Nanchong Silk

Nanchong Silk

Nanchong Silk is a protected geographical indication product.

　　Nanchong is located in the northeast of the Sichuan Basin, along the middle reaches of the Jialing River. In ancient times, it was the land of the Silkworm Clan; during the Zhou Dynasty, it belonged to the Ba State; in the Qin Dynasty, it was part of Ba Commandery. During the Tang Dynasty, it was divided into Guo Prefecture, Peng Prefecture, and Lang Prefecture; in the Song Dynasty, it became Shunqing Prefecture and Baoning Prefecture. In the Republican era, it was designated as an administrative inspection zone, and in 1950, it became the Northern Sichuan Administrative Office and Nanchong Special District. It currently administers three districts—Shunqing, Gaoping, and Jialing—as well as five counties: Xichong, Nanbu, Yilong, Yingshan, and Peng’an, and has jurisdiction over Langzhong City. The total area is 12,500 square kilometers, with a population of 7.49 million. The terrain is mainly hilly, and it lies within a subtropical monsoon humid climate zone, enjoying abundant light, heat, and water resources, as well as naturally fertile soil. These conditions provide unique natural advantages for silk production. Since ancient times, Nanchong has had four traditional strengths: raw silk materials, processing capacity, technical expertise, and famous specialty products. It is one of China’s four major sericulture bases and one of the fifteen major silk production and export bases, enjoying a high reputation both domestically and internationally.

　　Historical Heritage

　　　　Nanchong silk originated in ancient times. The earliest local chronicle in China, Huayang Guo Zhi (written by Chang Qu of the Jin Dynasty), records the earliest history of Nanchong silk.

　　The first volume of Huayang Guo Zhi, titled Ba Zhi, contains the following account: “When Yu the Great convened the feudal lords at Kuaiji, ten thousand states presented jade and silk, including those from Ba and Shu.” Here, “silk” refers to cloth, and “Ba” refers to the Ba State. This means that when Yu the Great gathered the regional lords at Kuaiji, many states, including Ba and Shu, brought jade and silk. According to the Ciyuan dictionary: “Ba was an ancient state located in what is now Chongqing Municipality and the eastern part of Sichuan Province.” Present-day Nanchong was part of the Ba State, and Langzhong City within Nanchong’s jurisdiction was once the capital of the Ba State.

　　The Nanchong City Annals and the Nanchong Sericulture Annals provide more detailed accounts of the development of Nanchong silk. In the early Zhou Dynasty, areas such as Nanchong, Xichong, Nanbu, and Langzhong already offered mulberry trees, silkworms, hemp, and ramie as tribute to the Zhou royal court.

　　During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the silk industry became a major pillar of Nanchong’s social economy. Starting from the reign of Emperor Zhang of Han, cloth and silk were used as a form of land tax rent, marking the beginning of using silk as agricultural tax across dynasties. Exquisite Ming Dynasty Nanchong silk

　　In the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty, the equal-field system was implemented in Nanchong’s counties, allocating each person an additional 20 mu of permanent field as mulberry land, with 50 mulberry trees planted per unit. During the silk-raising season, women were all engaged in silkworm breeding. This type of mulberry land was essentially the prototype of family mulberry gardens and played a positive role in the stable development of sericulture.

　　The 650-year period spanning the Tang and Song Dynasties marked the golden age in the history of Nanchong silk. The famous lines by Du Fu, “Mulberry and hemp thrive under rain and dew, while swallows and sparrows grow up together,” and by Jia Dao, “In the silkworm month, silk is spun along the road; during farming time, stone rollers turn in the village,” vividly depict the scenes of Nanchong’s sericulture at the time. By the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty, Nanchong had become an important national producer of silk gauze and satin. Both the output and quality of Nanchong silk ranked first in the country, with over ten types of products—including silk, satin, pongee, damask, and raw silk—designated as regular tributes to the imperial court. It was praised as “superior in quality to Suzhou and Hangzhou, and enjoying the splendor of heavenly treasures.” From Chang’an, Nanchong silk was exported to Japan, gaining fame both in China and abroad.