[VOL III] SILK FARMS AT HOO-CHOW

SILK FARMS AT HOO-CHOW

Cover Image: Silk Farms at Hoo-chow / HuZhou ZheJiang China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by J.Tingle – ALAMY Image ID:2X55N8N

*Since the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), Huzhou has been an important silk-producing region in China. During the Ming Dynasty, Huzhou’s silk industry gained nationwide fame, giving rise to numerous silk manors in the area.

Behold that land so bright and fair:
Whate’er the eye delighteth in is there:
Whate’er the teaming earth, the genial heav’n,
Can give to man, to them is largely given.

THE planting, rearing, and care of the mulberry-tree, the culture of the silk-worm, reeling off the product of the chrysalides, dyeing and winding it, in subsequent stages, besides other operations connected with the manufacture of the great staple of China, have been both illustrated and described in the preceding volumes. （*Vide Vol. I., p. 56. Vol. II., p. 8, et seq. Vol. III., p. 25.） The accompanying view represents the buildings of a wealthy silk-farmer, situate on a tributary to the imperial canal, in the immediate vicinity of Hoo-chow-foo. This agreeable town is the capital of a department, in the fertile province of Che-keang, and the locality is termed by Chinese geographers, “The Silk-Worm District.” From the productive character of the soil, salubrious climate, and ample natural irrigation, the vicinity of Hoo-chow has been long amongst the most favoured places in Che-keang; and, the surpassing beauty of the scenery on the shores of Lake Tai, has drawn hither many wealthy residents. Historians make the first foundations of Hoo-chow co-eval with the Chun-tsew, or spring and autumn of the Chinese historical era; and they write also, that it was then named Koo-ching, and, under the epoch of the three kingdoms, Woo-hing. The antiquity of this flourishing city, however, is indisputable, as indeed the density of its population, high state of cultivation all around, and unbounded riches of the inhabitants, already sufficiently testify.

Seated at the bridge that spans the afflux of the rivulet with the canal, is the well-known farm of Lou, a family settled here for ages, and the events of whose past years have furnished materials for dramas and novels that are highly popular. The buildings are rather comfortable than costly, affording accommodation to the venerable head of the house, with his sons and daughters-in-law, and grand-children. In some instances, (unhappily rare ones,) favourite daughters are permitted to bring their husbands to the parental roof, reversing thereby the national custom of marriage. The raw silk, in hanks, is brought from the reeling sheds, to stores adjoining the homestead, and, when a sufficient accumulation is made, placed in broad flat-bottomed boats with bamboo canopies, and transported to the canal; once on that highway of commerce, its destiny, although in one respect fixed, is in another uncertain, for, it may be bought by a salesman as a simple speculation, it may be transferred to a home-manufacturer, or forwarded to the markets of Hang-tchou and Chusan. Lou is indifferent as to the object for which it is purchased, or the direction it may take; his life, a mere exhibition of selfishness, being devoted to the acquisition of wealth, for the sole purpose of surrounding his rural palace with all the luxuries that it can purchase. It is from this district the silk is obtained for the robes and garments of the imperial family: the richest mandarins often bespeak the crops of a season from the same locality; and, foreign merchants profess themselves able to distinguish the silk of Hoo-chow-foo from that produced in other parts of China.