In ancient China, silk was simply silkworm silk. Originating from mulberry trees and silkworms, silk was meticulously woven into fine silk fabrics, symbolizing wealth and status. Over 5,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Chinese nation invented mulberry cultivation, silkworm rearing, and silk reeling and weaving. Later, the Yellow Emperor, Yao, and Shun established order by making silk available to the world. Over 2,000 years ago, silk facilitated economic and cultural exchange between East and West, hence the trade route became known as the Silk Road. It witnessed the spread of Eastern civilization to the world. As a great invention of ancient China, silk has become an important symbol of Chinese civilization. As a specialty of China, from the Western Han Dynasty, large quantities of Chinese silk were continuously exported abroad, becoming a world-renowned product. At that time, the main route from China to the West was called the Silk Road by Europeans, and China was also known as the “Land of Silk.”
The production process of silk mainly includes three steps: reeling, weaving, and dyeing and finishing. Reeling refers to the process of drawing silk from silkworm cocoons. One cocoon can yield approximately 800 to 1000 meters of silk. Each silk thread consists of two single filaments, and several filaments are combined to form raw silk. Weaving refers to the process of processing raw silk into warp and weft threads, which are then interwoven according to a specific pattern to form silk fabric. Weaving can be broadly divided into two categories: raw weaving and finished weaving. Dyeing and finishing encompasses the chemical treatment of textile materials, including four steps: refining, dyeing, printing, and finishing. Refining involves heating raw silk or unfinished silk in a special solution to hydrolyze the sericin, thereby removing impurities such as pigments, fats, and waxes. Degummed raw silk is called finished silk. Dyeing is the process of causing a chemical reaction between dye and silk or unfinished silk to impart various colors.
A single color can be monotonous, so in addition to dyeing, printing techniques are used to make silk come in a variety of colors. Common printing techniques include direct printing, discharge printing, and resist printing. Finishing processes mainly address issues such as dampness and wrinkles left over from previous processes, highlighting the inherent softness of the silk fabric and enhancing its performance. The main methods are mechanical finishing and chemical finishing.
