Chinese silk is the most valuable fabric

Chinese silk is a unique material that combines incredible strength, striking smoothness and thermoregulating properties. For many centuries the technology of manufacturing this unique material was kept in the strictest secrecy.

How did silk appear?

Chinese silk is a product of the life of mulberry caterpillars, which form strong cocoons around themselves. But who first figured out how to make cloth? So, one of the legends ascribes this merit to the wife of the mythical emperor Huang-di Lei-tszu. A young woman was drinking tea, sitting under a mulberry tree. When several silkworm cocoons fell into the cup, she pulled them out and found that they were unwinding into a long thread. Having collected all the cocoons, the empress wove luxurious silk and sewed clothes for her husband. Since then, Lei-tszu began to be called Silin-chi, and also began to consider her the goddess of sericulture.

Another legend

There is another legend explaining how the Chinese silk originated. So, in one village lived an old man with his daughter. They had a flying horse, which, moreover, knew how to speak. One day my father did not return home. The girl asked the horse to find a man, promising to become his wife as a reward. Returning home, the man learned about the terrible oath and killed the horse. But the soul of an innocent animal was picked up by the girl and carried away to the mulberry tree. Beauty has become a caterpillar-silkworm.

Common version

The most plausible is the version that Chinese silk was discovered quite by accident. Collecting fruit from the trees, the women came across strange white fruits. For food, they were too hard, so they tried to cook. But this did not work either. Then the Chinese women began to beat them with clubs, as a result of which the unique properties of the cocoons of the silkworm were discovered .

A bit of history

More than 5 thousand years ago in the Asian region, the most valuable fabric began to be produced. Chinese silk was made exclusively by women. The Empress opened the season in the spring. After that, for 6 months the Chinese women were engaged in silkworm breeding.

The first fabrics were very expensive, and therefore only noble families could afford them. But with the expansion of production, the material has become more accessible, and silk products have spread to all segments of the population of China (even commoners had things in their wardrobe of valuable fabric).

Since silk was as valuable as gold, in fact it became a currency, and therefore it was used in trade settlements with other countries. The importance of this material is also evidenced by the fact that more than 230 hieroglyphs are dedicated to him.

The technology of making Chinese silk remained for a long time under the veil of secrecy, and anyone who tried to take silkworm larva out of the country was immediately executed. Nevertheless, technology still left the limits of China. Byzantium became the first western country where they began to produce this material. Despite the fact that today this technology is spread all over the world, China remains the only leader in this industry.

Production technology

Chinese silk is characterized by a complex production process. Female silkworm after mating with a male lays about 500 eggs. Specialists select healthy larvae and place them in special conditions, and the rest are burned.

A week later, small worms appear, which within a month should several times increase their size. To do this, they are fed chopped mulberry leaves. Having reached a certain age, the worm begins to wax the cocoon, secreting fibroin, sericin, fats, salts and waxes. After that they are sorted by color, shape, size and placed under certain conditions.

After a certain time, the pupa is killed and begins to unravel the cocoon. Each of them gives 600-1000 meters of valuable thread. After the yarn is produced, it passes the refining procedure. And only after that the raw material enters the spinning and weaving shops, where the most beautiful and the most expensive fabrics are made in the world.

Conclusion

Incredibly beautiful, smooth and delicate is Chinese silk. Photos of fabrics and products from them are simply mesmerizing. Despite the fact that fabric production is automated and distributed around the world, the price remains so high that not everyone can afford such a luxury.