20 TILE SILK GODDESS 



the spirit was presiding over the silkworms rearing and silk industry. 

 J One thing only was certaiu. As it was a feminine occupation, the tute- 

 lary deity could not be a man. 



37. In the Vth century, Tch'en-yoh a celebrated scholar in a curious 

 work now lost, called The harmonious Record of Ts'i, an ex- 

 tract of w ich I find in a cyclopedia of the Xth century, makes a distinct 

 reference to a tutelary goddes-s of silkworms. He says that : " In the 

 niiddleof the first month (of the year, the spirit (7025 shen) comes down to 

 the grave of Tchen she (11788-4820). She is our own Tutelary goddess of v 

 silkworms and knows to appreciate the sacrifices (offered to her 90 ). — Now 

 Tchen she was the family name of the first wife of Wu-ti the great ruler 

 of the Han dynasty 91 , who had married her before he ascended the 



k throne, 140 b.c. This is, as far as I am aware, the oldest statement 

 quoting a proper name for that deity. 



38. We must come to a much later time to find onother instance. 

 Lo-yuen of the Xllth century, in his work called Er-ya y or Wings 

 of the Er-ya, states simply: Now the Tsan shen, i.e. spirits of the 

 silkworms, are two, and called YUEN YU fu jin and YU SHE hung 

 tchu 92 . 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 93 . 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 I 

 their devotion to silk culture, whom we know perhaps under different ' 

 names. The Imperial princess Yil 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 94 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. 96 It was then strictly forbidden to carry any 

 out of the country. Her difficulties, however, did not finish there. 97 " 



