By Ina Asim
The production of silk was organized into imperial and private silk factories. Their
various sectors were managed by officials assigned to the factories, who in their turn
were supervised by an imperial silk commissioner.
The historical development of the organization of the factories, the official control of rate
of work and the quality, and the distribution of weaving commissions among imperial and
private factories in the main production centres are major topics which are
investigated.
The first step in the long process of silk production was the purchasing of the raw silk.
Its quality had to meet stringent requirements and therefore it was examined by experts.
Afterwards the material had to be reeled, dyed, and transported to the workshops with the
looms, all processes which had to be carried out by skilled artisans and supervised by
knowledgeable officials.
The important silk weaving centres then as now were concentrated in the cities of
Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzou in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Private and imperial
factories operated the looms which were constructed and equipped according to the
technical requirements of the different fabrics and patterns that were to be woven. The
research project is attempting to find answers to some of the questions which arose in the
research into the organizations and modes of production.
Decline and reformation
The first step in the project was to collect and select the sources and texts about silk
production in the three production centres, after which the texts were translated in
chronological order. Generally speaking it can be said that during the Ming Dynasty
imperial factories began to show signs of a decline: officials quotas were not met and the
increasing demand for silk by the imperial court as well as higher standards of quality
meant that more work had to be assigned to private factories. The output there was
controlled by officials in order to maintain the quality as was the case with the products
of the imperial workshops. The sources reveal some interesting aspects of power abuse by
eunuchs who were dismissed from the administration of the imperial factories, who did
not hesitate to take revenge by hiring weavers who joined forces with the eunuchs when
they were forced to relinquish their posts.
The early decades of the Qing Dynasty saw a massive reformation of the administration
of the silk production. Though some elements of Ming administration were initially kept,
a new organizational system of silk production and its management eventually evolved.
The analysis of Qing documents shows the ratio between the demand for silk for official
use and the costs of production and transport. The records of the amount of silk needed
for use in rituals, and the persons who were entitled to receive silk gowns on the occasion
of celebrations are but one interesting aspect which will be described. The system of
distribution of commissions between those weavers who were permanently engaged and
those who were hired seasonally was one method that was regularly used in the
manufacture of silk.
Texts will be compared to check information about the number of looms and artisans who
worked in certain periods in the Jiangnan weaving centres. Other problems into which the
project will delve are such questions as how accounts for the commissions distributed to
different factories were settled. What were the working and living conditions of the
weavers like? What do we know about their assistants and their temporary workers? What
constituted the differences in organizations between the imperial and private factories and
how did the system of quality control work?
An overview of the silk market in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and terminological
indexes are planned in the publications of the results.
The project is headed by Prof. Dietr Kuhn and will be completed in 1996. Members of
the research groups are Dr Helga Stahl, Elke Piontek-Ma, MA, and Dagmar
Schäfer, MA.
The result will be published as monographs in the Würzburger Sinologische
Schriften series.
Institut for Sinology
University of Würzburg
Am Hubland
D-97074 Würzburg
Germany
Tel: +49-931-8885571
Fax: +49-931-8884617
Email: Sino001@rzbox.uni-wuerzburg.de
Dr Ina Asim is currently investigating the socio-economic developments in Nanjing during the 16th and 17th centuries, within the framework of the Silk Factories project.
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