Silk road introduction Chapter Production of silk fabrics about silk production Dyeing of silk fabrics

SILK ROAD


Introduction
Chapter 1. Production of silk fabrics
2.1 About silk production
2.2 Dyeing of silk fabrics
2.3 Development of silk production in China
2.4 Spread of sericulture to the West
Chapter 2. Great Silk Road
2.1 The birth of relations between West and East
2.2 External relations
Chapter 3. Trade exchange on the Great Silk Road
3.1 West-East: Money-Commodity
3.2 Goods on the Silk Road

Introduction
Over the past decades, a billion-strong China has rapidly overcome centuries of backwardness and, at the beginning of the third millennium, burst into the operational space of dynamic and progressive development. His outstanding achievements in various fields against the background of tangible social stability and a clearly expressed position of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states inspire respect and a sense of confidence in the future of a multipolar world. The international community is witnessing the formation of a great power, which is ready to solve the most pressing problems of a global nature.
China is a country with deep traditions. It was this civilization that gave humanity the phenomenal inventions of paper and printing, the compass and gunpowder, silk and porcelain. It is a country actively developing economic ties with its neighbors and distant countries. Under such conditions, the ethics of the ancient and medieval Silk Road, which once connected China with the vast territories of Europe, turned out to be in full demand. Modern businessmen and managers in elegant suits, crossing distances of thousands of kilometers in a few hours, look very different from merchants who spent long months away from home, moving mainly on camels, but they have the same energy and charge for the final result, which made it possible to overcome any difficulties.
The history of the legendary Silk Road is full of mysteries and mysteries. Ancient civilizations arose and disappeared here, new ethnic groups were born and entire nations died as a result of invasions of invaders, unknown masters created priceless cultural monuments, Buddhist preachers in an incomprehensible way maintained an atmosphere of high spirituality and religious correctness, famous travelers made amazing discoveries.
The Silk Road is a system of caravan routes that for more than a thousand years connected the cultural centers of the vast expanse of the mainland between China and the Mediterranean. The term itself was first introduced into scientific circulation by the German geographer and geologist W. Richthofen in the 70s. 19th century for designating links between the Far Eastern and Western worlds and turned out to be extremely successful and generally accepted. From the 2nd century AD silk became the main commodity that Chinese merchants carried to distant lands. Light, compact and therefore especially convenient for transportation, it attracted the attention of buyers along the entire route of caravans, despite the obvious high cost. Silk fabrics gave an unusual feeling of softness, sophistication, beauty and exoticism. They sought to possess and admire. He was highly rated in East Turkestan and Central Asia, India and Parthia, Rome and Alexandria. So, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra loved luxurious robes made of this material.
The love of the ancients for silk is caused by its exceptional natural and technical features. With the help of silk, peace was bought, alliances were made, silk was sent with embassies to the rulers of distant countries. Thus, silk played a very important role both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages. The purpose of this work is to study the Great Silk Road.
The objectives of the study are to find out how the culture of sericulture developed in China - to trace the origin of relations between East and West. How they walked towards each other, what prompted them to do so. Establishment of trade relations on the Great Silk Road - consideration of several particularly significant routes such as the Jade and Western Meridional routes. And also consider what kind of goods besides silk were traded on the Silk Road.
Many scholars have studied the history of China. But there is not so much research on the Silk Road specifically . There is not a single book, not a single brochure, where this symbol of connections between East and West would be fully described . Only individual authors can provide information about the development of the "path". For example, A.A. Ierusalinskaya was engaged in the study of silk fabrics. N.Kh. Akhmetshin was lucky enough to pass twice and drive from the beginning of the Silk Road to the end, i.e. on the Xi'an-Donhuang route . This happened for the first time in early 1987, and in 2001 he traveled for the second time. He had the idea to share his impressions of both trips, stories about the legends and hoaxes of the Silk Road. A.M. Petrov also traveled along the Great Silk Road. A.M. Petrov is a well-known economic historian. For several years of his work, he turned out to have a huge amount of information that he decided to share with readers.
Chapter 2. Production of silk fabrics

2.1 About silk production

Written sources and archaeological finds provide valuable information about sericulture and silk weaving in ancient China. So on the bronze vessels of the Chekanguo period , on the bas-reliefs and wall paintings of the Han era, mulberry trees can be distinguished: tall, on which leaf pickers had to climb, and low, slightly higher than a person’s height, with dense foliage. The latter were called " Luska mulberry" or "ground mulberry" in written sources . The low variety of mulberries had lush foliage, from such trees it was easier to collect leaves for feeding silkworms. The widespread distribution of " Lusk mulberries" in Han China contributed to the improvement of the breed of silkworms and the production of silk of higher quality.

According to ancient written sources collected by Sunn Yutang , mulberries were usually planted in deserts, between fields, in front of houses.
In the third month of the lunar calendar, which was called the "silk month", work began on feeding silkworms. On the first day of this month, women washed grena with clean water, after which it was placed in a warm "silk domina". In order to stimulate the rapid emergence of caterpillars, grena was watered with a decoction of the plant. In the "silk house" it was necessary to maintain a certain temperature and silence, keep it clean, ventilate, but not allow strong air movement. Grena was originally in the feeders. After 20-22 days, the caterpillars began to pupate. After that, they were placed in sieves and placed on wooden racks. Then the cocoons were scalded with boiling water, and the threads were unwound from them. As a result of this operation, sericin was partially washed out , and an untouched fiber remained, reaching 700-1000 m. in length. On the spinning wheel, these fibers were combined into one thread. The analysis showed that the threads of the pile polychrome fabric from Mavandui-1 were composed of fibers with 10, 13 and 17 cocoons. Sometimes the threads for thickening were spliced again.
Unlike other fibers of plant or animal origin, silk threads from the cocoons of domesticated worms do not require twisting.
Important information about the preparation of silk threads for weaving is provided by images on a bas-relief of the Eastern Han period , where you can see the process of winding threads on a spool and their reeding . Three bas-reliefs, originating in Shandong Province , show a weaver winding thread on a spool. In front of her on the ground is a reel. The thread goes up through the hook and down to the weaver, who with her left hand directs the thread to the spool, which she holds in her right hand.
The earliest depiction of a spinning wheel known to us is in a silk painting discovered in 1976 in an early Han tomb in Jin . jiaoshan ( Linying County , Shandong Province ) . In addition, we know of four Han bas-reliefs from Shandong and Jiangsu depicting a spinning wheel; on one of them, the thread comes from one bobbin, and here, apparently, the process of winding threads on a drum is shown. On the other two bas-reliefs, the threads are unwound from two bobbins, pass through the hook and go down to the wheel. The weaver guides the thread with one hand and turns the wheel with the other. In a bas-relief found in 1956 in Jiangsu province , a cane-maker sits in front of another craftsman unwinding thread from a reel, but there is no image of a drum on this wheel. On a late Han bas-relief from Sihun County ( Jiangsu Province ), we see an image of a spinning wheel of a more modern design with a skin drive. Such a wheel is found on a late copy of a painting by Gu Kai Zhi (4th century), depicting virtuous women at their work.

2.2 Dyeing of silk fabrics

According to the written sources of the Zhanyu and Han periods , one can learn about the preparation of threads for dyeing, the dyes used, and the dyeing process.

The preparation of silk for dyeing can be divided into four stages: 1) washing , 2) curling , 3) bleaching, 4) pickling. After unwinding the cocoons and splicing the threads, washing begins. At the same time, the silk was cleaned and turned white, as it lost the remnants of seriscin and dirt. The Zhou Rites give an exhaustive description of this process: “ Silk boilers process silk threads with hot water. They wash the silk in threads with purified water. After seven days, they lay out the threads on the ground at a depth of 20 cm for airing . During the day, the threads are dried in the sun, at night they are placed in a well. This operation lasts seven days and seven nights. This is what is called the washing of silk threads with water.
After washing, the threads could be used to make one-color fabrics (taffeta, rep, porridge, gas, crepe). If the threads were intended for the manufacture of polychrome fabrics, they were subjected to further processing: boiling, bleaching and, depending on the dye, etching. The same operations were carried out on ready-made single-color fabrics before dyeing.
The decoction consisted in the fact that the silk was boiled in water containing the ashes of the fruits of the lian tree . The boiling was followed by the third stage of processing - bleaching. The silk was placed in vessels where it gets wet, the silk is sprinkled with shen shell powder . Then this powder is left to settle, the silk is taken out and shaken off. When dyeing fabrics black, iron vitriol was used. One of the most common dyes was indigo doe leaves, which dyed blue.
The main dye of plant origin of fabrics in red in ancient China was the speck obtained from the madder root. By the end of the Han era , along with madder, safflower was used to dye fabrics red, which entered China as a result of contacts with the Western Lands. The fruits of the zhizi plant were used to dye fabrics yellow . In addition to dyes of plant origin, pinovar was widely used for dyeing red. zhu . Dark red was dyed with ocher. The mineral dye bayonmu or juanyunmu was used for white dyeing , as evidenced by the analysis of fabrics from Mawangdui-1.