A * y . aoe : F ij ay one 5 1 < BE ie e 0 “i He PPS} * ODDESS OF CHINA y ,GERRIEN. ve .LACOUPBRIE, /, % dais ; é me $ we a a dbvst le, SILK GODDESS OF CHINA Paty HER LEGEND. BY oe TERRIEN ve LACOUPERIE, Doct. of Phil., and of Lett., hon. caus. Lovan.; Laur, of the Institut de France (Acad. Inscript. et Belles Lettres.) Professor of Indo-Chinese Philology (formerly of University College, London) ; Coll. Musée Guimet, Paris; M. coune. Philological Society ; M. hon. Royal Asiatic Society, London; M. hon. Société Orientale, Louvain ; M. C. Peking Oriental Society; M. C. Academie de Stanislas, Nancy ; M. C. Academie des Sciences, Marseille; M. C. Societé d’Archéologie, Bordeaux; M. Societé de Linguistique, Paris; Author of The Oldest Book of the Chinese, 1882; Beginnings of writing around Tibet, 188—; The Languages of China before the Chinese, 1887; Origin of the Chinese Civilisation from Western Sowrces, 1889; Historical Description of Ancient Chinese Money, 1890; Director of The Babylonian and Oviental Record, &c. LONDON: DAVID NUTT, 270, STRAND. LUZAC & CO., 46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C. 1891. THE SILK GODDESS OF CHINA AND HER LEGEND. SUMMARY. Inrropuctory. §1. Present worship of Si-ling she.—2. Is no proof of its genuineness. I, Ancient GroGRAPHY oF SERICULTURE.— §3. Silk industry indigenous in China.—4. Attributed to Si-ling she Lui-tsu yuen-feii5. Silk of Shan-tung in the Shu king.—6. Silk mentioned in the Yh king.—7. The Tribute of Yii, the oldest des- cription of China.—8. Products of four provinces. —9, Products of five provinces.—10. Candid view to be taken of these statements.—11. Silk and cloth from Tsiu-tchou and Yang-tchou.—12. Stuff and silk from King-tchou and Yu-tchou.—13. Four instances only of silk in the . Eastern provinces.—14. West and Central China had no silk.—10. Shan-si, the Chinese focus had silk on the East.—16. Late allusion in the Shi-king as to S. Shensi.—17. Poetical description of sericul- ture,—18. It had been introduced from the East.—19. It developed there under the Mongols and disappeared.—20. The Tchou ii mentions silk only in Honan and N. Shansi.—21. The sericulture of Sze- tchuen is not primitive. IJ. Catenparic Ruues, Rites anp Customs. §22. Entries about silkworms in the Brief Calendar of the Hia dynasty.— 23. In the Ritual of the Tchou dynasty (Tchow l/).—24. 1n the Yueh ling of the Li ki, with reference to a sacrifice to the ancient Em- perors.—25. On the Royal culture of silkworms.—26. The Princesses like the Queen must attend to silkworms.—27. Silkworms and silk in the Shi king.—28. No souvenir of their discovery. OF CHINA. 3 III, Various TUTELARY Spikits AND GODDESSES OF SILK, § 29. Discovery of silk not mentioned in the Hi-tze nor in the Shan hai king.—30. Rationalised tableau of savage life in the Zi ki.—31. Sa- crifice to the Sten Ts’an or First silkworms mentioned in a spurious passage of the same work.—82. Sacrifice for silkworms to the Land deity, IlIrd cent. a.D.—38. Sacrifice by the Ts’in Empress in the [Vth cent. to san shen i.e. the Tutelary Genius of silkworms.— 34. Official ceremony in 460 a.p.—35. Vague statement of the T’ung Kien Kang Muh.—36. Nothing known by tradition as toa real in- ventor.—37. Tchou she, wife of Wu-ti, 141 B.c., worshipped in the Vth century.—38. Yuen yii and Ya she worshipped in the XIth cent. —39. They belong probably to the IInd cent. a.p.---40. No ancient traces of the goddess Si-ling she Lui tsu. TV. Formation oF THE LEGEND oF THE GoppEssSi-LING sHE Lut Tsu. § 41. Lui tsu, a bare name in the She k?.—42. Its analysis developed into a mythological statement.—43. Given as an historical fact in the XIth century.—44. Quite unknown in earlier times. —45. Shen-nung as inventor of silk.—46. Lui-tsu, a daughter of the Si-ling clan.— 47. Interest at identifying the Si-lmg.—48. Described in the Hr-ya,— 49. They were in Kan-suh. Concxuston. §50. Lui tsu is a case of mythography, and sericulture was a pre-Chinese industry. INTRODUCTORY. 1. In the grounds of the Imperial Palace! at Peking is an altar forty feet in circuit and four feet in height, surrounded by a wall? and also a temple called the ts’en-tsan-tao, ‘The early silk worms’ altar in the vicinity of which a plantation of mulberry trees and a cocoonery are maintained. It is dedicated to Yuenfe’ otherwise First wife in her quality of discoverer of the silkworms,? and annually in April, the Em- press worships and sacrifices to her.t The same goddess has several important temples in Tchehkiang, one of the provinces where the silk in- dustry flourishes, but I have no evidence to adduce as to her probable worship elsewhere. As we shall see further on, Yuen-fec is said to be the name of Si-ling-she, first wife of Huang-ti the leader of the Bak families who civilised China. 2. However deeply rooted this belief may be in the mind of the Chinese people, it cannot necessarily be looked upon as a proof of historical veracity; and some more proofs are required for it being accepted as a fact that the first leader of the Chinese and his wife, on the North-west cf China proper, some twenty-three centuries before our era, had taught the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom, the rearing of silkworms and the silk industry. Is there any truth in the legend, and if not what is the origin of the belief ? 4 ley THE SILK GODDESS Notrs—— 1) North of the bridge leading to the Atung hwa tao island. 2) Thepresent enclosure was put up under Yung tching in 1742, but its buildings, says W. Williams, II, 23, are now much dilapidated. 3) W. Williams, Mddle Kingdom, R. Kd., vol. I, p. 71; II, 38. 4) J, H. Gray, China, vol. II, p. 220. On a fortunate day in the spring of each year, her state worship is duly solemnized by the Man- ‘darins.---In the interesting description of Peking by the Rev. Joseph Edkins, printed in A. Williamson: Journeys in North China, 1870, vol. II, we find the following statements : ‘‘On the North side (of the jake) is a hill on an island called Avwng hwu tao, capped by a white pagoda or dagoba. Here there is an altar on the hill side to the originator of silk manufactures and to the presiding genius of the silk- worm ; the altar wall is 1600 feet round and the altar itself forty feet in circuit, and four feet high. Round it are mulberry trees, and near it a tank for washing the worms. The Empress comes here annually tu feed the silkworms, which are kept in a house suitable for the pur- pose ; she thus;sets an example of industry to the working women of the empire.” Cf. p. 335.—‘‘ On a fortunate day of the ninth month, the empress, either personally or by proxy, accompanied by a train of princesses and honourable ladies, repairs to the altar sacred to the dis- eoverer of silkworms. After sacrificing, the empress with golden, and the princesses with silver implements, collect the mulberry leaves to feed the imperial silkworms. They, then, wind off some cocoons of silk, and so end the ceremony. This very ancient festival is considered as the counterpart of the agriculture one, observed by the emperor in the spring.” M. Murrow. Hongkong Chronicle and Directory for 1865, in J. H. Gray, China, vol. IL, p. 220. Tt 3. Silk industry is inligenous in China as the silkworm itself. It has not been brought into the country by its ancient civilisers the Bak tribes, neither by any of the other races, like the Jungs, who also immigrated into China in remote times. We cannot be surprised therefore if the Chinese traditions about the silkworm rearing and the silk industry are by far the oldest and hitherto the only ancient ones on the subject. 4, Legend attributes the art of winding the silkworms’ cocoons to the time of the first leader of the Pre-Chinese Bak tribes, while they were established as yet on the North-west borders of present China proper. This leader commonly known as Hwang-ti, but whose complete name was Nakhunte® married four wives;? the first of them-from the clan of Si- ling,’ andnamed 4p Lui-tsu,%is the one who is said to have begun to rear silkworms. She has been deified and she is still worshipped for that reason at the (4) Séen-tsan or ancient silkworms’ altar.19 She is also called 35 4B, Ywen-fe7 or first wife! We shall examine these various — OF CHINA. 5 appellatives further on (§§40-45), so far as they cenfirm or weaken the veracity of the legend, and we shall see that it is nothing more than an instance of mythology caused by the ideographism of the written charac- ters. 5. The first reference to silk or better silk-cloth in historical documents is that which occurs in the second chapter of the Book of History*?, the Canon of Shun, where the Chinese ruler is said to have made a tour of inspection among the fiefs eastward as far as the mountain of Taz, otherwise the Zaz shan in Shantung W., the most famous of the sacred hills of China. Shun made there a certain number of regulations, in- cluding one concerning the san pehorthreesortsofsilks. The text there is apparently corrupted and contains a difficulty which has not been cleared off either by the natiye commentators or the Sinologists who have translated it. -But this does not affect the san peh, as they are mentioned at the same time as the five classes of rites to be observed, the five orders of gem-tokens, and the other articles which prepared the way to the princes for their audience from the Chinese ruler, The oldest sons of chiefs were bound to hold silk of a deep red, the sons of the three highest officers silks of a reddish black, and the chieftains of small attached terri- tories yellow silks. There is perhaps in this explanation much of later rites, although a distinction of some sort was then and there established for three sorts of plain silk cloth as articles of introduction, and the un- paralleled stableness of the rites and institutions of the Kingdom Be- neath-Heaven allows the explanation of many ancient manners and customs by the peculiarities of the later ones. An interesting character- istic of the foregoing statement of the Shu King is that the regulation concerning the three classes of silk’s presents was made when the Chinese ruler went. to the Hast of his dominion, in the modern province of Shantung which has always been known for its silk industry, as we shall see further on, 6. An older reference to peh or plain silk, if no substitution of character has been made injthe text since antiquity, would be that which occurs in the Book of Changes, Chapter XXII}, concerning the symbol Pz aud Fen, where it is spoken of shuh peh, bundle of silk cloth, 7. The ¥% Kung, or Tribute of Yii, the oldest geographical document of Chinese literature, describes the chief products of the country accord- ing to its divisions under and outside the Chinese rule. This distinction which has not as yet received the attention it deserves is somewhat con- 6 THE SILK GODDESS cealed from view, and the nine tchow are all enumerated, as if to convey the idea that every one in its entirety was under the Chinese dominion. The sole difference consists in the-use of one or the other of two words when speaking of the products of the land, Wwand Kung!4. The first means: revenue, contribution of revenue, assess; while the second,AK ung, is to present as tribute to a superior, to offer up; showing therefore that the products which are wz are those of Chinese or others, subjects to the dominion of the son of Heaven, while the products which are Kung come from foreigners and non-subjects and may or may not be brought according to treaties, homage, conveni- ence or for trade purposes. , The Yu Kung, once noticed this distinction, is most instructive about the real extension, limited at that time, of the dominion of the Chinese, and it shows which products and industry were then in the hands a the native population, and those of the Chinese themselves. 8. In the province of Avétchou, i.e. roughly the present Shansi, and the real seat of the Chinese no special products or industries are spoken of. In Yentchou, to the east of the preceding, a part of Tchihli W. and C., the offerings consisted of lacquer, silk and ornamented stuffs!5 in round bamboo baskets. In Zs‘ingtehou, roughly Shantung, salt and a fine grass cloth were presented from the sea-shore, silk'® and hemp from the valleys of the Tai, and baskets of silk of wild-silkworms!? from the Lai tribes. | In Tstutchou, i.e. Shantung 8., and Kiangsu}, the aboriginal tribes of the Hwai brought oyster fearls and fish, and baskets of reddish black and undyed fine fabrics!®. 9. In Yangtchou, i.e. the region around and south of the mouths of Yangtze, the articles presented were various and included fabrics and cauries?°. In Kingtchou, W. of preceding, i.e. Hupeh and the adjoining South, the offerings included baskets of reddish black and crimson stuffs??, with trings of irregular pearls*?. In Yutchou, corresponding to Honan, baskets?% filled with fine wes and fine floss-silk, were presented*4. In Liangtchou, which corresponded to the W. of Honan and Hupeh with the North of Szetchuen, there’were no offers of silk, although other products were numerous”>, The same thing may be said of the last province, Yungtchou, com- OF CHINA. a prising Shensi and the adjoining west which produced no silk, nor other products worth mentioning, with the exception of several sorts of precious stones ; offers of hair-cloth and skins were made, but only by the foreign tribes of the mountainous west?®, 10. The present résumé is an unsophisticated account of the textile industry in the parts of China proper known to the authors of the Yii- Kung. It is by far less glowing a description than some published translations would lead their readers to suppose. The cause of this difference is not far to seek. We have confined ourselves to the bare statements of facts, without indulging into inferences which are not sup- ported by positive words to that effect. Although the terseness and vagueness of the Chinese texts leave much to the reader’s mind to infer, we are of opinion that it is a great error to develope the meaning of the characters beyond their natural and commonly received acceptation. We must not follow the Chinese commentators in their erroneous system of considering and interpreting all the ancient statements in a roseate and glowing view. In Yentchou, for instance, the offers consisted of lacquer, se or silk and tchehwen or woven ornaments. This is the literal translation, but native commentators, in their constant endeavours to beautify and make the utmost of all that concerns the deeds of their ancients, have suggested that these words implied fabrics of the highest quality as handiwork and material2?. 11. In Tsiu-tchou we have noticed offers by the native tribes of the Hwai of fine fabrics reddish black and undyed. The terms are hiuen sien kao, meaning litteraliy : reddish black?$ fine fabrics and raw. Scen is properly small, fine like silken fibres?®, and it applies also to a cloth wove with a black warp?°, and white woof*!. Now commentators of the Shu King have improved upon that and we find these three words magnified into black silks and chequered sarcenets in Medhurst’s and by: deep azure silks, and other silken fabrics, chequered and white in Legge’s translation?$. In Yang-tchou, the region bordering the maritime provinces of the south east, the text says that the offers consisted in teheh pez, fabrics and cauries, which are magnified into: woven ornamented silks in Legge’s translation*4, and more soberly rendered by : weaving cotton in Medhurst’s®. 12. Offers were made from King-tca wu in hiuen hiun or reddish black and crimson stufis. The two Chinese symbols mean simply deep- azure and bright-red-three-times-dyed**, and there is no statement as to 8 THE SILK GODDESS what application these colours had received. Commentaturs of course made it to be silk and accordingly we hear of reddish-black and purple silken fabrics’ and of ‘black and red silk ’ in Legge’s and Medhurst’s renderings®”, 7 From Yu tchvu, offers were made in Sten Kw’ang or fine-fabrics and fine-floss-silk. The proper meaning of sien has previously been ascertained, and as to that of kw’ang there is a sufficient amount of proofs independent of this very case to justify the foregoing rendering*®®. In Medhurst’s translation the two words become :.different coloured floss silk and silky cotton, and in Legge’s: fine silkenfabrics and fine floss silk*®. 13. This critical survey shows how the four genuine statements con- cerning production of silk referred to in the Yu AKwng, have been magni- fied into nine by uncritical, if patriotic, commentators whom several European scholars have blindly followed. A criticism of the original Chinese texts according to western method is the first thing to be done by Sinologists before trusting statements of native scholars of the Middle Kingdom. 14. Silk culture was then restricted to a much more limited area than is commonly believed, and flourished only in the Hast. The present provinces of Shensi, Szetchuen, Hupeh, &c. were not sill-producing regions, although in the last-named province the weaving industry was re-known, and may have employed silk in the manufacture of its famoUs cloth, reddish-black and crimson, while in the two first-named provinces woollen cloth was the object of a regular industry. Tchihli, Shantung, and Honan were producing silk. In the two first provinces silk was an indigenous product, especially in the east of Shantung, where it was in the hands of the aboriginal population. 15. It is worth noticing that Shansi province does not appear in the preceding list, as producing or non-producing-silk. The negative evidence. however, is no proof, as the whole province was then the real seat of the Chinese, and no list whatever of products is given there- from, perhaps because they were all assessed or wu goods. We do not feel justified to infer from that silence that the Chinese of the region were uo silk culturists. The importance they attached to silk vouches of their sure efforts at introducing silkworms in Shansi should they not have found some therein. In the same document we have just examined, there is a positive statement to that effect with reference to a part of Yentchow (Tchihli W. and C.): “the mulberry ground having been supplied with # OF CHINA. / 9 silkworms, the people descended from the hills and dwelt in the plains.”4° 16. The Book of Poetry might be referred to asa proof that silk culture was in olden times a regular oecupationin the south of Shensi, in the P’in and K’i countries, the seats of the Tchou tribes for some fiye hundred years previously to the establishment of their dynasty eastwards at Hao- King, later Si-ngan, and at Loh-yang. The celebrated Duke of Tchou wrote a long ode describing the ancient manners and ways of his country- men.*! The tale is supposed to be told by an aged yeoman, but no allusion is made to the date nor to the name of the region of the scene. But as the spokesman alludes to the Fire-star or Heart of Scorpio passing the meridian in the seventh month, an astronomical fact which was correct in the twelfth century, while it was not so 600 years previously, and as the numeric order of the months quoted therein is yet that of the Hia dynasty, if follows that the descriptions in the Ode refer to the condition and occupations of the Tchou people during the age immediately preceding the foundation of their dynasty. The verses concerning the silk-culture are interesting to read:— With the spring days the warmth begins And the oriole utters its song, The young women take their deep baskets, And go along the small paths Looking for the tender (leaves of the) mulberry trees. A e e ° e ° é 9 In the silkworm month they strip the mulberry branches of their leaves, And take their axes and hatchets, To lop off those that are distant and high; Only stripping the young trees cf their leaves. In the seventh month the shrike is heard. In the eighth month, they begin their spinning; They make dark*? fabrics and yellow. Our red manufacture is very brilliant, It is for the lower robes of our young princes. 18. The song of the Oriole gave notice of the time to take the silk- worms in hand, and the note of the shrike was the signal to set about spinning. The expression used here for that operation, ts¢h,(8004) is that specially appropriate to the twisting of hemp. The commentators explain the following verse as referring to the dyeing operations on both the woven silk and the cloth**. But as silk work was an occupation more noble, so to say, than hemp and dolichos work, it was to be expected from the commentators that they should impress upon their readers that silk was alluded to in the passage in question. |§ Anyhow, in face:of proof to the contrary derived previously from the Yu-kung, it cannot be inferred from these verses that silk culture was indigenous in Shensi, and known there 10 THE SILK GODDESS in the most ancient times, as it may have been and most probably was introduced thesein from the eastern provinces by the Chinese as they did in Shansi. -19. Marco-Polo (1265-1289) mentions repeatedly abundance of silk in Shansi and Shensi, whereas now there is next to no silk grown in these districts.44 In the highly interesting Reports on Silk drawn by the officials of the Chinese Imperial customs, hardly any reference is made to silk of these provinces. The change of climate which has been spoken of Shensi in and southern Shansi by geologists*® may have caused this re- sult. A commercial change may have come to the same. Theclimate of the two aforesaid provinces apparently, was not at any time favourable to the spread of silk worms unless specially reared and this may be the simple explanation of the divergence in the statements. 20. The Ritual of the Tchou dynasty has a special book, the 33rd, concerning the officers in charge of the different regions of the dominion, and in which the various products of the nine-provinces are | enumerated. It is the counter part at a later date of the statements on the same subject which we have found in the Yi Kung. The information therein confirms the facts elicited, from our unsophisticated resumé of the older document, on the limited area of silk culture in ancient times. Of the nine provinces, two only were producing the precious textile. Yu-t chou corresponding to the same province than that of the same name in the Yu Kung i.e. roughly to Honan, continued to produce silk and also lacquer, and hemp. with the addition of bamboo. Ping tchouté corresponding to N. Shansi and previously included in Av tchow pro- duced linen and silk4?. And this is all#’. The culture of silk in the hands of the native tribes mentioned in the Yu Kung are out of reck- oning in that work. 21. The Szetchuen province has been for long a silk producing land as shown by the history of the country‘? written about the Christian era by Yang-Hiung the philologist®® who was himself a native from there. One of the early kings is called the silk-worms rearer®! and there- fore might be looked upon as having introduced them in his country. He had easily obtained some from the Chinese. This king seems to have lived some ;five hundred years before the Christian era. The geography of the Han period®? mentions a Z’san ling or Silkworm’s range in the Shuh Kiun. which shows that silk culture had became prosperous. The silence of the Ya kung showing the absence of silk pro- ducts in the Liang tchou combined with the information to be derived OF CHINA. Vil from the statements just quoted, must bé taken together as a precise indication that sericulture was not practiced in that part of China proper during the earliest period. | Therefore it was special only to the eastern part of the country. Norrs— 5) Cf. Tso chuen Siang Kung, year xiv, 1. and The Languages of China before the Chinese, par. 28 and 89. 6) On this name cf. my special paper: Onomastic similarity of Nakhunte of Susiana and Nakhunte of China: B & O,R. IV. pp. 256-264. 7) Hwang P’u-mi, 7% wang she ki,—Taiping yii lan, kiv.135, fol.7 verso. Hwang-ti had twenty five children by his four wives. In the Persian legends Kaiomars, the first king, had also twenty five children, according to the Bundehesh. 8) Si-ling, (9852-11803) ic. West Hills. The Nos. in brackets are throughout those of the Chinese characters as arranged in the old Dictionary of Basile de Glemona edited byde Guignes (1813), and in the Dictionarium Lingue Sinice, A.M.D.G., Ho-kien, Jan. 1877. It is the most convenient system of indicating the characters when they are not available-—The Si-ling have not been identified as yet, because those of central China have no possible relation with the former, as they wero so named as late as the Han dynasty. The Siting of Nakhunte’s time must be looked for along the Kuenlun range. 9) Litt. Grand-mother of thread, a rather ominous meaning, 10) W. Williams, Middle Kingdom. Rey. Edit, I. 71, II. 38.---It must be remarked that Lui-tsu was the mother of Tchang-y, who was sent away near the Joh water, as reported by Szema-Tsien’s She-kz. and other works. 11) In Hwang P’u-mi’s work quoted supra, note 7. 12) Shu King, Shun tien, 8. 13) Yh King, Kwa XXII. The character is (10450). 14) BR Wuand B Kung. 15) Written: 43% se and # Wl tcheh wen. 16) Written: se (7853)as in preceding note.—Also: lead, pine-trees, and curious stones. _ 17) Written: Yen-se.(1076-7858). Such worms exist as yet in theprovince: Cf. Dr. Fauvel : The wild silkworms of the Province of Shantung, in China Review, vol. VI, p. 89. -18) Its articles of tribute were earth of fire different colours ; with the variegated feathers of pheasants from the valleys of the Yu ; the soli= tary dryandra from the South of Mount Yh ; and the sounding stones that seemed to float, near the banks of the Sze. 19) Written : f‘uen sten kao (6051-8078-12656), 20) Written: Tcheh Pei (8021-10408).—And also: gold, silver and cop- per; yao (5981) and kuen (5948) stones; bamboos small and large ; ele- phants’ teeth, hides, feathers, hair and timber ; and from islanders, garments of grass. Also small oranges and pummeloes. 21) Written : hiuen hiun (6051-8087). 22) Also: feathers,hair, ivory and hides; gold, silver and copper ; the tch’un tree, wood for bows, cedars and cypresses ; Aw’en and Jw bam- boos, hoo-tree wood, three-ribbed rush, &c. 12 THE SILK: GODDESS 23) And also lacquer, hemp, a finer and coarser hempen cloth ; also occasionally stones for polishing sounding-stones. 24) Written . (8078-2568) Sien kwang. 25) The offered products consisted in sonorous stones, iron, silver, steel, stones for arrowheads, and sounding stones, skins of bears, great bears, foxes, jackals, and articles woven with their hair. 26) The sole articles offered, were hair-cloth, and skins from the tribes of Kuenlun, Sihtche, and K’iuson. 27) Meddhurst, The Shoo King, p, 92. translates. stuffs of various colours.—Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. III, p. 99, has: woven ornamental fabries.—Panthier, Chine Ancienne, p. 48, translates : ‘tissus de diverses couleurs.’ 28) Hiuen is properly a black hue with a flush of red in it. 29) Shwoh Wen, sub verb. 30) Wells Williams, Sydl. Dict. p. 800. . 31) K’anghi tze tien, 120417 fol. 65 verso, quoting the Zi Kien ¢chuan, a late work. A commentator of the Tsien Han Shu explains it as: =) fi mie, ¢ loth. 32) The Shoo King, p. 96. 33) Chinese Classics. vol, III, p. 107.—Pauthier, Chine, p. 48, trans- lates : ‘soie rouge, noire, et blanche.’ 34) Ibid. p. 111. 35) The Shoo King, p. 98. 36) Cf. Br-ya---Shwoh Wen.—T'chou lt, Kao kung ki. 37) Chanese Classics, vol. III, p. 116.---The Shoo king, p.101. Pauthier, Chine, p. 49, translates : ‘pieces de soie noire et rouge.’ . 38) The Shwoh wen explains it by Na. ravelled silk, andthe Ya pien by Mien, new silk. Cf. Kanghi tzetien, 120415, fol. 63. 39) The Shoo King, p. 102---Chinese Classics. vol. I1I, p. 119.---Pa- thier, Chine, p. 49, translates: ‘ toiles fines et fil de coton.’ 40) Shu King, Yi Kung, III. 41) This Ode Zsh yueh classified in the She King as the first among those of Pin, is supposed by the commentators to refer chiefly to the manners of the first settlers in Pin under the rule of Duke Liu. But the piece does not bear any internal evidence of this contention. Neither Pin nor the Duke Liu are mentioned therein, 42) The term hAiuen here translated d ar k isjthe same as note 28. 43) Of. James Legge, Chenese Classics, vol. IV, pp. 228-9, and notes. 44) In Shansi, only little silk is produced, namely about 700 piculs annually in Raw silk, of which'500 piculs are wild. Cf. China. Im- pertal Maritime Customs I1.---Special Series : No, 3, Silk, 1881, pp. 20-21. Nothing is said of silk in Shensi. M, Natalis Rondot of Lyon, in the statistics he has compiled from older documents for the Exhibition of 1878 in Paris has included the names of Shansi and Shensi in his figures. The latter province however is referred to only for Oak silkworms. 45) Notably by F. von Richtofen ; cf. H. Yule. The book of Ser Marco Polo, vol. E,p.18.: 46) Tchou-li, Tchih fang she, XXIII, fol. 17.—Hd. Biot, Le Tchou-li ou Rites des Tchéou, 1851, vol. II, p. 269. 47) The commentary of Y-fu says that this province which existed at OF CHINA. 13 the time of Shun when he devided the Empire in 12 provinces, was included by the great Yii in the Ki tchou, and restored by the Thou. 48) Jbid. fol: 49, and page 275. Jd. Biot, forgetting the previous statement about the Yu tchou, remarks how curious it is that silk should be attributed only to the North of the Empire, and supposes - that it may indicate an exportation of silk. The learned author was labouring under the glowing and exagerated explanation put forth by the commentators of the Yu kung, and the wrong impression that silk culture was much more extensive than it really was in olden times. 49) Shuh wang pen tst.—-Cf. also the Tcheng-tu ki. 50) On this great scholar cf. T. de L., The languages of China before the Chanese, §§ 42-53. 51) Tsang tsung she (9628-1108-48-0),. 52) Tsien Han shu, Ti li tchi. If. Catenparic Ruies, Rites anp Customs. 22. A remarkable document, the Brief Calendar of the Hra dynasty*?, which internal evidence shows to have been compiled about 2000 G.C., Yv proves how great was already at that time the importance attached to silkworm rearing. There are in it three special entries, as follows : 1, 30. “(Inthe second month). Is plucked®4 the Aclanthus glan- dulosa®>, Multitudes of small insects (silkworms ?) tap the eggshells (which contain them). 1]. 38. In the third month, gathered are the mulberry leaves. ]. 44. Lasses and Lads begin attending the silkworms. ]. 45. And take in hand the rearing-house “business>®.”’ These calendaric statements of olden times, assumed afterwards the value of official regulations. . 23. The Ritual of the Tchou dynasty>’, which we have previously quoted rules that ‘“‘in the middle of spring, the Neéi-tsaz invites the Queen to inaugurate the rearing of silk-worms in the Northern suburb to make the sacrificial robes®8.” ez tsaz is the title of the special officer of government in charge of the part of the palace occupied by the queen, wives and concubines of the Son of Heaven. There are besides two officials, the Managerof silk or Zien se andthe Manager of flax or Tren si, who keep these textiles in stores and distribute them for em- broidering and wearing, and receive them when worked out*®. 24, In the third century s.c., Lii Pu-wei (D. 287 3.c.) or one of ima his collaborateurs, compiled for his collection entitled Zchun tsiu, the monthly regulations, similar to the Brief Calendar of the Hia dynasty, but with all the modifications and additions which had occurred in the mean- time. This precious record, named Yueh ling or Monthly rules was 14 THE SILK GODDESS afterwards introduced into the Record of Rites or Li ké, where it forms the fourth book®, by a renowned scholar named Ma Yung (79-166 ~~ A.D.) ‘‘In the last month of spring®!,—the son of Heaven presents robes yellow like the young leaves of the mulberry tree to the ancient Ti or divine ruler®?,.” As the queens were not called 7%, this may in- - dicate a sacrifice not to the queens, but to the ancient Emperors, if not perhaps to Huangti himself, looked upon as the initiator of the silk-worm \- j~ industry. ‘In the same month,---the queen after vigil and fasting, ' goes in person to the eastern fields to work on the mulberry trees. She orders the wives and younger women (of the palace) not to wear their ornamented dresses, and to suspend their woman’s work, thus stimulating them to attend to the business with the worms. When this has been completed, she apportions the cocoons, weighs out (afterwards) the silk, on which they go to work, .to supply the robes for the solsticial and other great religious services, and for use in the aucestral temple; not one is allowed to be idle®?.” ‘‘In the first month of summer,---when the work with the silk-worms is over, the queen presents her cocoons ; and the tithe-tax of cocoons generally is collected, according to the number of mulberry trees ; for noble and mean, for old and young there is one law. The object is with such cocoons to provide materials for the robes to be used at the sacrifices in the suburbs and in the ancestral temple®*.” 25. Other parts of the same Ritual, the Zi kz, refer to sericulture. They are not nninteresting to read. In the chapter on 7's?-y or Me an- ing of sacrifices®, itis said: Anciently the Son of Heaven and the feudal lords had their own mul- berry trees anl silkworms’ house; the latter built near a river, ten cubits in height, the surrounding walis being topped with thorns and the gates closed on the outside. In the early morning of a very brighf day, the ruler, in his skin cap and the white skirt, divined for the most auspicious of the honourable ladies in the three palaces of his wife, who were then employed to take the silkworms into the house. They washed the seeds in the stream, gathered the leaves from the mulberry trees, and dried them in the wind to feed the worms. When the (silkworm) year was ended, the honourable ladies had finished their work with the insects, and carried the cocoons to show them to the ruler. They then presented them to his wife, “* Will not these supply the materials for the ruler’s robes ?” She forthwith received them, wearing her head dress and the robe with pheasants on it, and OF CHINA. 15 afterwards caused a sheep and a pig to be killed and cooked to treat (the ladies). This probably was the ancient custom at the presentation of the cocoons. Afterwards, on a good day, the wife rinsed some of them thrice in a vessel, beginning to unwind them, and then distributed them to the aus- picious and honourable ladies of her three palaces to (complete) the un- winding. They then dyed the thread red and green, azure and yellow, to make the variously coloured figures on robes. When the robes were finished, the ruler wore them in sacrificing to the former kings and dukes ;—all displayed the greatest reverence. 26. In the following chapter 7's: t’ung containing asummary ac- COUMU Ot GH GmMULOS wR, ws ve) CERO An oe the Son of Heaven him- self guided the plough in the Southern suburb, to provide the grain for the sacrificial vessels ; and the queen looked after her silkworms in the Northern suburb, to provide the cap and robes of silk. The princes of . the States guided the plough in their eastern suburb, also to provide the grain for the sacrificial yessels, and their wives looked after their silk- worms in the northern suburb, to provide the cap and robes of silk.” 27. Although silkworms and silk are not unfrequently mentioned in the Book of Poetry, no allusion appears anywhere to a ‘l'utelary spirit of silkworms. Sik was a great luxury and its cultivation cannot have been exten- sively used. It is severally spoken of as the material of embroideries. In Tchih-h, great officers wore lamb-skins and sheep-skins with five braidings of white silk®7, while young princes are said to have been ang- ling with lines made of silk thread®, A Marchioness of Wei (S. Shansi) about 750 B.c. wears a green upper robe in silk with a yellow lining®’. Great officers of the same state have pennows on staffs with ox-tails and white silk cords or ribbons?°, Silk was used also for girdles”, and occasionally for string of bows7? ; _ reins are praised when they are glossy like silk7#. | Officers wore silk robes for sacrificial ceremonies”. In all these cases the written symbol to denote silk is the special one for it, (7853) se and no misapprehension is possible, But there are other terms which also appear in the Book of Poetry. A dress of thin undyed silk 44) “ Fs Z€ kin y, broidered robe, without reference to the material of the cloth. The Ode I. iii. XII, also quoted as showing that similar garments of fox-skins were worn at the court of P’ei by the officers, does not speak of silk at all. 7D) he Sab iy ere 76) I. x. One IV.---J. Legge, Chines Classics, vol. [V, p. 179 note 77) Ode IIT, 1 of I, viii. III. VarioUs TUTELARY Spirits AND GODDESSES OF SILK AND SILKWORMS. 29. No allusion is made to the invention of silk among the many dis- closures attributed to the early rulers in the great appendice to the Yh-king where a not unconsiderable amount of ancient lore has been piled up. The authorship of the document is attributed to Confucius, and it would have been pencilled down by one of his disciples. The same silence occurs in the various fragments of olden times which have been added to the Bookof Montains and Seas, under the Han dynasty, 30. But if there is no allusion to the invention of silk in these ancient documents, theisame conditionrather ominous exists no morein late works. The Zi ki or Recordof Rites has a curious passage sketching a period of savage life in the history of the people7®. “Formerly the ancient kings had no houses. In winter they lived in caves which they had excavated, and in summer in nests which they had framed. They knew not yet the transforming power of fire, but ate the fruits of plants and trees, and the flesh of birds and beasts, drinking the blood, and swallowing the hair and feathers (as well’. They knew not yet the use of flax and silk, but clothed themselves with feathers and skins. “The later sages arose, and men (learned) to take advantage of the benefits of fire. They moulded the metal and fashioned clay, so as to 18 THE SILK GODDESS rear towers with structures on them, and houses with windows and doors. They toasted, grilled, boiled and roasted. They produced must and sauces. They dealt with the flax and silk soas to form linen and silken fabrics. No deity, or presiding genius of silk culture seems to have been known at the time of the foregoing text. 31. It is however in the same work that a statement which has been 4 expurgated from the received edition, refers to the Sten 7’s’an (580-9628) as Tutelary Genii in the following terms: “In the first month of spring fs aa the How fez, i.e. the wife of the King or Prince, after having fast of animal food, offers a sacrifice at the Sven 7's’an or First Silk- worms, &c.” The passage is quoted in a cyclopedia of the Xth century? And a gloss in the same work explaims Sien Ts’an by T’en sze®°, the quadriga of heaven which consists of four red stars of the Scorpio; this was one of the many names of fang the fourth of the 28 zodiacal eonstellations, and the most important of spring. It was looked upun as announcing the forthcoming harvest. The commentary is important as it tends to show that Sen T7't’an was not a proper name and simply an appellative of season. And the statement does not say to which tutelary god or spirit the sacriffee was offered. We do not find however confirmation of this identification of the Q uadriga-of-heaven with the Sien Ts’an in any of the many appellatives of that group of stars®?. The commentator was ill-informed, or the appellative was a popular one which has not found its way in astronomical literature. It is only the, Niii stu, the third constellation of winter which shows some references to silk culture. A secondary star-group within, the /u Kwang or The Basket-with-handles is said by the Boo k-of-Stars to preside at the rearing of silkworms®?. As the Book-.of-stars although based ~ upon an older work of the same title, has been recast at the time of the T’ang dynasty (618-906) the selection of this presiding star-group may be not much older than that period. It does not appear in the short list of stars given in the Hr-ya of the Confucian era. 32. Another interesting statement concerning the part played by the mperor himself with reference to the Sericulture is made by Tchang Vhwa (232-300 a.p.8%), in his ‘Records of remarkable things,’ where he states that in the first months (of the year) of the Tchou, the Ti, or Emperor, did make the census of the silkworms, and presented it with the proper sacrifice (ts:) to the tutelary deities of the land (shé) that they would be favorable to the seeds of the silkworms*. OF CHINA, 19 No reference is made in these quotations of ancient times to any special god or goddess of silkworms. They only show how great was the importance attached by the government to sericulture. We see by the Tchou-li and the Li ki that there was in the capital a state Magnanerie in olden times. The infererce is not deprived of evidence. A descrip- tion® of the public buildings in Tchang-ngan, the ancient metropolis dur- ing the Han dynasty mentions a kien kwan or cocoonery within the grounds of the Shang-lin park, and aZ'san sheh or silkworms’ house which gave its name to a street of the capital. 33. We cannot positively say that the state inauguration by the Queen and Empress of the silkworm season, which is regulated by the two rituals, we have quoted, was solemnized regularly and without intercep- since Antiquity. But there are occasionally statements about it. Tu the Dynastic Annals of the Tsin dynasty (265-419 p,c.) Section of Rites, we find stated that the Empress drove to the silkworm mansion inthe Park of the eastern suburb and sacrificed to the (God or God dess of silkworms (9628-705), Tsan shen®*. We know that the Empress of Kang-ti (343-344) renewed the observation of ancient rules®’, the silk-worm ceremony was probably one of them. Who was then desig- nated as the goddess of silkworms does not appear. It may have been one of those whose names appear in later statements. (Cf. §§ 37, 38). 34. Under the Sung dynasty of the Vth century, in the reign of Hiao Wu ti, year 460, there is a special entry in the Dynastic Annals stating that the Empress, in the third month ordered that the ceremony of feed- ing the silkworms should be solemnized, and was herself present, Whatever may have been the temporary breaks in the celebration, we have seen that the ceremony is still solemnized now a days. 35. The Tung kien kang muh or Syngpsis of history, states that several Empresses, after the time of Si-ling she gave their patronage to sericulture, but it does not substantiate the statement. The probabilities are that the silk industry was indeed taken care of by the soverign and his queen, but no personal names are quoted with or without prominence with reference to it®9, 35. Sericnlture was then and has remained since a national industry of paramount importance. But no reference occurs in any of these quo- tations from the classics as to whom was the creator or at least the teacher of the industry for the Chinese. Doubts seem to have been en- tertained, by the people, about the departed personage, who in her life time had taken, more than any other, interest in the matter and whose 20 THE SILK GODDESS the spirit was presiding over the silkworms rearing and silk industry. if One thing only was certaiu. As it was a feminine occupation, the tute- lary deity could not be a man. 37. Inthe Vth century, Tch’en-yoh a celebrated scholar in a curious work now lost, called The harmonious Record of T3871, an ex- tract of w..ich I find in a cyclopedia of the Xth century, makes a distinct reference to a tutelary goddess of silkworms. He says that: “In the middleof the first month (of the year, the spirit (7025 shen) comes downto the grave of Tchen she (11788-4820). Sheis our own Tutelary goddess of - silkworms and kuows to appreciate the sacrifices (offered to her®®).—Now Tchen she was the family name of the first wife of Wu-ti the great ruler of the Han dynasty®1, who had married her before he ascended the i-throne, 140 3.c. This is, as far as I am aware, the oldest statement quoting a proper name for that deity. 38. We must come toa much later time to find onother instance. Lo-yuen of the XIIth century, in his work called Er-ya y or Wings of the Er-ya, states simply: Now the san shen, i.e. spirits of the silkworms, are two, and called YUEN YU fu jin and YU SHE kung tchu®2. No information as to the identification of these two persons is given therein, but the description words which follow each name are most precise. Fu-jin means simply the woman and Kung-tchu is a term apply to the daughters of the Royal House since centuries before the Christian era®?. There is no intrinsic evidence that these deities were ancient. It is improbable that these two names should be imper- sonations of the spirits of all the women and Royal or Imperial Princesses, who by duty bound, and from olden times had attended the rearing of silkworms. 39. They refer more likely to some ence renowned females for | their devotion to silk culture, whom we know perhaps under different names. The Imperial princess Yi she is ppobably the heroine of the fol- lowing story : In the first part of the second century of our era a Chinese princess of the Imperial house“ was married to Vijayajaya, the king of Khotan.95 On the demand of her future lord as formulated by a special messenger who informed her that his country had neither silk nor silken stuffs, she secretly procured the seed of the mulberry and silkworms’ eggs, and con- cealing them in her headdress, was thus enabled to escape the search of the guard at the frontier.% It was then strictly forbidden to carry any out of the country. Her difficulties, however, did not finish there.97” OF CHINA. Aap | Once in her new country, the Princess-queen began to raise silk-worms at Ma-dya, situate south ef the capital. But the Chinese delegates seeing this, led the king to believe that these worms would become venomous snakes which would ravage the land. Vijayajaya gave orders to haye the snake-raising house burnt down. The queen, however, managed to save some and reared them secretly; after a time she had procured silk and could wear silk garments which she showed to the king, who regretted what he had done, and henceforth favoured the silk culture. Unhappily for the proposed identification, we are not in a position to carry it positively further, as we do not know the exact name of the princess. The Bstan-hgyur gives it as Pu-nye-shar, which may mean the house-wife of the east, and therefore is no name. On the other hand, Hiuen-Tsang, the Buddhist pilgrim speaks of Zu-sh7, litt. stag- pierced, as the convent founded by the above Princess-queen, and this name has been gratuitously supposed to be hers, or ag the meaning does not fit, a transl'teration of it. There is, however, an equation of meaning between Pu-nye as house-wife and Yii-she which suggests the idea of a person residing, the resident. Such is apparently the clue to the identification. As to the other goddes:, Viian yu kwed jin. we have no clue about her; she may have been a Lady-in-waiting to the above Princess. Acting on this suggeston ] van would have been her name, and Yu twer jin would be her description as a woman of Yi, which was the name of a district in the north of Shen-si under the Han dynasty.°8 The fact that they were worshipped and enumerated together must be taken. into consideration, and speaks in favour of this view. 40). It is important to remark that in none of the statements here collected, no reference whatever has been made to the part attributed to Si-ling she, alias Lui-tsu, Sien tsan, alias Yuen fet. NorEs—— 78) Liki VIL; Li yun, sect. I. par. 8 and 9.—J. Legge, The Li ki, p. 369. 79) Tai ping yit lan, Kiy. 925, fol.7. 80) In the ELr-ya, sect. of Tien it is mentioned that Zen sze is Fang. It consists of B, 6, 7, p. 21) Some interesting remarks on this constellation are given in G. Schlegel : Uranographie Chinoise, pp. 113-115. 82) Sing King.—G. Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise, p. 205, quoting also the Z%en huang hwey tung. 83) Mayers, Chinese R. M., I. 16.--A. Wylie, Notes on Chinese litera- ture, p. 1d8. 22 THE SILK GODDESS OF CHINA. 84) Poh Wuh tchi.---Tai ping yt lan, kiv. 582. fol. 8. 85) The San fu hwang ?u, anthor unknown but commentated upon by Kwoh-P’oh (276-324 a.p.) Cf. kiv. 6, fol. 6 verso. 86) Z's’n shu. Li tehi--Kang hi tze tien, 142, 18. fol. 71 verso. 87) Sheis called Kang-ti Tch’'u Hwang-héu, and her biography from the Tsin tchung tien shu, is mentioned in Z'ai ping yu lan, kiv. 138, fol. 9 verso. 88) Lih tchao Ti W ng nien piao; Nan Peh tchao; Sung, Hiao Wu-ti, 4th year ta ming.---Tung kien kang muh; De Mailla, tom. V, p. 111.— A quotation of the Sung shu in th: Tai ping yi lan, kiv. 142, fol. 8 states that the Empress, in the said year, presided personally oyer sta mansions for the gathering of mulberry leaves in the western suburb. 89) De Mailla, O.C. ibid. 90) Tcheng yueh p’an yu shen kiang Tchen she tchi tcheh yun, wo she tsan shen neng kien tsih. Cf. Ya: ping yi lan, kiv. 825, fol. 4 verso. 91) Of. Lsien Hun shu, biography of Hiao Wu Tchen hwang hou; Tat ping yii lan, kiv. 186, fol. 4.---Szema Tsien, She ki: biogr. of Tehen hwang héu; kiv. 49, fol. 10. 92) Kin Yuen Yiifujin Yi shekung tchu K’ang hi tze tien, key 142+18, fol. 71 vers. On yuen as a proper name cf. 140+5 fol. 12 vers. 93) It occurs for instance inthe commentary of the Tchun tsiu by Kung- yang in the third century B.c. Cf. Tat ping yit lan, kiv. 152, fol. 1 verso. 94) Named Pu-nye-shar according to the Bstan-hgyur, vol. 94(w) Li- yul-gyi Lo-rgyus-pa, fol. 433a; Woodville Rockhill, The early history of Li-yul (Khoten) forming chap, VIII of his work, The Life oj the Bud- dha. from Tibetan sourees, 1884, p. 238. 95) Cf. A. Rémusat, Histoire de la ville de Khotan, p. 538.—De Rosny, Traité de Veducation des vers @ soie au Japon, 1869," says 419 of our era, which seems too late by far, as th event happened under the 11th reign after Vijayasambhaya, who ascended the throne of Li-yul or Khotan (Chin. Li-kwei, Ya-tien) 165 years after the foundation of Li- yul, The latter event is fixed by Tibetan sources at 234 years after Buddha’s Nirvana (477 B.c.) or in 248 B.c. Therefore 1854 24C (= 12 reigns of 20 aver.) wou'd lead to 162 a.p. 96) As recorded by Hiuen-tsang, the Buddhist pilgrim,—S, Beal, St-yu- ki, vol IL. p. 319.—Stanislas Julien, Voyages des Pelertns Bouddhistes, vol, III. p. 238. 7) The following comes from Tibetan sourees, in W. Rockhill, Op. cit. . 239.—F'a-hien the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, c:rc. 400. mentions silk in Khotan; cf. S. Beal, S¢-yu-kz, vol. 1. introd. p, 26.— The C nese annals Peh-she (386-581) mentions mulberry trees in the same country. Cf.Zai ping yi lan, Kiv. 792, iol. 6. 98) Cf. Playfair, The cities and towns of China, No. 8819. yas, = - a THE SILK GODDESS OF GHINA. 23 IV. FoRMATION OF THE LEGEND OF THE Gopprss Stung sun! THE GRAND-MoTHER OF THREAD. 40. When Szema Tsien and his father compiled in the second century ~~ B.c. the materials of the She , they came across documents giving to the first wife of Hwang-ti the traditionalname of Law tsu RR ji which they reproduced accordingly in their history, without any intima- tion as to the possible meaning which could be inferred from the ideo- graphical yalue of the symbols composing that written name. It seems that previously the first symbol was simply written 2% and that the addi- ton of the determinative woman was their own, according to a prac- tice then current to avoid misconceptions The simple symbol was phon- etically employed as a proper name and its meaning was left vague and undefined. Nothing is said by the Szemasas to the spinning and weav- || ing inventions attributed in after ages to Lue tsu and her lord. | 41. But subsequently when rationalists began in the following centuries to ponder over the shreds of record, saved from the remotest times, they endeavoured to read behind the written words and to guess through the ideographical meanings inherent to the characters of the writing, statements hitherto hidden to view. ‘The. result was to see that the original mean- ing of BY dw, to bind was that of thread, and therefore that the name of Lut 2 once deprived of the determinative of woman its latest ad- junct!?, and combined with WH, tsu, grand-parent, was obviously the depository of a tradition hitherto concealed from the gaze of former historians. The notion that the first wife of Hwang-ti was the grand- | mother-of-thread was thus revealed, and forms an interesting instance of script-myth, a phenomenon which has not as yet received its share of attention from the investigators of the history of culture among po- pulations having a hieroglyphic or ideographic writing. This supposed in- formation entailed the formation of a popular legend making the wife of 94 THE SILK GODDESS the first ruler necessarily busy with the silkworms, like so many other housewives in the silk-producing provinces, and the queens of former kings, as shewn and regulated by the traditional rites. 42. But I do not find the fact given as historical before Liu Shu, the collaborator of Szema Kwang, author of the Zwng kien, published in 1080. This writer compiled a history, much esteemed and entitled Wei ki, from the most remote times, in which his purpose was to record all that is not stated in the classics.1°? and where we find the following statement :1 ‘« Siling she, the Empress of Hwang-ti, began to rear silkworms: “At this period Hwang-ti invented the art of making cloth.” And thus has grown the legend which since has been looked upoa as genuine history. 43. None of the classics and historical works which we have referred toin these pages, has any meution of Scling-she, alias Luz-tsu or grand- mother of thread, alias S/enw ts’an or ancient silkworm, alias Yuen fei or firs t wife, as the goddess of sericulture. The Si’en 7's’an which are referred to ina spurious passage of the Zz ki which we have quoted in a previous paragraph (81), were not understood then as applied to the silkworms reared by the first wife o: Hwang-ti, neither by a trope of speech to this fabled personage. The oldest reference to worship of such a goddess is that of the Tsin dynasty, probably in 344 a.p., but then no name is given, and we have found reason to believe that Si-ling she was not the deity worshipped by the Tsin Empress. Her le- gend was stillin a state of formation. it had not yet reached a sufficient degree of authority, and as a fact was not to reach for nearly eight cen- turies the official standing from which the personality of the Grand- mother of thread imposed itself on the Imperialat tention, with deifica- tion and worship asa natural consequence, and the annual state sacrifice of the present time. -— 44, The claims of Hwang ti and his Queen to the honour of being the first silk culturists are looked upon as little established even by Chinese writers; Hwan Tan, for instance, went so far as to suggest that an earlier ruler Shen-nung, the Mythical husuandman Emperor, was really the first who had ever made a A’ n lute in tung wood, and twisted silk for the strings.l¢ The suggestion, of course, is valueless in itself, but it shews the little confidence of some Chinese in the story of Siling-she. 45. Lui-tsu is said by the traditional history to have been a daughter from the clan of Si-ling; the name being at the same time that of her OF CHINA. 25 native country. We may as well state here, previously to any enquiry, that there is no possible connection between this Si-ling and the S7-ling, tpsis litteris, which was the name inHup eh,!” applied under the Han ‘ dynasty, to the region of the Mu-ling range of the present day in the N.E. of the province. As it was substituted only at that timefor several names which were different before, there is no possibility of any connection with the personal name of Yuen-fei. As a fact S-ling, meaning literally West hills,}°% might not suggest any special region, and may have been applied to a mountainous tract any- where provided it be consistent with the geographical location of the interested writer. The matter requires a greater precision than wchave hitherto found in the statements quoted on the subject. 46. The Sv-ling name of the original country of Lui-tsu, has not yet been identified, and therefore we may as well make an attempt at eluci- dating this point of mythical geography, and enquire as to the possibility that it should really indicate a region where silk industry was already in existence before the arrival of the Chinese Bak tribes. It would be quite in the natural order of things that the Chinese leader should have married a daughter of the country, who being acquainted with the industry of her native land, should have taught the rearing of silkworms and the winding of the silk to the followers of her lord and master. Unhappily for the ver- acity of the legend, sericulture was not known in Si-ling. 47. In the Hr-ya, section of the land!0, the ancient dings are briefly indicated thus: the Zung ling or Hast hils are Sin}; the Nan ling or South hills are the Sck shen! ; the “7 ling or West hills are the Wei barbarians (which we shall refer to hereafter) ; the Tchung ling or Central hills are the Tchu teng; the Peh ling or North hills are the West Yii, it is the Yen gate (in N. Shansi). 48. The Wei barbarians!!° mentioned therein are known in other works, and their settlements were in the immediate south of the present department of Tsing-ning in 8. E. Kansuh™!, The information is consistent with that derived from the Book of Mountains and Seas, which shows that the Si-ling or western hills of the story were to be sought for in the mountain ranges of the North-west. And as these mountains, being simply the spurs of the Kuen-lun range, extend east- wards, running from the west and passing at proximity of the Heh shui” of the story, the identification is sufficiently accurate in its broad lines, and we cannot expect a greater precision in a statement of legendary geography. —s 96 THE SILK GODDESS 49, But had the legend any slight foundation like that we have suggested, § 46, it must have lingered in popular minds quite outside the range of literature, The fact does not seem improbable, as records of this folklore and belief may have disappeared in one or the other of the five -great bibliothecal catastrophes which have made of the ancient literature of China a mere wreck. However the hypothesis seems difficult to maintain with the positive statements and allusions we have collected which show vagueness of former beliefs about the protective genii of silk and silkworms. Moreover, the geographical information gathered in the first part of this paper (§§ 3-21) show reason to believe that silkworms did not exist in the N.W. of China until later times, and therefore that during the period of their earliest settlenients in Kansuh and Shensi, the immigrating tribes under the leadership of Hwang-ti, who married a girl of Si-ling in that region, cannot have been made acquainted by her with the art of sericulture. Conciusion. 50. The outcome of the foregoing paper, about the history and legend of Si-ling she as the real inventor of the silk industry, is that they have no historical fouudation. It is another instance of the ways and means which have coutributed to the formation of the modern Pantheon of the Chinese. In the few ancient accounts of innovations and inventions attributed to the rulers of the legendary period, such as Hwang-tiand others, accounts which are found in the great Appendix to the Book of Changes,!'8 the authorship of which is attributed to Confucius through the pencil of a disciple, and in the fragments of older times added to the Book of mountains and seas!!4during the Han period, no allusion whatever is made to the invention ofthe silk industry. This silence,to say the least, is very significant, as it concernsa most ancient and most prominent in- dustry of China which was entitled to a special mention should the legend attributing its invention to Hwang-ti and his wife have existed at the time when these accounts were compiled. Itmay be taken as a con- curring and final proof that silk culture was not a Chinese invention, and was proper to the pre-Chinese populations of the country, particularly in the east, as shewn by the geographical and historical data collected in these pages. The whole evidence concurs to show that it was only when the civilised chieftains of the Bak families arriving from the West, advanced eastwards and intermarried with girls of the native tribes, that they became acquain- vA / / f / f OF CHINA. 27. A with the sericulture which was in after ages looked upon in their tra- Alitions as special to their primitive wives in the country wihout geographi- “cal distinction between the west and the east of the Flowery Land.And it was in comparatively recent times that attempts were made at fostering a legend of invention of the sericulture on some special personage of history. Notes—— 99) She ki, kiv. I, fol. 5. 100) It does not anyhow go further back than the sao tchwen, which is the style of writing employed during the last centuries preceding the Christian era. Iu my note on The Oldest Chinese Characters; The Academy, June 15,1889, p. 416, I have given occasionally the history of this style of characters. 101) On the late adjunction of determinatives in many cases, cf. S.W.., Bushell : Zhe Stone drums of the Chow dynasty, 1874: T. deL. The oldest Book of the Chinese, § 25, n. 3 ; Introduction to Historical Catalogue of Chinese Money, part V1, 102) Cf, De Mailla, vol I Preface, p. xlv. 103) Cf. Wells Williams, Middle Kingwom, vol. 11, p. 32. 104) Hwan T’an, Sin lun. Yuen Kien lui han Wiy. 866, fol. 22.—Ta peng yt lan, Kiv, 814, fol. 8. 105) Cf. in G. Playfair, Cittes and towns of Chint. Nos, 2426, 2432 2658, 4731, 8925. 106) The Hr-ya says : ‘a great mound is called a ling ; ta fou yueh ling. 107). Er-yt tcheng wen tcheh yn, ed.1861; IT. 9. 108) Position and meaning unknown in geography. 109) This is a known variant for the name of the Djurtehen. Cf. my paper on The Djurtchen of Mandshuria, par.3. But I do not know any other document stating their advance in ancient times southwards at a sufficient proximity to a hill-range, which could be underany aspect looked as south of the ancient Chinese. Jam afraid an error must have crept in there. The character shen may have been mistaken for tchéng town as there was asmall state of that same name, Sk, in Honan, mentioned in the T'sotchuen, Duke Yn. year XI, which by its position answers, the requirement pretty well, 110) The term used is Y in the first case, and June in the second; but the distinction which their difference conveyed in former times was lost when that part of the Hv-ya was compiled. 111) Cf. Playfair, The Cities and towns of China, Nos.7978 and 1183, Tsing-ning, lat. 35°35’; long.105°45’. 112) Namely the Etsina river, east of Su-tchou in Kansuh, which from the slopes of the Nan-shan range runs northwards to the small lakes called Sobo nor and Sogok nor. 113) YVh-king ; hi-tze., pt. 2. 114) Shan haz king, Bk. 18. 28 THE SILK GODDESS OF CHINA \ ERRaTA:—— § 99 1, 1. 3, for ts’en tsan tao read sien ts’an tao 5, 1. 13, for oldest read eldest 8, 1.3, after spoken of read: as there was no occasion to make a dis- tinction between the wu and kung (cf. §15). 9, 1.6, for trings 7ead strings. 12, 1.1, for King-tea u read King-tchou 15,1. 7, jor uo silk read no silk [8.1. 8, for that silk was read that silk only was 19, 1.6, for of Shensi read of in Shensi Note 18, jor fife different read five different 26, for K’iuson read K’iusou 39, for Pa- read Pau- 47, for devided read divided 9? 99 99 § 27,1. 11, for pennows read pennuns a9 31, 1. 12. jor Tt’an read Ts’an 38, 1. 8, for apply read applied