Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 38 The Empress Dowager and the Spring Silkworm (1)
The Queen Mother is a short-tempered person. Although the days when spring silkworms spin silk are still far away, she can no longer restrain her inner urge to take a look at the white things she raises.Seeing this kind of behavior of the queen mother, I can't help but think of my own childhood.People often say "old children", maybe the older they are, the more they will have a temper like a child.Those spring silkworms were placed in a palace at the east end of the Summer Palace. Due to various reasons, I hadn’t been to that place before, but I just vaguely felt that the place was quite big. This was the first time I visited it.The queen mother knew that I was not familiar with the domestic situation, so she told me many stories about mulberry leaves and silkworms.In fact, when I was studying abroad, I knew many such stories. I also knew that it was a woman named "Leizu" who taught people to plant mulberry and silkworms. But today I heard this story from the Queen Mother. I still feel very novel.Here's how she put it:

"A long time ago, a very capable girl found a silkworm. She thought it was very interesting, so she caught it and put it in a small box. After returning home, the girl put the silkworm in the small box. Put it on the window sill, and for many days after that, the girl completely forgot about it. When she suddenly remembered one day, the silkworm had disappeared from the box, leaving only a white cocoon. The girl thought This incident was very strange, so I took the silkworm cocoon and looked at it over and over again, and inadvertently pulled out a strand of silk from the silkworm cocoon. The girl immediately thought of the use of these silk, so she went to her parents with great interest and begged them She went to the field with herself to look for this kind of white cocoon. Her parents readily agreed. After arriving in the field, they found that these white cocoons were all on mulberry trees, so they concluded that the feed of silkworms was mulberry leaves. Since then, China The sericulture and silk reeling industry started. The girl used the collected cocoons to find ways to use silk, and became the ancestor of the sericulture and silk reeling industry. In the following thousands of years, the sericulture and silk reeling industry gradually developed. Today, almost half of the provinces in China's vast land are planted with mulberry trees. In addition, every village has a temple dedicated to this girl, and many people come to pray for a good harvest every year. In a sense, this girl is the first famous woman in Chinese history."

Now no one can verify whether the things the queen mother said are true, but Leizu is indeed a very famous inventor in Chinese history. Without her, the history of silkworm and silk reeling in China would have been pushed back many years.When Lafayette finished telling this story, we also walked to the palace.Opening the door, I saw many large wooden shelves that were painted shiny, and many small boxes were placed on these wooden shelves.The Queen Mother approached the small box, opened a corner casually, and asked me to take a closer look at the situation inside. They were some unhatched silkworm eggs.After looking at it for a while, the queen mother said to me: "The silkworm eggs hatched at this moment are not precious, and their chances of surviving are relatively small, because the new mulberry leaves have not grown yet, and they often have to face the fate of starvation after they come out." .Incubating silkworms is a big science. It cannot be too early or too late. It must coincide with the time when the new mulberry leaves grow. Only in this way can they survive smoothly. If it is too early, the silkworms will not starve to death After growing up, you can’t spit out any good silk. If the new mulberry leaves have grown, but the silkworms cannot hatch due to climate reasons, then you have to think of other ways, such as using fire or hot water to hatch. But this is too violent. In this case, people came up with a good way, that is to wrap these silkworm eggs in paper, put them on the girl's chest, and use the body temperature to hatch these poor silkworms. Silkworm..."

When the queen mother said this, I just felt itchy all over my body, as if there were many silkworms on my chest.If I really put some silkworm seeds on me, I will definitely wake up from my sleep countless times. The reason why I have such thoughts is that I don't know much about the cuteness of silkworms.According to my later observations, the daughters of the bannermen really liked silkworms very much and wished to stay with them every day. For them, sleeping with mulberry leaves in their arms was a common thing, and it was not worth making a fuss about.The queen mother may have sensed my uneasiness, and then said to me: "Don't think that the newly hatched silkworms are small. They grow at an amazing speed. After only seven or eight days, they need to be fed with large mulberry leaves. In the past few days, you can watch them grow, and I can guarantee that they will give you different surprises every day." These wooden shelves are covered with many round bamboo plates, and part of the bottom of the plate is made of extremely smooth Bamboo yellow, about an inch and a half high at the edge, is also tied with bamboo slices.These bamboo plates are all different sizes, presumably each one has a different purpose.When I got closer, I realized that there were already many silkworms wriggling in these bamboo trays, each about seven to eight cents long, and they were very proud, but no matter how I looked at them, they looked like small caterpillars in the field, but there were no patterns on their bodies. , the whole body is gray and white.Looking at these gray and white things, I suddenly felt a very uncomfortable feeling in my heart, as if I saw a lot of maggots, it was really disgusting.

No matter what the queen mother said, I still couldn't feel the beauty of these silkworms.However, since the Queen Mother said that they grow so fast that you can almost watch them grow, my curiosity was piqued again.For this reason, from now on, as long as I have time, I will go to the big houses where the silkworms are raised.What the queen mother said was indeed correct. Those young silkworms were one inch long at first, and when I went to see them the next day, they became one and a half inches long, and then they also increased at this speed.When they grow up a bit, there will be no more crowding in one bamboo tray. The girl who raises silkworms will divide them into two or even three bamboo trays.When they are mature, they cannot be placed in the small bamboo tray, and need to be moved to the big bamboo tray.One day, the queen mother told me: "Feeding spring silkworms is also very particular. Young silkworms should be fed with chopped young mulberry leaves, but after four or five days, they need to use whole big mulberry leaves." The days passed like this.One day, the Empress Dowager reminded me: "The color of silkworms has begun to change. If you are curious, you must go and see." The Summer Palace has been raising silkworms for many years, and the Empress Dowager is no stranger to the trick of raising silkworms and reeling silk. , but she still enjoys it, as if she never gets bored after watching it a thousand times.Every time the word "spring silkworm" is mentioned, Lafayette's eyes will release a childlike look of surprise. Whenever the government is free, the Queen Mother always goes to see those white and fat silkworm babies.

On the same day, the palace maid guarding the spring silkworms told me: "A large number of young silkworms have grown up, and I will start feeding the whole big mulberry leaves from today." By this time, the eunuchs in the palace will become extremely busy and need to go to Fresh mulberry leaves were picked outside the Summer Palace. At first, several loads of mulberry leaves were picked every day. As the silkworms grew up, the number gradually increased.After the mulberry leaves are picked, they cannot be eaten by the silkworms immediately. They must be washed with warm water and wiped off one by one before they can be eaten.Each large bamboo tray is carefully guarded by two girls. When one is washing the mulberry leaves, the other wipes the mulberry leaves with a clean handkerchief, and then carefully puts them into the bamboo tray.After seeing the mulberry leaves—maybe they didn’t see them, they just touched them—the silkworms began to chew.If the light is bright enough, you will see the mouths of the silkworms wriggling constantly. They first make a small hole in the mulberry leaves, and then gradually bury their whole bodies in it.From eating mulberry leaves to getting into the mulberry leaves by myself, it doesn't take long.Their food intake is astonishing. At the beginning, mulberry leaves need to be added twice a day, and then three times, or even four times.

I went to watch the afternoon when I learned that the big mulberry leaves were being fed.At that time, the first meal was coming to an end, and there were no complete mulberry leaves, only some leaf tendons, with a few gluttonous silkworms on them.When these silkworms eat mulberry leaves, I don't think there is anything cute about them, the shape is indeed a bit ugly.There are thousands of silkworms in these rooms, so every time you go in, you will always hear the rustling sound, like the sound of raindrops hitting the leaves.

(End of this chapter)