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Circa 2700 B.C.
According to Chinese legend, the history of silk begins about 5,000 years ago in
the garden of Emperor Huang-Ti. The emperor ordered his wife Hsi-Ling-Shi to
investigate what was eating the leaves on his mulberry trees.
She found white worms that spin shiny cocoons. She accidentally dropped one of
these cocoons into her hot tea—or so goes the story—and a delicate filament
separated itself. She drew it out, unwinding a long single strand.
Hsi-Ling-Shi had discovered silk.
She persuaded the emperor to give her a grove of mulberry trees where she could
grow thousands of worms that spin these beautiful cocoons. Hsi-Ling-Shi is also
credited in Chinese lore with inventing the silk reel, which turns the silk
filament into thread.
No one knows if this is truly the history of silk, but the record is clear that
silk was first used in China.
The Chinese closely guarded how silk was made. Death was the penalty promised to
anyone who disclosed the secret to the rest of the world. As a result, for
about 3000 years, only the Chinese knew how to make silk.
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