Quotes

Research Paper Kris MacLean

4/9/08

Block G

The Silk Road, one of the world’s first recognized trade routes was created during the second century B.C. The Silk Road linked trading cities that were in China all the way into Western Europe. The most major of the commodities traded along the Silk Road was silk. Silk, one of China’s best kept secrets was their most important and sought after resource. Throughout the years, due to the increase in trade along the Silk Road, silk became more affordable and easier to obtain, this had a major impact on every country’s economy.

There are many Chinese legends telling the infamous tale of the discovery of the first like worm. The most highly regarded tale comes from Confucius, which tells of how princess His-Ling-Shih found a silk worm in her cup of tea. She is credited with the introduction of silkworm rearing and the invention of the loom. A silkworm was found in her belongings along with a shirt made from the new fabric. Others claim ribbons, threads and other woven materials dating prior to 3000 B.C when Shih was supposed to have discovered silk, have been found in Quianshanyang. More recent archeological finds date silk fabrics all the way back to 6000 B.C (The History of Silk). None of them are widely accepted within the Chinese society, but the story of Silk Lady His’s-Ling-Shih is the most of all the stories.

The key to the production of silk is the blind, flightless moth names Bombay Mori. This moth is unique to the country of China, as well as the Mulberry leaf which is there main food source. This moth was China’s ticket to get so far ahead of the world in the silk production market. The moth lays 500 or more eggs in four to six days and dies soon after. The eggs are very small, only one hundred of them way one gram. From one ounce of eggs comes about 30,000 worms which eat about a ton of mulberry leaves and produce twelve pounds of raw silk. The silkworm of this particular moth produces a thread which is smoother and finer than that of other silk moths. This species is used to produce the finest silk that anyone could ever make. This process of making silk is known as sericulture (Shea Marilyn).

Producing silk is a lengthy process which demands constant and close attention. To produce a high quality silk, there are two conditions that need to be met. One being prevented the moth from hatching out and perfecting the diet which the silk worms indulge on. The Chinese people found their own secret ways or making sure making sure these conditions are met. The way they did it was fist keeping the eggs at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, increasing gradually to 77 degrees, at this temperature the eggs hatch. After the eggs hatch, the baby worms feed day and night on Mulberry leaves, they do this until they are very plump and fat. Thousands of worms are put onto trays and stacked on top of each other, when all worms are in one room the noise can get very loud. After the worm hatches it multiplies its weight by 10,000 within only the first month. The silk worm feeds until they have stored up enough energy to start making their cocoon. While they are inside of there cocoon they have to be protected by loud noises, winds, and strong smells, like fish and sweat. When it is time to build their cocoons, the worms produce a jelly like substance in their silk glands, which hardens when it comes in contact with the air. Silk worms spend around three days spinning themselves a cocoon, which then they resemble cotton balls. After eight or nice days in a warm dry place the cocoons are ready to be unwound. First they are steamed to kill the worms or pupas, and then they are dipped into hot water to loosen the tightly woven filaments. These filaments are woven unto a spool. Each cocoon is made up of a thread between 600 and 900 meters long. Between five and eight of these fine filaments are woven together to make a finalized silk thread. After the silk thread is made it is ready to be woven with other threads to make clothes for people to wear. When the clothes are made from the silk they are lightweight and always keep you comfortable in any type of weather (Smith, William).

In the beginning the clothes that were made as a result of the discovery of silk were only to be worn only by the emperor of China, his close relations and the highest of his royal council. Within the palace, the emperor is believed to have worn a robe of white silk, while outside he, and his primary wife worm silks of yellow color which was known as, as the color of the earth in their society(Poole Robert). Gradually various classes of society began wearing tunics of silk and became much more of general attire.

As well as silk being used for clothing in China, it was being put into industrial work. The Silk Road provided the avenue for silk to be transported and used as a part of the industrialization movement in the western culture. The utilization of silk in the west quickly led to being the principal contributor to the Chinese economy as well as a few other countries that had began being able to produce silk. In no time silk was a major the biggest part of the Chinese economy. Silk was used for musical instruments, fishing lines, bow strings and even rag paper which was the first type of luxury paper (Christian David). During the Han dynasty, silk was not only a material value but it was becoming a absolute value in itself. Farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk. Silk was starting to be given to servants as their pay instead of any type of currency. The values of things were determined by lengths of silk, just like the value of gold is counted in its pounds. Before long silk was being used as trade currency with foreign countries, everyone wanted silk so they would give almost anything to get a hold of this awesome material. Due to this increase in importance the production of silk nearly tripled in production. Silk had gained so much importance in China’s earlier years that 230 of the 5,000 most common symbols in the mandarin language have the symbol of silk (Shea Marilyn).

Silk was the Chinese’s biggest secret and they wanted to keep their monopoly on silk production like they had for years, but with something as big as silk had become the secret was bound to get out someway. Sericulture reached Korea in 200 B.C, they learned of the secret when waves of Chinese immigrants arrived there. Shortly after 300 A.D, sericulture traveled westward and the silk secret was learned in India. One story says that in 440 A.D a prince of Khotan, which is a small county near the Taklahamakan Desert married