OF CHINA. 3 



III. Various tutelary Spirits and Goddesses of silk. 



§ 29. Discovery of silk not mentioned in the Hi-tze nor in the >han hai 

 king. — 30. Rationalised tableau of savage life in the Li hi. — 31. Sa- 

 crifice to the Sien Ts'an or First silkworms mentioned in a 

 spurious passage of the same work. — 32. Sacrifice for silkworms to 

 the Land deity, Illrd cent. a.d. — 33. Sacrifice by the Ts'in Empress 

 in the IV th cent, to Tsan shen i.e. the Tutelary Genius of silkworms. — 

 34. Official ceremony in 460 a.d. — 35. Vague statement of the T'ung 

 Kien Kang Muh. — 36. Nothing known by tradition as to a real in- 

 ventor. — 37. Tchou she, wife of Wu-ti, 141 B.C., worshipped in the 

 Vth century. — 38. Yuen yu and Yii she worshipped in the Xlthcent. 

 — 39. They belong probably to the Ilnd cent. a.d. — 40. No ancient 

 traces of the goddess Si-ling she Lui tsu. 



IV. Formation of the Legend of the Goddess Si-ling she Lui tsu. 

 §41. Lui tsu, a bare name in the She hi. — 42. Its analysis developed 



into a mythological statement. — 43. Given as an historical fact in the 

 Xlth 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-ling. — 48. Described in the Er-ya. — 

 49. They were in Kan-suh. 

 Conclusion. §50. Lui tsu is a case of mythography, and sericulture was 

 a pre-Chinese industry. 



Introductory. 



1. In the grounds of the Imperial Palace 1 at Peking is an altar forty 

 feet in circuit and four feet in height, surrounded by a wall 2 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 Yuenfei otherwise First wife in her 

 quality of discoverer of the silkworms, 3 and annually in April, the Em- 

 press worships and sacrifices to her. 4 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-fei 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 ? 



