b 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 37 . 



From lutchou, offers were made in Sien 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 38 . 

 In Medhurst's translation the two words become :■ different coloured 

 fl o s s silk and silky cotton, and in Legge's : finesilkenfabrics 

 and finefloss sil k 39 . 



13. This critical survey shows how the four genuine statements con- 

 cerning production of silk referred to in the Yii Kung, 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. 



li. Silk culture was then restricted to a much more limited area than 

 is commonly believed, and flourished only in the East. 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 famo u s 

 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 Fentchou 

 (Tchihli W. and C): "the mulberry ground having been supplied with 



