The custom of sericulture

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Sericulture custom

Applicant: Tongxiang City, Zhejiang Province

Project No.: 1002

Project No.: Ⅹ - 95

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Tongxiang City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Tongxiang Cultural Center (Tongxiang jinzhonghua Memorial, Tongxiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center)

A brief introduction to the custom of sericulture

Applicant: Tongxiang City, Zhejiang Province

China is the first country in the world to engage in sericulture. In the middle Neolithic age, 5000 or 6000 years ago, our ancestors began to collect mulberry, raise silkworms and weave silk. Sericulture is an important part of Chinese traditional agricultural culture. In Yugong, the earliest Chinese Book Shangshu, there is a record that "mulberry soil is silkworm". In shanquanshu, the spring and Autumn Period Book Guanzi, there is also a saying that "people are connected with sericulture". The poem "Luofushan sericulture, South corner of mulberry city" in moshang mulberry, the Yuefu of Han Dynasty, which describes folk sericulture is even more popular Population. Sericulture is not only the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese nation, but also the source of the "Silk Road", the channel of cultural exchange between China and foreign countries. In the process of the development of sericulture, many fine customs of respecting and caring for silkworms have been formed all over the country and passed down from generation to generation. These activities, together with other sericulture customs, constitute the historical witness of the development and prosperity of ancient Chinese sericulture.

Tongxiang, located in the north of Zhejiang Province, is the main producing area of sericulture in the south of the Yangtze River. Hanshan local spread the legend of the origin or coming of the silkworm God, so it is known as "silkworm flower Holy Land". Hanshan bashanhua temple fair, also known as "canhua temple fair", originated in the Song Dynasty and has become increasingly prosperous since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Temple fair time is divided into Qingming, two Qingming, three Qingming stages, from the beginning to the end before and after the continuation of ten days.

Hanshan bashanhua Temple Fair has a long history, rich content, with distinctive regional characteristics of the south of the Yangtze River. It reflects the fact that the sericulture industry in Tongxiang is highly developed, and provides an important reference for the research of sericulture production, folk beliefs and industry folk customs in Jiangnan.