Linghu in Zhejiang, and when the new silk is listed, there will be a grand occasion of "arrogance and hustle and bustle, congestion on Qu Road", "township farmers selling silk to the market" and "one-day trade rights of ten thousand gold".
It can be said that from the Song and Yuan dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jiangnan has maintained the status of the center of the national mulberry silk industry. A large number of famous silk products in Jiangnan are the outstanding representatives of Chinese silk culture at that time, and they are also the outstanding contributions made by Jiangnan to Chinese silk culture during that period!
The Jiangnan silk industry is the pioneer and important place of modern industry and commerce in China
The ancient Chinese silk industry is a veritable pioneer of modern Chinese industry and commerce, which is closest to the production mode of modern industry and commerce, and thus has also profoundly affected the social form and social development level. For example, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty in China, there was the germination of capitalism, and the reason why the three typical cities recognized by the academic circles were listed as "typical" was that it had a great relationship with the silk industry, which not only accounted for a high proportion of the total economy, but also was extremely typical in the relations of production. This is reflected in a large number of novels that are an important stage in the history of Chinese literature, the late Ming literature, especially the novels as historical and social "encyclopedias". The "Three Words" by Feng Menglong, a native of Suzhou, and the "Two Beats" by Ling Mengchu, a native of Huzhou, all reflect the prosperity of the silk industry in their novels, in which the images of silk millers and merchants come and go, vivid and vivid. Feng Menglong wrote a story of "Shi Runze Beach Que Meets Friends" in "Xingshi Hengyan", saying that Shi Fu and his wife originally only had one loom, and the two raised silkworms and woven silk at the same time, and in less than ten years, they accumulated thousands of gold, had thirty or forty looms, bought a house, hired workers, and finally became the owner of the workshop. "The machine owner contributes and the weaver contributes", which formed a typical capitalist employment relationship, and Shi Fu was equivalent to the later small capitalist.
According to the record of "Pu Yuan Zhi", Pu Yuan Town, Tongxiang, Zhejiang, "Minglong Wan Mo Changing Machine for Yarn, Manufacturing Absolute Work, the name of Pu Yuan, then far and near, since the weaving is particularly prosperous". In the Qing Dynasty, the private silk weaving industry became the main force of silk production, when the three major weaving bureaus in the south of the Yangtze River were combined, there were only about 2,000 looms and 7,000 craftsmen. However, private machine households abound, especially in Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and other areas where the silk weaving industry is more concentrated, "the voice of the machine is heard by each other", and even some large workshops with five or six hundred looms and three or four thousand weavers have appeared. In addition to the people, the Ming Dynasty government silk weaving handicraft industry developed rapidly, the central set up four weaving and dyeing bureaus, of which the "two Beijing weaving and dyeing" were located in Beijing and Nanjing, located in Nanjing became the internal weaving and dyeing bureau, subordinate to the Ministry of Industry, the production of silk for the use of the palace. There are more local weaving and dyeing bureaus, the most famous are the weaving and dyeing bureaus in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and Shaoxing has also set up weaving and dyeing bureaus.
The former site of Suzhou Weaving Department
The development of the silk industry in the Ming and Qing dynasties has another significant sign, that is, it was gradually separated from the rural sideline industry and became an independent handicraft industry, and the circulation of products promoted the development of the trade market, and finally developed into a professional market for the silk weaving industry with a complete system of purchase and sale, production and processing.
Of course, the spontaneous Jiangnan silk industry and commerce of the Ming and Qing dynasties was only a kind of capitalist germ, and it was at the collision and intersection of the transition from human agricultural civilization to industrial civilization. The wave of industrial civilization marked by mechanized large-scale industry and socialized large-scale production began to land on the southeast coast of the mainland after the Opium War, with the eastward spread of "European wind and beautiful rain".
Photo by Xie Guanghui Source: China National Geographic
After the Opium War, foreign merchants set up mechanical silk reeling factories in China's treaty ports, using China's cheap labor to make huge profits. Chinese bureaucrats and businessmen also followed suit, using the method of official supervision and commercial operation or joint venture between government and businessmen to set up silk reeling bureaus. According to the statistics of 1894, the workers engaged in semi-mechanical silk reeling at that time were about half of the mechanical silk reeling workers employed by various national capitals, which shows the rapid development of the mechanical silk reeling industry. In 1881, Huang Zuoqing, a native of Huzhou, Zhejiang, founded the "Gongheyong" silk reeling factory in Shanghai, which became the first mechanical silk reeling factory operated by Chinese national capitalists, and occupied a very important position in the history of China's modern national industrial development. By 1892, after 10 years of painstaking operation, Huang Zuoqing's silk reeling factory had become the only large factory in Shanghai that could compete with foreign enterprises. Huang Zuoqing's reputation was greatly enhanced, and he was promoted as a leader by the Shanghai Silk Industry Office, and was appreciated by the important ministers of the Western-style faction of the imperial court. In 1894, he was entrusted by Zhang Zhidong to preside over the Hubei Silk Reeling Bureau, and the following year he was ordered by Li Hongzhang to raise 300,000 yuan to open the Yujin Silk Factory in Yangshupu. Although Huang Zuoqing finally failed in the crowding out of foreign capital, he will always be remembered as the founder of China's national silk industry, and after "Gongheyong", a large number of Chinese businessmen have set up silk enterprises in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other large and medium-sized cities.
Sir Huang Sa
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China and before and after the outbreak of the First World War, due to the Western powers being busy with fierce competition of interests and relaxing the oppression of China's national capital, and after the overthrow of the imperial system, the national industry had a chance to breathe, China's industrial and commercial economy developed rapidly, and the silk industry once again played a major role. According to the statistics of the Republic of China's "China Industrial Journal, Zhejiang Province, Sericulture", in the heyday of the sericulture industry in the Republic of China from 1925 to 1929, the area of mulberry gardens in Zhejiang Province reached about 2.658 million mu, nearly 800,000 silkworm homes, and the annual output of cocoons reached 1.36 million quintals. The prosperity of the mulberry sericulture directly promoted the silk industry in Zhejiang. By 1930, the two provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, where the silk industry was the most developed in the country, had the largest number of iron machines in each city, with Huzhou as the largest. According to the "China Industrial Chronicle", "the silk weaving industry in Zhejiang Province is concentrated in Hangzhou City and Wuxing (Huzhou)"; According to the Shanghai Raw Silk Trade Report, "almost all of China's raw silk exports were produced in Hangzhou, Huzhou and Jiaxing, and Huzhou produced more than the other two provinces." Liu Dajun's "Wuxing Rural Economy" published in 1938 pointed out that "in the 50 years from 1870 to 1920, the silk trade was prosperous and the farmers in the sericulture area prospered, which led to the heyday of the sericulture industry in Huzhou" and "around the tenth year of the Republic of China, when the sericulture sales were at their peak, the sericulture harvest of Wuxing farmers accounted for 70% and the income from rice planting accounted for 30%". This proportion is probably the highest period in the agricultural society, and the high and low will change in other periods, but the fact that the sericulture and silk industry has always played a leading role in the economy in the Hangjiahu area of Zhejiang is beyond doubt. In the process of moving from an agricultural society to an industrial society, the pioneering role of the silk industry has become more prominent.
In 1929, a large-scale economic crisis broke out in the world, and the fragile Chinese national silk industry was also seriously impacted. Mr. Mao Dun, who has lived in Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province since he was a child, used his hometown as the background and profoundly described the tragic scene of cocooning and hurting farmers through the novel "Spring Silkworm". It was not until the founding of the People's Republic of China that China's silk industry, including Jiangnan, gradually got rid of the fate of desperation and regained its vitality.
Chen Yonghao
About author:Chen Yonghao is the deputy secretary-general and head of the academic department of the China International Tea Culture Research Association, and the former party secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Social Sciences.