During the Song Dynasty, with the advancement of sericulture technology, Chinese silk had a short period of glory. Not only has the variety of silk patterns and colors increased significantly, especially three distinctive new varieties of silk brocade, silk and gold-decorated fabrics have appeared, and a great breakthrough has been made in the summary and promotion of sericulture production technology.
The silk production in the Northern Song Dynasty took the Yellow River Basin, the Jiangnan region and the Sichuan region as the important production areas. The production center of the middle and late period has shifted to the Jiangnan region, but the north still maintains an advantage in the production of high-end silk fabrics. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the silk production areas were basically concentrated in the Yangtze River Basin, and the silk production in the south of the Yangtze River had an absolute advantage. Zhejiang has become a veritable "Silk House". Liao began to develop sericulture and silk production after capturing the sixteen states of Yanyun. Although the silk industry in the Jin Dynasty ruled area was destroyed, it also maintained a certain scale.
The official silk production workshops of the Song Dynasty were of considerable scale. The Lingjin Institute, the Dyeing Institute, the Wensi Institute and the Wenxiu Institute were set up under the supervision of the Shaofu Supervisor in the capital. At the same time, government-run weaving institutions were also set up in important silk producing areas. In Tokyo’s Lingjin Institute, there were more than 400 looms in the Shinsong period, and the annual output of Runzhou weaving and Luowu was 10,000 horses. Wuzhou, the center of the emerging silk weaving industry, was known as the "clothing world". In the Taihu Lake Basin, "the cocoon is standing on the mountain, and the sound of the wagon is heard". The folk silk weaving industry in the Song Dynasty was very developed. In addition to being a traditional handicraft industry in rural areas, a large number of silk weaving workshops emerged in cities, and the power of private machine operators continued to grow. In terms of foreign trade, due to the interruption of the Silk Road on the land, the maritime silk trade has made considerable progress. China's raw silk and silk are exported to all parts of the world through the Maritime Silk Road.
