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The common people mostly wore clothes made of plant fibers such as hemp, ramie, kudzu vine, etc. (bast fibers) and, at the end of the period, cotton — but the most highly prized fabric at home and abroad was silk, which was used to appease neighboring states and to ensure the comfort and elegance of the elite. The feeding of silkworms — which devoured vast quantities of mulberry leaves — the cleaning of the habits of live silkworms, and the eventual transformation of their cocoons into silk was women's work, as was the weaving of simple cloth. The production of the damasks, brocades, and many kind of gauzes favored by the elite required complex weaves and looms and was performed by private and state workshops.
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