Study Chinese with Keats School: 丝sī

The character “丝” is a pictographic character, it looks like the appearance of two strands of silk entangled together. during China’s Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD), Emperor Wu sent the emissary Zhang Qian on several missions to the Western Regions to unite the Da Yuezhi and form a joint resistance against the northern Xiongnu people. Zhang Qian brought Han Dynasty silk to the Western Regions. The silk became extremely popular and later, businessmen sold silk along Zhang’s route. This trade route traversed by Zhang Qian thus became known as the Silk Road.

Long ago, the Chinese people began to plant mulberry trees and raise silkworms. One month after silkworms hatch out of their eggs, they wrap themselves in a cocoon of silk tread. After boiling in hot water, people find the end of the silk thread and extract the silk. The silk tread can be up to 1,000 meters long. Silk tread can be used to make silk cloth, various kinds of silk fabrics and beautiful silk clothes. When used as a semantic component in other characters, “丝” is written as “纟”. These characters are often related to silk thread or silk cord. Also, many Chinese characters denote colors contain the component “纟”.