Chapter 24 Chapter 24: The Miracle of Mulberry Leaves

The time for spring silkworms to weave silk is still early!But the Queen Mother is a very impatient person. On the third day after Yi came back from Fengtian, although she knew that the spring silkworms hadn't spun silk yet, Yi was already in a hurry to see the many white monsters that Yi kept.They have designated houses, which are located at the east corner of the Summer Palace, and are generally very tall and magnificent palaces.For various reasons, I have never been there before, and this day I will go with the Queen Mother, and this is my first visit!The queen mother knew that I was not very familiar with the situation in China, so she told me a long story about the miracle of mulberry leaves. In fact, I also knew that in ancient times, there was a woman who was later honored as "Leizu" who taught the people the story of silkworms , but what the Empress Dowager said is a bit more special.What Yi said was:

"In ancient times, there was a girl who suddenly found a silkworm on a certain day. She thought it was very interesting, so she caught it and put it in a box. Later, she forgot about it. After three or four days, she suddenly thought of it again. Yi hurriedly opened the box to look, but she had lost the location of the silkworm, and saw a white oval thing; Yi didn't have the heart to study it carefully, so she took it out and played with it. Yi's parents saw it, too. I felt very surprised. Of course there was no such thing as a cocoon at that time, but after they played with it carefully, they found that there was silk that could be pulled out of this thing, and thought of the possibility of using silk; They went out together to look for it with heart. Just because they often found it from mulberry leaves, they concluded that mulberry leaves were the feed for silkworms. Since then, the silk reeling business of blind silkworms has gradually improved and developed; until now, the fields in our China Almost half of the village is planted with mulberry trees, and there are temples dedicated to this girl in various villages; people with silkworms go to pray every year, hoping that Iraq can bless the silkworms they raise to bear fruit. A good cocoon came out. The girl then became a famous figure in Chinese history."

I don't know if the queen mother's words are reliable, or other people's legends are reliable?However, Lei Zu is indeed a great inventor who is highly admired in our Chinese history. Lafayette first led us into a large room, but there were no furnishings in it, only many brightly painted wooden shelves; on these wooden shelves, many wooden boxes were piled up.Yi opened a box and taught me to probe over to see the unhatched silkworms. "At this moment, these are not precious enough, just a silkworm like a black sesame seed!" Yi said to me: "Look, on a small piece of paper, they will hatch. But the hatching silkworm If you hatch too early, the new mulberry leaves will not grow at that time, and you will have no way to find food for it, so you will often starve to death, even if you don't starve to death, but later, it will They can't spit out good silk. So they have to wait until there are new mulberry leaves before hatching. But sometimes there are new mulberry leaves, but the weather is very cold.——This is very possible, Because the new mulberry leaves always grow in early spring.—Just wrapping silkworms with cotton or silk floss is not warm enough to hatch; if you use fire or hot water to hatch, it is too violent. Under such circumstances, those girls with silkworms will implement a method of incubating human bodies: Yimen will wrap these pieces of paper full of silkworms one by one, and carry them in Iraq In their close-fitting underwear bags, the silkworm eggs are hatched with warm but not violent body heat...”

When I heard the Queen Mother say this, Shenbuyou felt itchy faintly.I think if I were taught to sleep with those silkworms in my pocket and let them squirm, I would really wake up in a dream.But even though I imagined it this way, according to my later discovery, these girls who are careful about silkworms—most of them are the daughters of banner soldiers—are really happy with silkworms; so the matter of sleeping with silkworms , It can be said to be commonplace, and some are not worth making a fuss about. While I was vaguely wondering what it would be like for Silkworm to sleep, the Empress Dowager spoke again.

"Look! Isn't this just hatched?" Yi walked to the other corner of the room. "But they grow fast, and you can almost watch it grow; after about seven or eight days, it's time to start feeding the big mulberry leaves." On the several wooden shelves here, there are many round low plates, which are made of bamboo, and a part of the bottom of the plate is made of extremely smooth bamboo yellow; their sides are about an inch and a half high, and they are also made of bamboo slices. .The sizes of these bamboo plates are different, presumably each has its own use.In my opinion, those spring silkworms that have just hatched are also like a kind of small caterpillars that are often seen on flower trees.They are all about seven to eight cents long, and there are about one or two hundred crowded in a small bamboo plate; they are rolling wriggly, and I almost regarded them as a plate of maggots.

Although I don't think these silkworms are very attractive, and I even think they are ugly, but because I heard the queen mother said that they grow very fast, I can almost watch them grow, so my curiosity was aroused. After I went with the Queen Mother, whenever I had free time, I went to visit the four or five big rooms, and sure enough, every time I saw that they were bigger than the last time; It was an inch and a half, and then it grew to two inches long.In this way, one or two hundred of them can no longer be squeezed into a small plate; the girls who raise silkworms carefully divide each plate of silkworms into two plates, and wait for them to grow up again. Divide into larger bamboo dishes.

"The mulberry leaves eaten by the young silkworms are all cut into fine pieces, and they are all selected from the tenderest ones. After about four or five days, they will be fed whole big mulberry leaves!" After one or two days, The Queen Mother reminded me again: "At that time, it will be very beautiful, you must go and see it!" Ideally, Lafayette himself must have seen this kind of silkworm breeding and reeling tricks many times; since silkworms are raised every year in the garden, of course I see it every year.But Yi sometimes behaves like a child, and she is very enthusiastic about watching silkworms. It seems that she can't get tired of watching silkworms ten times, or a hundred times; I thought of going to see the spring silkworms that were growing up day and night.

On this day, the girls in charge of silkworm breeding told me that a large number of young silkworms had grown up, and they were about to start feeding the whole big mulberry leaves that day. So many eunuchs went out of the garden to pick several loads of fresh mulberry leaves, but they couldn't use them right away; they had to be carefully scrubbed one by one with warm water that wasn't very hot. Leave a little bit of dirt on the leaves.There must be two girls taking care of every spring silkworm in a large bamboo tray: when one is washing the mulberry leaves, the other wipes the washed mulberry leaves with a clean towel and lays the bamboos flat one by one. plate to go.As soon as the Can'er saw the mulberry leaves—maybe they didn't see them, but touched them—they immediately opened their mouths to chew; if you lower your head a little, you can clearly see whether their mouths are moving or not. If you stop activities, you can see them eat from a very small hole until they can pass through their own bodies, and the time spent is very short, so every day, you must add mulberry leaves twice. : Once in the morning, once in the evening; after arriving, you have to add three times.

In the afternoon of the first day of feeding the big mulberry leaves, when I went to watch again, I saw that most of the mulberry leaves in each plate had only some leaf veins left, and a few greedy silkworms were gnawing on the tendons; I think that when the Can'er are eating the mulberry leaves, the shape is really ugly, and you can hear them chewing.And in these large houses specially used for breeding silkworms, there are always more than a few thousand silkworms, because as soon as we walk in, we can hear the sound of rustling, like raindrops hitting dry grass. on the sound. The girls who raised the silkworms were also very careful because of the sophisticated equipment that the Empress Dowager set up for silkworm rearing, but every day, it was inevitable that there would be dozens of silkworms—about two to three thousandths—because Died for various reasons.But even though we have found a dead silkworm, we are absolutely not allowed to say, "A silkworm is dead," and we can only pick it out silently.Inconveniently, there are still many superstitious habits of silkworm rearing!No one is allowed to point to a certain silkworm and say "bad" or "ugly" or other bad words; or "ugly" anymore.And on the heads of these girls who specialize in breeding silkworms, each is tied with a very wide ribbon, so that some of their hair will not be scattered. It is said that this is for the silkworms to show; After drying, the spun silk will not be scattered.Around the waists of these girls, there is also a very brightly colored belt.It is said that Yimen's waist was tied very thinly, which is said to be for Can'er to show. After seeing them, the cocoons they formed are generally very thin in the middle and thick and round at both ends, which looks very beautiful.Not only can these girls not say bad things in the silkworm room, but they also have to say a few words of compliment or encouragement to the silkworms from time to time, just like educating a child, so that when the final harvest, they can get very beautiful of silk.

Although the color of silkworms is generally gray and white, the silk they weave can be divided into pure white and golden yellow, and the golden yellow is more valuable. "Now is the time for silkworms to weave silk and make cocoons!" One morning, the Empress Dowager thought of the spring silkworms that Yi had kept, so she led us to visit again.While Mrs. Yi was talking to us, the girls who raised silkworms were busy with their work!During these days, Yimen is indeed very busy; but in the rest of the year, Yimen can eat and have nothing to do, and lie down in the garden. "Our place is different from the outside world! Ordinary people usually tie the dry firewood into short bundles, catch the silkworms that are about to spin silk, and let them make cocoons; the silk obtained by this method is often not enough. It is very clean. So we use special small boxes. Each box contains four silkworms." The queen mother pointed to the many paper boxes piled high over there, and continued to say to me: "After they go in, they will occupy a corner of their own. , and start cocoons without invading each other. If you don’t believe me, you can come and see it from time to time!”

I really obeyed Yi's words, and since then I have come to see it more and more often.This is sure enough fun!Generally, when a silkworm is about to spin silk, it no longer eats mulberry leaves, as if it has eaten too much; by this time its body is very thick and long, and it has turned a transparent color, so The girls who raised silkworms gently put them into those small boxes, four in each box, and put the lids on and let them work hard to make cocoons.After about five or six days, when I opened the box, I saw that four white or golden cocoons had formed neatly on the four corners of the box.However, it is said that the four silkworms in a box must be of the same color. If there are three white silkworms and one yellow silkworm, and the yellow silkworm is half-finished, they will never produce any more silkworms; therefore, they must be identified in advance to avoid confusion. After the cocoon was taken out of the box, the cruelest scene appeared!Regardless of the life and death of the silkworm chrysalis, they threw the cocoons into the boiling water together and scalded the silkworm chrysalis to death.After the cocoons were soaked in boiling water for an hour or two, they had to be stirred continuously with a short bamboo broom until a thread could be pulled out from one of the cocoons. It is tied to a thin needle so that the silk can be pulled up.While pulling and stirring, the silk from one cocoon is drawn, and then the silk from the second cocoon is connected, so that twists of raw silk can be obtained.I saw that the girls were making fun of it, so I volunteered to try it for a while, but I couldn't get a single thread out of it; of course, this kind of work requires considerable study!From this point of view, people who make silk can also be regarded as a kind of craftsmen with specialized skills.But I don't envy you, I just think the survival of silkworms is the most interesting thing, so I really want to study it thoroughly. "Lafayette, I still don't understand." When the queen mother was happy, I asked Yi: "Since these cocoons have been soaked, where will we go to beg for silkworm seeds next year?" "There's nothing to worry about! We've picked out some of the cocoons for seeds." Yi explained to me patiently: "The chrysalis inside the cocoon can still change! We just need not burn it to death. After a certain period of time, it will turn into a silk moth. These silk moths will never hide in the cocoon, they will automatically bite a small hole in the cocoon, and will come out; The girls will help them tear up the cocoon so that they can get out earlier..." In order to let me see a real example, the Queen Mother took me to the silkworm room to watch it.In several small bamboo trays, I saw many silk moths. Although they also have a pair of wings, they cannot fly, they can only stagger and crawl forever. This kind of moth is also divided into male and female, so if they are mixed together in a bamboo dish, this bamboo dish is their world; apart from this bamboo dish, they cannot touch other things.And they themselves don't seem to have any ambition to go outside the bamboo tray; even the contents of the bamboo tray, how big they are, and whether they are safe or not, they don't care at all.What's even more strange is that they are different from other insects. After turning into moths, they don't want to eat anything;After mating once, the male dies first, leaving only the females to complete their task of giving birth.At this time, the girls who are raising silkworms have to pick out the dead male moths and discard them first, so as not to hinder them.Under the bamboo tray, there was white paper that had been laid out long ago. After a day or two, the female moths began to give birth on the paper; Countless black sesame-like silkworm eggs and many dead female moths.Of course, they are no longer needed and immediately discarded. "Don't you think it's very interesting? Really! This is nothing less than a miniature picture of life!" The Queen Mother said in a philosophical tone: "From the moment they are born, they have hurriedly done the work they should do in life , and died very quickly. There was only a short interval of ten or twenty days. But these twenty days, for them, are the same as when we emerge from the mother's womb, grow from young to young, and grow from young to strong. From strong to middle-aged, from old age to death, there is really no difference!" After hearing Yi's very reserved words, I couldn't help but secretly sighed.However, I couldn't help but think it was cruel to throw those undead silkworm chrysalis into the boiling water to soak them carelessly, so I raised another question to the Queen Mother. "Why don't you cut off one end of the cocoon first, take out the silkworm chrysalis and throw them into the boiling water?" "This is impossible!" The queen mother seemed to think my question was ridiculously stupid, but she was not bored and replied with great interest: "The cocoon must never be cut, and once it is cut, it cannot be reeled." If it can be cut, why don’t we reel the silk after the chrysalis inside has turned into a moth and come out? Because the silk on the cocoon is very neat and continuous, and it won’t work once it’s broken ; and to extract a thread from a cocoon, it must be soaked in boiling water. Therefore, this method cannot be changed.  …” "What's more, even if those silkworm chrysalis are not scalded to death, if you take them out first, they will die in a few days!" Yi Shuang quickly broke through my senseless pity. The Empress Dowager regards silkworms as a recreational product to relieve fatigue.Although Yi allocated such a large house in the Summer Palace for silkworm breeding, and spent a lot of money on supplies and mulberry leaves, and raised so many girls, she didn't do anything all year round. It is dedicated to take care of silkworm breeding; the cost of this batch is really not small.But Yi never sold the cocoons she obtained, and always used them for silk reeling; and the reeled silk was never sold, and it didn't see any great use, it was just twisted and twisted. To hide it, or to teach other silk-making girls to dye the skein of silk with various bright colors for a moment of pleasure, and then store it again, which is nothing more than spending a few extra dollars. That's all. There is only one thing that can be regarded as combining play with practicality.That is, when those who are about to spin silk, pick one or two and put them on a piece of thin paper pasted on the mouth of the teacup, let them spit the silk that was originally intended to make cocoons on the paper together, and then Cut the thin paper full of silk into round or oblong shapes, use flannelette as a cushion, use it as a powder puff, or apply sesame oil.It is indeed the softest and smoothest.I still think about it every time I powder it. Although the Empress Dowager herself only regarded silkworms as a hobby, the girls hired by Yi to take care of the silkworm breeding were still doing it very seriously because of the influence of many traditional superstitions.Yimen seems to be a group of saints who are enthusiastic about religion, and silkworms are the holy gods in Yimen's mind.