| Suzhou has a long history of reeling silk from mulberry,and the Taihu Lake basin in which it is located is an important silk production base in China.After the Opium War,the silk industry in Suzhou flourished,stimulated by international market demand.However,in the late Qing Dynasty,with the development of Western capitalist industrial technology,it became difficult for Suzhou’s clay silk to meet the demands of mechanised production,especially after the rise of the sericulture industry in neighbouring Japan,and the market for raw silk in China contracted sharply.The traditional sericulture technology of the Suzhou region remained stagnant for a long time,and its dominance had largely disappeared by the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic.In the 1930 s,when the silkworm industry in southern Suzhou was on the verge of bankruptcy,the need to improve sericulture technology in the region became urgent.Based on this,this thesis uses historical documentation,empirical analysis and comparative analysis to demonstrate the historical background and reasons for the improvements,and microscopically examines the main aspects of sericulture technology improvement in Suzhou and the results achieved.From the perspective of the main body of sericulture technology improvement,the improvement of sericulture technology in the Suzhou region of the Republic of China began with the establishment of the Provincial Girls’ Sericulture School in 1912 in Suzhou’s Shushuguan district,and after the establishment of the Nanjing National Government,administrative forces began to intervene in the process of sericulture improvement.During this period,sericulture cooperatives were established,people from all walks of life participated enthusiastically,and sericulturists actively cooperated.In terms of the technical improvement of the sericulture industry,it was mainly reflected in mulberry production technology,breeding and sericulture technology and silk cocoon production technology.The improvement of the mulberry tree is the latest in the process of improvement,the slowest progress;breeding and sericulture technology is the most attention in the process of improvement,the most outstanding results achieved;and the improvement of silk cocoon technology is the most reflective of the cultural heritage of Suzhou silk,but also the introduction of the most machinery and equipment,the most successful modernisation of the transformation of the link.In terms of the effectiveness of sericulture technology improvement,throughout the improvement process,the Provincial Women’s Sericulture School and its staff played an important role in the early improvement work and achieved outstanding results,but limited by financial and technical support,this improvement was more experimental in nature,and the scope of promotion was often concentrated in areas with a long history of sericulture,such as Wu County and Wujiang.Subsequently,the Republican government gave a certain degree of policy,financial and technical support to the improvement of sericulture,and the sericulture unification policy also pushed the technical improvement of sericulture to a climax,but in the end,under the influence of capitalist economic oppression and continuous war,the technical improvement came to a standstill,and the technical improvement of sericulture failed to achieve the desired effect.The improvement of sericulture technology in the Suzhou region of the Republic of China was a positive and useful attempt to improve agricultural technology in modern history.The importance and application of agricultural technology,the cultivation and introduction of rural human resources,and the active development of local industries in the process of improvement have valuable implications for the promotion of rural industrial revitalisation and the modernisation of agriculture in the present day. |
