{"id":467,"date":"2013-10-26T21:28:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-26T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/26\/vacation-destination-china-2\/"},"modified":"2013-10-26T21:28:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-26T21:28:00","slug":"vacation-destination-china-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/vacation-destination-china-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Vacation Destination – China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nVacation Destination \u2013 China<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWe have just returned from an Asian vacation, Beijing, China
\nwas our first stop.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhen one interested in textiles thinks of China, one thinks
\nof silk.  In the next three weeks we
\nwill look at the silk industry in China from its inception through its
\nprocessing and finally my discovery of a great, modern silk product.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ernest E. Leavitt Jr.
Arizona State Museum
University of Arizona<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe Silk Road, that magical journey, which brought spices,
\ngems and silk to Europe, was an arduous journey of over 5,000 miles from the
\nMediterranean to China.  The riches were
\nbeyond imagination and the greatest of these riches was silk.  The term \u201csilk road\u201d. Seidenstrasse, was
\ncoined by a German explorer named Baron Ferdinand von Richtofen in 1877.  Most maps depict the Silk Road as departing
\nfrom Xi\u2019an, China although most of China\u2019s silk was produced further
\nsouth.  Xi\u2019an was the capital of China
\nfrom 206 BCE to 25CE during the Han dynasty, when Chinese emperors first
\nexpressed an interest in the lands beyond their western frontiers and when Rome
\nwas equally interested in acquiring Chinese silks. Silk was imported to Rome
\nboth as dyed thread and woven cloth, which was often unwoven to be rewoven into
\nsheer fabrics that were more to Roman tastes.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe earliest excavated silk is a group of ribbons, threads
\nand woven fragments, all dyed red, dated to 3,000BCE.  Archeological remains reveal that already in Shang
\ntimes(1600-1050 BCE) Chinese were making fine silk damasks and elaborate silk
\nembroideries.  Silk fabric was used to
\npay taxes and salaries and to purchase peace in the coursed of diplomatic
\nnegotiations. Repeated invasions of Mongols from the north forced China to
\nbegin paying raiders quantities of silk, as much as 450,000 pieces of silk per
\nyear to keep them at bay.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe state was in control of the silk industry. Emperors set
\nup weaving and embroidery mills to satisfy the needs of their courts.  These institutions were managed by
\nappointees of the emperor, whose mission was to provide the raw materials, pay
\nthe craftsmen and supervise the distribution of the finished products. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIn legendary periods the thwarted love of the 2 deities- the
\nmale cowherd and the female weaver, who were allowed to meet 1 day a year, is a
\nreminder of the Chinese division of the day\u2019s work: men plow, women weave.  The Weaver is the alpha star of  Lyra constellation.  She weaves all year round by the side of the
\nMilky Way.  On the opposite side is the
\nBootes constellation, tilling his fields and harnessed to the chariot of  Ursa Major.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vacation Destination \u2013 China We have just returned from an Asian vacation, Beijing, China was our first stop. When one interested in textiles thinks of China, one thinks of silk.  In the next three weeks we will look at the silk industry in China from its inception through its processing and finally my discovery of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}