The silkworms and silk originated in China and shaped the clothing culture of the entire Greater China cultural circle. They are still the cultural symbols of China and even the East today. Therefore, the worship of "silkworms and mulberry" that arose from the demand for clothing is inevitable in China. There are also pictographs such as silkworms, mulberry, silk, and silk in the oracle bone inscriptions, as well as records of worshipping the silkworm god, indicating that the Yellow River Basin had a fairly developed silkworm breeding and silk weaving industry in the Shang Dynasty. It was the Western Zhou Dynasty that really brought the love for jade silkworms to the extreme. Silkworms are one of the most common jade themes in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Western Zhou Dynasty was the period when jade silkworms were most popular. Many mythological details about the worship of silkworms and mulberry silk may have been formally finalized and systematized in the Western Zhou Dynasty. "Zhou Li·Tianguan·Neizai" records that "in the middle of spring, the queen ordered the women of the inner and outer courts to start raising silkworms in the northern suburbs as sacrificial clothing." It can be seen that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the worship of the silkworm god had become a fixed ritual and was written into the guiding legal document "Zhou Li" at the time. Since then, almost every dynasty has written "the first silkworm ceremony" into the ritual.
This jade silkworm is made of white jade. The jade is fine and smooth, without impurities or cotton, and is a top-grade jade. The cross section of the jade silkworm is rectangular, with a pair of convex eyes on the head and a pair of holes behind the eyes for wearing. The silkworm body is slightly curved, and the silkworm tail is inward. The whole jade silkworm is polished and smooth, with some parts slightly stained. The whole body has a matte texture. In addition, this jade silkworm is 110mm (4.33") long, which is a very rare "giant" jade silkworm. It is very worth collecting.
