CATDOLL : CATDOLL: The significance and function of silkworm rearing and silk reeling (What is the significance and function of silkworm rearing and silk reeling)

1. What benefits do silkworms get from spinning silk and making cocoons?

The silkworm spins silk to make a cocoon to protect the silkworm safely through the pupal stage. The silkworm pupates inside the cocoon.

The larvae spin silk and make cocoons, undergo metamorphosis inside the cocoons, and the cocoon shell protects the pupa; the secretion of silk substances is only an excretion function for the larvae. For example, during the silkworm period, the front silk glands are burned or the silk-spinning holes are blocked to prevent the discharge of silk substances, resulting in the death of most silkworms before pupation. By the second half of the fifth instar, the larvae have grown to an extreme, and the need for protein has been decreasing. As they eat a lot of mulberry, their bodies have excess amino acids, and the silk glands grow rapidly. The silk glands absorb a large amount of amino acids from the blood and synthesize silk protein, which is spit out when they are mature to eliminate the contradiction of excess amino acids in the body. If these excess amino acids are not eliminated, they often accumulate in the fat body and other tissues, causing obesity. In addition, due to the self-decomposition of protein, excessive accumulation and decomposition of amino acids cause the larvae to be poisoned and die before pupation.

Cocooning is not exclusive to silkworms. All holometabolous insects can form a protective sac when they reach the pupal stage. Usually, the cocoons are made of silk secreted by silk glands, such as the cocoons of silkworms and castor silkworms. The cocoons of worms and cutworms are made of mud glued together, the cocoons of scarab beetles are made of secreted mucus and soil, and the cocoons of spiny moths are made of secreted calcium.

2. What is the significance of the earliest invention of sericulture?

China is the land of silk and was the first country to invent the technology of raising silkworms, spinning silk and weaving silk. This technology was spread to the West through trade routes, which are the famous "Silk Road".

3. What is the historical significance of Leimu’s silk reeling?

The silkworm breeding and silk reeling technology represented by Leizu also originated from the ancestors' need for food and clothing. In the primitive daily gathering activities, the labor group dominated by women accidentally discovered the secret of wild silkworms. Facing the fat white larvae crawling on the branches and spinning silk cocoons, they were amazed at first, and then through day-to-day observation and long-term trial and error experience, they gradually domesticated wild silkworms into domestic silkworms, opening a new journey of artificial mulberry planting and silkworm breeding.

This seemingly instantaneous change in civilization is actually a summary of the long production and labor experience of prehistoric women. The warm and humid climate plus the supply of breeding skills have gradually solidified and cohesively formed sericulture into a cultural model that exists in many places. This is the product of the ancestors' connection and integration of cultural characteristics produced in similar environments on the basis of primitive accumulation, and is the result of gradual evolution and development in intergenerational inheritance.

4. What is silkworm breeding and silk reeling?

Sericulture and silk reeling Reeling is the process of extracting silk from silk cocoons. The process of extracting silk from silk cocoons is generally called silk reeling. The original method of reeling silk is to soak the cocoons in hot water, draw silk by hand, and wind it on a silk basket. Basins and baskets are the original reeling utensils. The Han working people invented the technology of sericulture, silk reeling, silk weaving and embroidery. The invention in this area should be attributed to the women of the Han nationality. Legend has it that Leizu, the wife of Huangdi and the daughter of Xiling clan, taught people to raise silkworms and process silk cocoons to make clothes.

5. What is the historical and cultural significance of silkworm rearing and silk reeling in my country?

The oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty include not only words such as silkworm, mulberry, silk, and silk, but also some complete oracle inscriptions related to silk production.

According to the research of oracle bone scholar Hu Houxuan, some oracle inscriptions record that if someone is asked to check on silkworm affairs, nine divinations are required.

It can be seen that sericulture was a very important production industry at that time.

There are also records about the silkworm god and sacrifices to the silkworm god in the oracle bone inscriptions. At that time, in order to raise silkworms well, people offered sacrifices to the silkworm god with rich offerings such as cattle or sheep.

Archaeologists have discovered lifelike jade silkworms in Yin tombs more than once. For example, jade silkworms from the Shang Dynasty were unearthed in the Anyang Tomb in Henan and the Subutun Tomb in Shandong.

Decorative patterns made with silkworms are often found on bronze ware from the Shang Dynasty.

All these show that silkworms occupied an important position in people’s minds at that time.

By the Zhou Dynasty, mulberry planting and silkworm breeding had flourished in vast areas of my country from north to south.

Silk had become the main material for clothing of the ruling class at that time.

Sericulture and silk weaving were the main production activities of women, and mulberry trees were planted on a large scale in the Zhou Dynasty.

In the "Guan Zi Shan Quan Shu Pian" of the Warring States Period, it is said: "For those who are good at sericulture and keep their silkworms free from disease, they should be given one catty of gold and eight stone of food. Their words should be carefully listened to and stored in the government, so that they will not be involved in military affairs.

"This means that if there are people among the masses who are proficient in sericulture technology and can raise silkworms well and prevent them from getting sick, they will be invited to share their experience and be rewarded with gold and exemption from military service.

There are many books in ancient China that record the techniques of mulberry planting and silkworm breeding.

The Han Dynasty once mentioned that ancient my country had "The Law of Silkworms", "The Book of Silkworms", and "Planting Trees and Storing Fruits with Silkworms", etc.

Unfortunately, these ancient books have been lost.

However, since the Han Dynasty, over the past two thousand years, many ancient books on sericulture have been left behind, such as "The Book of Si Sheng", "Essential Techniques for the People of Qi", "Qin Guan's Book of Silkworms", "Bin Feng Guangyi", "Guang Cansang Shuo", "Cansang Ji Yao", "Ye Canlu", "Chu Jian Pu", etc., some of which are dedicated to sericulture, while others talk about sericulture.

These books record the rich experience of the working people of our country in planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms.

To develop sericulture, it is necessary to breed mulberry trees and develop mulberry orchards.

As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, people used scattering to propagate mulberry trees.

At the latest by the Northern and Southern Dynasties in the 5th century AD, layering had been used in mulberry tree propagation.

This method is described in "Qimin Yaoyao".

The layering method uses mulberry branches to propagate new mulberry trees, which shortens the growth time a lot compared to sowing seeds.

Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, silkworm farmers in southern my country have invented mulberry tree grafting technology, which is an advanced mulberry planting technology. It can rejuvenate old mulberry trees, preserve the fine traits of mulberry trees, accelerate the reproduction of mulberry seedlings, and cultivate fine varieties.

They are all of great significance and still play a significant role in production.

Since the Ming Dynasty, people have had a certain understanding of certain infectious silkworm diseases, such as pus disease, softening disease and stiffness disease, and they know how to take elimination or isolation measures to prevent the spread of silkworm diseases.

In the works of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are more records about fly maggot disease and fly prevention.

Additional information:

Summer and autumn silkworm breeding should pay attention to

1. Prevent pesticide poisoning.

During the silkworm-raising season, do not spray organic pesticides such as insecticides in the silkworm room and farmland near mulberry fields, as the odor will cause poisoning to the silkworms; mulberry leaves should be tested and confirmed to be non-toxic before feeding them to the silkworms.

2. Mosquito-repellent coils or mosquito repellents or insecticides are not allowed in the silkworm room.

If used in a house adjacent to a silkworm room, the doors and windows of the room should also be closed to prevent the silkworms from being poisoned.

3. Screen doors and windows should be installed in the silkworm room to prevent flies from entering the room and harming the silkworms, and "silkworm fly killing" emulsion should be added or sprayed on the silkworm bodies to kill the maggots.

4. Before raising silkworms, rat holes must be blocked, a certain distance must be maintained between the silkworm racks and the walls, and lime powder or silkworm medicine must be sprinkled around the feet of the silkworm racks to prevent rats from climbing up.

When raising silkworms, it is necessary to use drugs to kill rats.

5. The temperature is high in summer and autumn when raising silkworms, so you should open doors and windows to increase indoor ventilation.

Spraying mulberry leaves with clean water and using an electric fan to blow a breeze indoors can also help cool down the room.

6. If sick silkworms are found, they should be cleaned up in time and placed in a disinfection basin filled with bleach solution or lime slurry. It is forbidden to feed sick silkworms to livestock and poultry to prevent the spread of pathogens and pollute the environment.

7. Silkworm feces contain a large amount of pathogens. Do not spread them out to dry around the silkworm room. Instead, compost them in a pile outdoors or in a manure pit to prevent the spread of pathogens.

8. The temperature in summer and autumn is high and pathogens reproduce quickly. Pay attention to picking leaves as needed, transporting leaves in a timely manner, and storing leaves properly.

The mulberry storage pond should be disinfected once at each age, and do not feed mulberry leaves overnight.

9. Avoid feeding wet leaves in hot and humid weather. Do not water the stored mulberry leaves. Remove sand frequently and sprinkle more fresh lime powder, dry straw and other materials to inhibit the growth and reproduction of pathogens.

10. When it is not the silkworm-raising season, do not store grains, bran and other items in the silkworm room to avoid moisture and the generation of mites, which will harm the silkworms during breeding.

6. What does it mean to raise silkworms and reel silk?

Answer: Sericulture and silk reeling are the two most basic and important links in the sericulture industry. Without these two, silk textile processing is a castle in the air. One is to produce raw materials for silk weaving, and the other is to perform primary processing of silk. Sericulture is to raise a considerable number of silkworms and use the silkworms' instinct to spin silk and make cocoons, so as to harvest a large number of cocoons; silk reeling is to extract the silk from the cocoons with tools so as to weave silk cloth in the next step.

7. What are the uses of silk produced by silkworms?

Silkworms spin silk to detoxify. From the physiological point of view of silkworms, since the protein that makes up the silk gland is composed of amino acids, if there are too many amino acids in the silkworm body, the silkworm body will be poisoned. Therefore, silkworms need to spin silk to eliminate amino acids to achieve the purpose of detoxification.

In addition, the structure of natural silk is very similar to human skin, so it is also known as the "second skin" of the human body. Silk beauty has a long history in China. As early as the Ming Dynasty, silk was used by imperial concubines for daily beauty and health care due to its important medicinal value.

8. What is the use of silk produced by silkworm rearing at home?

1. Silk cocoons can be processed into various textile products and silk quilts.

2. Silk can be spun into various garments, such as silk pajamas, silk underwear (bras), silk T-shirts, etc.

3. It can be made into scarves of various styles.

4. It can be made into a silk cotton jacket for children, which is warm and breathable, very suitable for babies and children.

5. It can be made into beautiful handicrafts.