Cansang Customs
01 · Historical Records
China is the earliest country in the world to engage in sericulture. As early as the middle of the Neolithic period, five to six thousand years ago, its ancestors began picking mulberry leaves, raising silkworms, and reeling silk to weave cloth. Sericulture is an important component of traditional Chinese agricultural culture. The "Tribute of Yu" chapter of the Book of Documents, China's earliest classic, already records that "where the soil suits mulberry, silkworms are reared"; the "Shanquan" chapter of the Spring and Autumn period work Guanzi likewise speaks of "the people being versed in sericulture"; and the lines describing folk sericulture customs in the Han dynasty yuefu poem "On the Road the Mulberry" — "Luo Fu is skilled in sericulture, picking mulberry in the corner south of the city" — are known and loved by all. Saocanhuadi (sweeping the ground for silkworm flowers) is a silkworm custom widely current in the Hujia region from the late Qing through the Republican period. It originated in Deqing County, Zhejiang, and the principal performers of the rite were concentrated in the Deqing area. From the late Qing to the Republican era, Deqing silkworm farmers, praying for a bumper sericulture harvest, would engage professional or semi-professional performers during the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival and Qingming periods to hold the Saocanhuadi rite in the place where silkworms were raised at home; over time it gradually evolved into a song-and-dance performance.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Sericulture is a crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese nation and the source of the "Silk Road," the corridor of cultural exchange between China and the outside world. In the course of the emergence and development of sericulture, many fine customs of honoring silkworms, valuing mulberry, and loving and protecting mulberry trees took shape across the country and have been passed down from generation to generation among the people. Activities such as worshipping the Silkworm God and the Yacanhua (rolling for silkworm flowers) are among the more prominent of these; together with other sericulture customs, they constitute historical testimony to the flourishing development of ancient Chinese silkworm and mulberry culture. When the Saocanhuadi rite is held, it is usually performed by a single costumed woman who sings while dancing, accompanied on the side by a small gong. The sung words are mostly wishes for a bumper harvest of cocoons and a narration of the entire process of sericulture production; in time with them, the performer typically acts out a series of movements related to silkworm raising — sweeping the ground, pasting the windows, brushing off the newly hatched silkworm ants, picking mulberry leaves, feeding the silkworms, catching silkworms and changing their frames, mounting the frames, and gathering the cocoons. "Silkworm flowers" are the most auspicious thing in the hearts of the people of Deqing, which is why the Saocanhuadi performance is warmly welcomed by local silkworm farmers. Saocanhuadi is an important link in sericulture production customs. Each year, at the Cold Food and Qingming season, before "closing the silkworm room door" and beginning production, silkworm farmers invite performers to their homes to put on the show, so as to dispel all disaster and ill luck and pray for a bumper sericulture harvest. Saocanhuadi thus takes on a certain ritual character, becoming a symbolic reflection of sericulture production in Zhejiang, and is of considerable value for the study of folklore.
One gong, one dancer, one winter room
No stage is built: a painted woman and a small gong perform before the rearing room as work goes on.
Clearing the rearing room before it closes
The rite must fall before the room is closed and the worms taken up the hill, or a whole season is lost.
Eight rearing actions performed on stage
Sweeping, pasting, de-anting, picking leaves, feeding, changing trays, mounting and gathering cocoons, one by one.
The circuit from Spring Festival to Qingming
The performers move between Spring Festival, Lantern and Qingming, timing their rounds to the silkworm calendar.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Performers of Saocanhuadi touted their services with Deqing at the center; during the winter-silkworm season they would set out from this area for the various parts of Hujia. The countrysides around Huzhou and Jiaxing could take them in on either side of the winter silkworms' mounting their frames; whether a household had a venue or a spare silkworm room, the performer could tell on stepping through the door where they would perform and for how long. Performances were mostly held in a small hall or the open space before the silkworm room door, the audience consisting of the family's women and hired hands, no more than a few dozen people, one gong and one dancer making a whole performance. The traveling kit of this line was therefore extremely simple: one costumed woman and one small gong — lift the foot and sing, set the foot down and disperse, no stage needed.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Cansang Customs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The most precious thing about this custom is that it is a silkworm-raising operations manual still in use. Sweeping the ground, pasting windows, brushing the silkworm ants, picking mulberry, feeding the silkworms, changing frames, mounting the frames, gathering cocoons — for each movement sung and acted on stage, one task is carried out below; the order of the movements is the order of the silkworm work itself. The moment the small gong in the performer's hand sounds, the winter silkworm room gains voices and settled hearts, for inside and outside the room alike everyone is hoping for the same good harvest.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。