Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
By the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang dynasty, the Yuhang clear silk floss was already famous far and wide. This silk floss had the advantages of a pure white color, even thickness, and a tough, pliable texture, and was therefore listed by the imperial court as a tributary levy. In the Southern Song period, Yuhang silk floss was the finest in all of Zhejiang. After the Qing dynasty, the clear silk floss became even more renowned, and during the Kangxi reign it was once exported as far as Japan. In the Republican period, Yuhang's 'Lao Hengchang' clear silk floss enjoyed an even greater reputation at home and abroad. In 1929, Yuhang clear silk floss won a special prize at the West Lake Exposition. Since the 1970s, large numbers of mulberry trees within Yuhang have been felled; coupled with the low economic returns of sericulture, silkworm rearing has greatly diminished, and silkworm-keeping households have switched trades one after another, leaving the floss-making raw material in short supply and becoming a stream without a source.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
As early as the Zhou dynasty, every household here planted mulberries and raised silkworms. Yuhang clear silk floss takes its name from the clear water used in its pure, clean bleaching. Yuhang lies on both banks of the Tiaoxi River, where the Tianmu Mountain springs pour into the Tiaoxi, warm but not cold and with few impurities, which is favorable for floss-making. Making clear silk floss involves a process of removing the outer sericin from the silk, comprising six steps: selecting cocoons, boiling cocoons, rinsing, peeling the cocoons to form the floss, stretching and framing the floss, and sun-drying. The cleaner the sericin is removed in making, the better the quality of the floss. The Yuhang clear silk floss craft demands very high manual skill, and its production is accomplished entirely through the artisan's technique. For a long time the clear silk floss craft has been transmitted unbroken from generation to generation by word of mouth and personal instruction; in this process the transmitters have accumulated rich practical experience and continually merged it into the floss-making craft, making this skill the crystallized collective wisdom of the Yuhang people. The clear silk floss made in Yuhang is white and even in body, smooth and soft to the touch, with good elasticity, strong tensile strength, and no floss lumps, filaments, or impurities; its excellent quality has long been valued by the world. At the same time, owing to technological development, new techniques have dealt a huge blow to the traditional craft, and for a time the clear silk floss craft could hardly be sustained.
Documented Process Record
Making clear silk floss involves a process of removing the outer sericin from the silk, comprising six steps: selecting cocoons, boiling cocoons, rinsing, peeling the cocoons to form the floss, stretching and framing the floss, and sun-drying.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yuhang District of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, lies in the Hangjiahu Plain, and the clear silk floss produced locally has a long history.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship · Cansi Weaving Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Protecting and transmitting this ancient craft has become an urgent task that requires the joint efforts of government departments and civil society. Yu Caigen (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): female, Han ethnicity, born in May 1949, a native of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item 'Silk Weaving Craft (Yuhang Clear Silk Floss Making Craft)'. A Yuhang clear silk floss making artisan. She learned 'che miandou' (pulling the floss hood) from her mother from childhood, and had already mastered the clear silk floss craft by the age of 13. After finishing primary school she farmed at home, making silk floss in her spare time from farm work. At 17 she entered the Dinghe Qianjin Comprehensive Factory in Tangqi Town, and in 1992 she opened a silk floss processing workshop. Through careful deliberation she created a technique of using old alkali and sesame oil to remove the sericin, making the clear silk floss she produced even purer. The floss she made is of fine quality, white as jade and soft as cloud, enjoys a high reputation in the Hangjiahu region, and she produces and sells more than 3,000 kilograms of clear silk floss a year. Over the long term she has persisted in taking on apprentices and teaching the craft, having trained more than ten successive batches of inheritors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhou Kangming 03-1357
- Yu Caigen 05-2795
- Shao Guanxing 05-2796
- Gu Mingqi 05-2797
- Hong Guizhen
- Zheng Xiaohua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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