I still remember a passage in Suzhou Hutong, a junior high school Chinese textbook, which says: In the depths of the yard, there is the sound of looms, the rustling is the weaving of silks and satins, and the twittering is the weaving of Zhang Rong ... I have never seen Shengze's ancient hand-cranked loom, but as soon as I read this sentence, I seem to feel the hard work of Shengze ancestors at that time and go out to the world with their hard hands. Senior one organized us to go to Huajiasi Expo Park, and I finally had the honor to see the ancient hand-operated loom. Huaxia Sibo Garden has five acres of gardens, a hundred mulberry gardens, a mulberry plant museum, a silk history museum and other exhibition areas. Taking sericulture and cocoon silk as the main line, the industrial chain of sericulture and silk is displayed, which is an experiential cultural scenic spot integrating display, popular science and tourism. I saw a model of a hand loom in it. There are shuttle machines, hand-drawn machines and pedal machines, which are the main looms for weaving silk before the emergence of electric looms. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were two kinds of shuttles and flower machines in Shengze area. The plain weave is a plain fabric. Loom is also called flower bed machine, and there are flower beds above the loom. In operation, a teenager sits on the flower bed and operates the flower bed, while another weaver picks up the shuttle, picks up the weft yarn below and cooperates with each other to weave jacquard fabrics with different patterns. The Expo Park also introduced many unique sericulture customs that were circulated in Shengze rural areas before. For example, offering sacrifices to the silkworm god, closing the silkworm door, making cocoons, opening the silkworm door, watching the mountains, wearing silkworm flowers and cutting cocoon flowers ... The formation of these customs reflects the desire of silkworm farmers to pray for a good harvest of silkworm cocoons.
In primary school, the teacher told us the story of Shengze Silk. In order to promote the development of silk industry in Shengze area, some people of insight actively advocated the silk cooperative movement. 1936 established the silk industry transportation and marketing cooperative in Daxie Township, Shengze District, which played a good demonstration role for the silk industry in the county. The promotion of silk cooperatives has effectively promoted the development of silk industry in Shengze. Now the people of Shengze conform to the times and begin to produce chemical fiber. 1992, Xiang Ying Group introduced eight polyester filament production lines with the world advanced level at that time, becoming the first large-scale chemical fiber factory in Shengze, and then Yi Long Group began to introduce polyester filament production lines, and Shengze's chemical fiber manufacturing industry gradually took shape. Since 2002, Xiang Ying, Hengli, Hong Sheng, Xinmin and other chemical fiber enterprises have invested huge sums of money to introduce a number of melt direct spinning production lines with world advanced level, which has made Shengze chemical fiber manufacturing industry step up to a new level. The rise of chemical fiber manufacturing industry has laid a solid foundation for the growth of Shengze silk textile industry.
The rise of Shengze silk industry has promoted the development of economic education and other fields here. Shengze Cultural Center, including children's interest classes, Shunhu Academy, gymnasium, swimming pool and silk history exhibition hall, is open all day, which greatly enriches the weekend life of Shengze people. The silk exhibition hall on the third floor of the Cultural Center displays the loom devices used by Shengze people to promote Shengze silk culture in the old days. Every winter and summer vacation, a large number of parents of students visit to learn about the charm of silk and appreciate the hardships of the ancestors of Shengze. Many streets and alleys in Shengze are also branded with silk marks. Such as warp knitting, dyeing, spinning and sewing, are all named after silk and have obvious industrial characteristics. With the continuous expansion of urban areas, a number of new roads have been formed, and in these roads, there is also a strong flavor of silk culture: Sidu Avenue, Market (Oriental Silk Market Road), Jinxiu Road, Jingwei Road and Luo Qi Road; Walking into the new city is more like walking into the long Silk Road: Dunhuang Road, Hami Road, Hotan Road, Dengzhou Road, Mingzhou Road and Guangzhou Road. ...
The rise of Shengze Silk originates from the natural conditions of flat terrain and dense lakes here, but its long history is due to the hard work of Shengze people and the active introduction of advanced loom technology and the establishment of township enterprises by people of insight in Shengze. It is the hard work and technological innovation of Shengze people that have made Shengze the first town in China!