Silk weaving technology (Yuhang Qingshui silk production technology)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: silk weaving skills (Yuhang Qingshui silk production skills)

Applicant: Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Project No.: 882

Project No.: VIII - 99

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Hangzhou Yuhang Tangbei stock Economic Cooperative

Brief introduction of silk weaving technology (Yuhang Qingshui silk production technology)

Applicant: Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province is located in the Hangjiahu Plain, where Qingshui silk floss has a long history. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, every family here had planted mulberry and raised silkworms. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, Yuhang Qingshui silk was well-known. This kind of silk wool has the advantages of white color, uniform thickness and flexible texture, so it was listed as tribute by the imperial court. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Yuhang silk was the most popular in Zhejiang Province. After the Qing Dynasty, Qingshui silk and cotton became more famous and sold to Japan during the reign of Kangxi. During the period of the Republic of China, Yuhang "old Hengchang" Qingshui silk floss was famous at home and abroad. In 1929, Yuhang Qingshui silk and cotton won the special prize at the West Lake Expo.

Yuhang Qingshui silk wool is named after Shuijing. Yuhang is located on both sides of Tiaoxi river. Tianmu Mountain spring flows to Tiaoxi river. It is warm but not cold, and has less impurities, which is conducive to making cotton. The production of clear water silk floss needs to go through a process of removing sericin from the outer layer of silk, including cocoon selection, cocoon cooking, rinsing, cocoon peeling, cotton pulling and drying. The cleaner the sericin is removed, the better the quality of silk floss is. Yuhang Qingshui silk production has a high demand for manual skills, and its production completely depends on the skills of cotton makers. For a long time, Qingshui silk and cotton production technology has been handed down from generation to generation. In this process, the inheritors have accumulated rich practical experience and continuously integrated it into the cotton production technology, making this technology the crystallization of Yuhang people's collective wisdom. The pure water silk made by Yuhang is smooth in color and white in body, with good elasticity and strong pulling force. It has no lump, tendon and impurity. It has excellent quality and is valued by the world.

Since the 1970s, a large number of mulberry trees in Yuhang have been cut down. In addition, the economic benefits of sericulture production are not high, sericulture has been greatly reduced, and silkworm households have changed their profession. As a result, there is a lack of raw materials for silk production, which has become a passive source of water. At the same time, due to the development of science and technology, the new technology has caused a huge impact on the traditional process, and the production technology of Qingshui silk floss is difficult to continue for a while. Protecting and inheriting this ancient craft has become an urgent task, which needs the joint efforts of government departments and civil society.