The Emperor’s Mulberry Silk Robe

The Emperor’s Mulberry Silk Robe

Silk is not only comfortable to wear, but also easy to dye and weave patterns and patterns, so it is deeply loved by people all over the world. The Dragon robes made of mulberry silk are full of ritual and cultural precipitation. How are they made?

Long ago in China, a caterpillar spun a cocoon on a mulberry tree. Little did it dream that one day, its house would adorn an emperor.

Legend has it that Leizu, the wife of China’s Yellow Emperor, was sipping tea under a mulberry tree one day when….PLOP! A white cocoon landed in her cup. As Leizu fished it out, it unraveled into a soft, shimmering cloth. It was strong, smooth, and easy to dye. It was mulberry silk—cloth fit for a king.

Spinner’s Secret

The Chinese learned to make silk at least 5000 years ago. But they kept the process a secret. People from other countries had to trade for silk fabric. Not until 300 CE did the secret of the silkworm finally get out.

Silkworms are the larvae of bombyx more moths. The caterpillars eat only mulberry leaves. When they get big, they spin two threads of silk from the sides of their body. A gummy substance called sericin makes the threads stick together. The silkworm wraps these threads around itself to form a cocoon.

To make silk, workers collect the cocoons. Some are set aside to hatch into moths, to make more silkworms. The rest of the cocoons are boiled to kill the larvae inside. Then workers unwind the silk, very carefully. The strand from one cocoon can be 1000 feet （300m）long!

Spinners combine 8 to 12 strands to make a silk thread. The thread is washed and dyed. Then it is woven into cloth. It takes 3000 cocoons to make a single yard of fabric, so silk was very expensive. Over time, it became the favorite cloth of everyone who could afford it. People use mulberry silk to make clothes, bedding, etc. For example, mulberry silk duvet is the most popular. See the top 10 benefits of silk comforter.

A New Robe for the Emperor

Sometime around 1760, the Emperor of China wanted a new robe—a yellow one. His wardrobe master sent a message to the Imperial Weaving and Dyeing Office. They were in charge of making robes.

      A master artist got to work. He drew designs for wavy borders, dragons, clouds, and 12 tiny symbols. These drawings would be used as patterns for the weavers and embroiderers to follow. It took weeks to design the pattern.

     Meanwhile, dyers colored the silk threads. They used buds from the pagoda tree to create a bright yellow dye. Only the emperor was allowed to wear the shade. His heir wore apricot yellow and his other sons wore golden yellow. Other nobles wore brown, blue, or tan.

     Now it was time to weave the cloth. The emperor owned three big silk-weaving workshops. They made clothes and shoes for courtiers. They also made curtains, chair covers, sheets, and hangings to decorate the palace, add silk for the emperor to give as gifts.

     Once they had made everything the court needed, the workshops could make other items to sell. Each workshop had hundreds of looms and thousands of workers. It took them many months to weave a bolt of cloth fit for the emperor.

Weaving Pictures

      The weavers followed drawings from the royal artists to create a colorful tapestry. Pictures were woven right into the cloth. The emperor’s robe often included 12 small symbols: the sun, moon, three stars, a mountain, dragons, a phoenix, bats, an ax, two jars, seaweed, fire, and millet grains. These symbolized his rule over the universe. Only the emperor’s robe could have all 12. The stripes at the bottom of the robe showed water, with earth rising above.

      To make the colorful pictures, weavers used a method called kesi or “carved silk.” Instead of taking the threads all the way across, the weaver worked back and forth in small areas.

      So for a green leaf, the green thread went back and forth just where the leaf was. In some places, weavers added peacock feathers or gold thread to make the fabric shine.

A Stitch in Time

Finally, the cloth was sent to expert embroiderers. They traced dragon patterns onto the cloth and hand-stitched the dragons on. The thread for these dragons was silk wound with real gold. The embroiderers sat around large frames so the fabric would not get wrinkled.

      A robe with embroidery all over might need several hundred embroiderers. It probably took them a few months to finish the work for the yellow dragon robe.

      Finally, the cuffs were trimmed with gold and black fabric. The robe was lined with light yellow silk. At last, more than two years after a tiny silkworm spun its cocoon, the emperor’s new robe was ready. How magnificent it looked!