Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 39 The Empress Dowager and the Spring Silkworm (2)
For some unknown reason, some silkworms die every day.Although the queen mother prepared exquisite equipment for these silkworms, and the girls who raised the silkworms were also very careful, but some silkworms could not be saved from bad luck.Every time she finds dead silkworms, the girl who raises them silently picks them out without saying anything like "dead". It is said that this is one of the habits of silkworm raisers.Not only that, silkworm farmers must never say "ugly" or "not good" in front of silkworms. If they accidentally say these words, the silk that those silkworms spit out in the future will also be bad or ugly.These girls who are responsible for raising silkworms all have a headscarf on their heads, carefully covering their hair. It is said that this is for the silkworms to see. Only in this way will the silk they spit out in the future not be scattered.In addition, those girls have a very bright belt tied around their waists, which binds their waists very tightly. This is also for the silkworms to see, so that in the future the cocoons they form will be thinner in the middle and thicker at the ends.It takes a lot of energy to take care of these silkworms on weekdays. Not only can you not say anything bad to them, but you have to look after them like coaxing children and say some words of encouragement or compliments to them.In the eyes of those girls, only after these things are done, those silkworms will spit out exquisite silk in the future.When silkworms are alive, their color is gray and white, but the silk they produce can be divided into pure white and golden yellow, and the golden yellow is more precious.

A few days later, the Empress Dowager suddenly said: "I am afraid it is time for Can'er to weave silk and form cocoons. Let's take a look at some time." Under the leadership of the Empress Dowager, our group killed On the way to the east of the Summer Palace, Lafayette told us a lot of new things.Different from our leisurely mood at the moment, those girls raising silkworms are now the busiest time, and they need to do a lot of things.However, except for these few days, their life is quite leisurely, basically they can sit back and relax.On the way, the Empress Dowager said: "Different from the common people, there are special arrangements for the way silkworms make cocoons here. Ordinary people will tie up many grassy hills and then catch silkworms on them, but the cocoons they form are too rough, so we No. We use special small boxes here, and each box contains four silkworms. In this way, those silkworms will occupy the four corners of the box and form beautiful cocoons. If you doubt this , You can come and visit often in the future.” Undoubtedly, the Queen Mother’s words aroused my curiosity, and I decided to come here more frequently in the future.When the silkworm is about to spin silk, its body will become very long, thick and transparent, which looks much cuter than before.At this time, the silkworm no longer eats, as if it was too full before.The girls who raise silkworms carefully put the silkworms into the small box, and then close the lid. After four or five days, there will be four white or golden cocoons inside the box.The girl who raised silkworms told me that the four silkworms put into the same box must be the same, that is to say, the cocoons produced in the same box have the same color.If not, the silkworm with a different silk color will stop spinning. For this reason, this work must be done well when selecting silkworms and putting them into the box.

The moment the box was opened, the cruelest thing for silkworms was about to happen.Regardless of the life and death of silkworms, people pick up those cocoons and throw them into boiling water, which is called boiled silk.When cooking the shredded silk, a professional staff is required to stir it constantly with a short broom to prevent all the cocoons from merging together.After about an hour or two, a silk head can be pulled out from the top of a cocoon.At this time, the stirring should be stopped, and then the silk head should be tied to a very thin needle, so that the silk can be easily pulled out.After the first cocoon is pulled out, the second cocoon is added, so that bundles of raw silk can be obtained.Seeing how easy it was for those girls to pull out the silk thread, I also volunteered to try it, but I didn't expect that after working hard for a long time, I didn't pull out a single thread.I just realized that no craft can be learned easily, it needs a long time of study and exercise.From this point of view, those girls who raise silkworms can also be regarded as technicians, who have mastered specialized techniques, but I don't envy them, I just think it's more fun to raise silkworms and reel silk.

Seeing that the Queen Mother was in a good mood, I immediately asked my question: "Queen Mother, since we have boiled all these cocoons, where will we get the seeds next year? Do we need to ask others for seeds?" "You don't have to worry about this." The Queen Mother replied without hesitation, "For next year's breeding, we have already picked out some better cocoons as seeds." The Queen Mother seemed very interested, and then told me about some other cocoons Dongxi: "After the cocoon is formed, the life of the silkworm is not over, and its shape will change after that. After a while, the silkworms in those cocoons will become silkworm moths. Silkworm moths are not willing to stay in such a small space Inside, they will bite a small hole in the silkworm cocoon and drill out from there. Some silkworm moths with relatively weak strength are difficult to break through by themselves. At this time, they need the girls who raise silkworms to help them." To prove What I said was true, and the queen mother even took me to watch it.In several small bamboo trays, there are already many silkworm moths. Although they have a pair of wings, they look very weak and it is impossible to fly.Looking at those silk moths crawling around, I suddenly felt a very pity in my heart.

There are two types of silkworm moths, male and female, as long as you put them in a bamboo tray, you don’t need to take care of them. When the time comes, they will automatically complete the task of giving birth.After turning into silkworm moths, they no longer eat or drink, and have no thought of escaping to places other than the bamboo pan. All they want to do is find a suitable place to mate. As for whether there are people around to watch and whether there is a safety hazard, They don't care.After mating, the male moths will die, leaving only the female moths to complete the task of giving birth.As the male moths died one after another, the girl who took care of the bamboo tray would pick up the dead male moths one by one, first to make room for the female moths, and second, to prevent other silk moths from mating.One or two days after mating, the female moths will produce eggs. It only takes one night, and densely packed silkworm eggs and dead female moth bodies will fall on the white paper covered in the bamboo tray.Of course, the female moths are of no use at this point, and the sericulture girls immediately throw them away. "The life of a silkworm is really interesting, don't you think so?" Suddenly, Lafayette turned to me and asked me.When I was hesitating, the queen mother continued: "To a certain extent, the life of silkworms is a thumbnail of our human life. Although their life is only 20 days, they have experienced the same experience as our human beings. The whole process from birth to death, there is no shortage of childhood, adulthood and old age. These silkworms come to the world only to complete their own tasks, and after the completion of the tasks, there is no time to savor other things, so they die in a hurry.” After listening to the Queen Mother’s words, I'm so sad.But I still can't accept the practice of throwing those cocoons containing undead silkworms into boiling water, it is too cruel.Thinking of this, I asked the Queen Mother a question: "Queen Mother, why do we have to throw the whole cocoon into boiling water? Can't we open an opening from one end and pick out the silkworm moths and boil them later?"

"It's definitely not possible." The Queen Mother answered my question loudly while laughing. Perhaps in her opinion, this was a very stupid question.Even so, the Queen Mother was very willing to explain the reason to me: "Silk is connected horizontally, and once broken, it can no longer be connected. If it can be broken, we can wait until the silkworm moths come out before cooking the silk." , but if you do that, the silk thread will inevitably be very fragmented, and eventually it will become useless. If you want to draw silk from the cocoon, you must soak the cocoon in hot water. At present, you must go through this process, and there is no substitute for it method. I know you must feel that this is cruel, but have you ever thought that even if you take out those silk moths, they will not live for long, and they will die soon."

The reason why the Empress Dowager raised silkworms and reeled silk in the Summer Palace was just to adjust her life, and she had no other considerations at all.Ordinary people are more forced to raise silkworms by life, but the empress dowager's sericulture is a money-losing business.The cost she invested was very high, not to mention the occupied palace and the purchase of equipment, and the money spent on mulberry leaves, even the people she hired to raise silkworms also needed a lot of money.The Empress Dowager never thought of selling the silk she reeled for money, and she did not allow others to do so. The silk reeled every year was tied up in bundles and placed on a wooden frame, which might not be of great use. .Sometimes, if the queen mother is in a good mood, she will ask the girls to dye the silk threads into various colors, and then put them in bundles. Just some money.

Those silkworms are not completely useless to the Empress Dowager. I still remember a usage taught by the Empress Dowager.When the silkworm is about to spin silk, find one or two pieces of white paper and put it on the mouth of a teacup, let those silkworms who want to cocoon spit silk on the white paper, and then cut the white paper into circles or semicircles, Then line it with some flannelette to make a cushion, and use it as a powder puff to wipe the fragrance.For some reason, the powder puff made in this way is really smooth, and I still remember its soft texture until now.The Empress Dowager didn't take sericulture very seriously, she just regarded silkworms as a toy.But the girls she recruited didn't think so. They treated the silkworms as if they were gods, and performed their duties sacredly.

(End of this chapter)