Part 1

1; Ancient Legends, Fairy Tales and Fables.

1; Mother of Sericulture

  One of the picture shows Leis tending her silkworms. Leis was said to be the wife of the Yellow Emperor, both semi-legendary figures who were thought to have lived in the remote past long before China's recorded history. Industrious and virtuous, she not only ran the imperial household but helped the Emperor administer the country. The most important merit for which she is remembered, however, is that she taught the people to raise silkworms and make silk fabric. 

    It was said that no silk fabrics were known before her time. Hemp was about the only material for cloth and the clothes made of it were both heavy and coarse, prickly to the skin.

    There was a divine worm at the time which lived on the mulberry tree and spun silk, yet no one ever thought of using the silk to make cloth.

    On one occasion the Yellow Emperor returned victorious from a battle, and all people and creatures gathered together for celebrations. The silkworm, too, presented its gift to the Emperor- the silk it spun. The Empress, to her great delight, found it light as the clouds and soft as flowing water. She then tried to weave it into material and made dresses with it. And how nice they looked and felt! 

    This gave her the idea of raising the worms herself. She started with the eggs and then the young ones, which she fed with tender mulberry leaves and tended with as great care as she would her own babies. The words grew up and spun a great deal of silvery silk, which she turned into woven material and then beautiful dresses. 

    The people swarmed to her to watch her work. She told them all the she knew about silk worm-breeding. Thus, sericulture as an art spread in the country. and silk became a specialty of China for many centuries.

    The invention of sericulture in the remote past, naturally, could only have been the doing of the multitudes through a long time of trials and experiment, and not the job of any one person. Leis in the above legend can only be taken as the symbol for the thousands of ancient Chinese women whose combined wisdom gave rise to an industry that beautifies human life.