The origin of Chinese mulberry silk culture

Speaking of sericulture and silk reeling, it goes back as far as the time of the Yellow Emperor.
In ancient times, many clans and tribes were living in the vast land of China. At that time, a tribe called the Yellow Emperor tribe defeated another tribe, the Jiu Li tribe. To celebrate the victory, the Yellow Emperor, the leader of the Yellow Emperor tribe, held a grand celebration feast. While the people celebrated their victory with great joy, they saw a beautiful girl with horse skin stuck to her body floating down from the sky. She held two bundles of threads, one yellow like gold and the other white like silver, and came to present them to the Yellow Emperor. The girl who offered the silk is the legendary “silkworm god”. When the Yellow Emperor saw such a rare thing, he was so impressed that he had it woven into silk. The silk was so light and soft that it was like the clouds in the sky and the water in the stream. Later, the Yellow Emperor’s concubine, Lei Zu, began to raise silkworms herself and weave them into the most beautiful silk and clothing, and she taught people how to raise silkworms. To commemorate her achievements, she was called the “Rearing Queen”.

Based on archaeological findings, experts have speculated that Silkworm breeding, silk extraction, and silk weaving began in China in the middle Neolithic period, 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. By the Shang dynasty, mulberry silk production was already taking shape, with high craftsmanship, sophisticated looms and weaving techniques. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the famous ‘Silk Road’ was formed, and silk trade and export reached an unprecedented level of prosperity. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of mulberry silk production, with quality and variety coming to unprecedented levels. Today, the mulberry silk industry has entered a new historical period, with China’s raw silk exports accounting for around 80% of the world’s total.
Zhejiang Tongxiang’s mulberry silk duvet industry has developed rapidly, with an annual output of more than 4.5 million silk quilts and an annual output value of 1.4 billion yuan, and was named the “China Silk Quilt Production Base” in 2010.