Where is the specialty of sericulture and silk weaving in China?

On September 30th, 2009, the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO was deliberated and approved in Abu Dhabi, and the "China sericulture skills" jointly declared by Zhejiang Province (Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou and China Silk Museum), Jiangsu Province (Suzhou) and Sichuan Province was included in the representative list of intangible cultural heritage of the human world.

China sericulture silk weaving technology includes the whole process of mulberry planting, sericulture, silk reeling, dyeing and silk weaving, as well as various exquisite tools, silk, tulle, brocade and silk reeling and other colorful silk products and related folk activities.

Jiaxing is one of the birthplaces of sericulture and silk weaving in China, with a long history of 4,700 years. For more than 4,000 years, people have the same living customs and living environment because of sericulture and silk. In the same cultural circle, traditional production techniques have gradually formed, including mulberry planting, sericulture, silk reeling, silk stripping, silk loom, fabric design and weaving. The inheritance ways of sericulture and silk weaving skills are family, mentoring and group. The local silkworm farmers linked the change of silkworm from egg to pupa to moth with the process from birth to death and then to the ascension of soul, thus forming a series of folk activities with the characteristics of silkworm silk weaving, involving festival celebrations, life etiquette, folk beliefs, language and literature and traditional arts.

As early as the Neolithic Age, Jiaxing had primitive silk reeling and weaving technology. Language towels produced in the mid-Tang Dynasty are famous at home and abroad. Xiuzhou silk was listed as a tribute in the Northern Song Dynasty. Jiaxing also produces brocade, and later generations have a poem praising: "Song brocade came from Xiuzhou." In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, mulberry trees were everywhere in rural areas, silk became a city in market towns, and the sound of machine shafts was heard in cities and rural areas. Puyuan silk produced 1 10,000 pieces every day, and Wang Jiangjing was called the "clothing and quilt world". With the prosperity of silk trade, thousands of businessmen gathered together, including Saibei, Lingnan, Xiqiao, Ryukyu and Luzon. Jiaxing plays an extremely important role in the great economic cycle and is known as the "Silk House".

Many folk customs of sericulture production, such as "Qingming Rolling Silkworm Flowers", "Silkworm Flower Water Club" and "Wuzhen Shixiang", have been enduring for a long time. In the folk, the traditional manual skills such as peeling clean silk cotton, pulling cotton bags and reeling earth silk have been generally preserved. For example, the silkworm flowers in Hanshan began in the Southern Song Dynasty and flourished. Time is divided into Qingming, Qingming and Qingming. It takes ten days from the beginning to the end. According to legend, the goddess of silkworm flowers turned into a village girl during the Qingming Festival, and traveled all over Hanshan Mountain, leaving a "silkworm breath" on the mountain. Whoever can go for an outing in Hanshan Mountain will happily take silkworm flowers home and get "24 points" (meaning a double harvest). Therefore, every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, silkworm farmers from all directions compete for Hanshan Mountain. Young men and women put on holiday clothes and bought some silkworms on the mountain, either pinned in a bun, hung on their chests, inserted in the brim of their hats, or inserted in sugar cane, squeezing each other and making a loud noise. The owner of the family also carries a bag of silkworm eggs, which means a good harvest of silkworm cocoons.

Jiaxing is an important heritage community and conservation responsibility place of the project "China sericulture and silk weaving skills" listed in the representative list of intangible cultural heritage of the human world. With the rapid development of economy and the acceleration of modernization, the cultural ecology is undergoing tremendous changes, and many new situations have emerged in the protection of cultural heritage. In order to further strengthen the protection of sericulture and silk weaving in the whole city and inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, Jiaxing Municipal Government has formulated and implemented the Protection Plan of Sericulture and Silk Weaving Ecological Zone in Jiaxing City, and within five years, the protection system, institutional system, industrial operation system and publicity and promotion system of sericulture and silk weaving cultural ecological zone will be built.