216 THE INSECT WORLD. 
‘The empress, accompanied by queens and the greatest ladies 
of the court, went in state into this enclosure, and gathered with 
her own hand the leaves of three branches which her ladies in 
waiting had lowered till they were within her reach ; the finest 
pieces of silk which she made herself, or which were made by her 
orders and under her own eye, were destined for the ceremony of 
the grand sacrifice offered to Chang-si. 
“It is probable,” adds Duhalde, “that policy had more to do 
than anything else with all this trouble taken by the empresses. 
Their intention was to induce, by their example, the princesses 
and ladies of quality, and the whole people, to rear silkworms: 
in the same way as the emperors, to ennoble in some sort agri- 
culture and to encourage the people to undertake laborious works, 
never failed, at the beginning of each spring, to guide the plough 
in person, and with great state to plough up a few furrows, and 
in these sow some seed, 
“As far as concerns the empresses, it is a long time since they 
have ceased to apply themselves to the manufacture of silk; one 
sees, nevertheless, in the precincts of the imperial palace, a large 
Space covered with houses, the road leading to which is still called 
the road which leads to the place destined for the rearing of silk- 
worms, for the amusement of the empresses and queens. In the 
books of the philosopher Mencius, is a wise police rule, made under 
the first reigns, which determines the space destined for the cul- 
tivation of mulberry trees, according to the extent of the land 
possessed by each private individual.” 
M. Stanislas Julien * tells us of many regulations made by. the 
Emperor of China, to render obligatory the care and attention 
requisite to rearing silk. 
Tchin-iu, being. governor of the district of Kien-Si, ordered that 
every man should plant fifty feet of land with mulberry trees.+. 
The Emperor (under the dynasty of Witei) gave to each man 
twenty acres of land on condition that he planted fifty feet with 
mulberry trees.t Hien-tsang (who ascended the throne in 806) 

* “ Résumé des principaux traités Chinois sur la culture des miiriers et l'éducation 
des vers a soie, traduit par Stanislas Julien.” Paris, imprimerie royale, 1837. 
t “ Annales de la dynastie des Liang.” 
t “ Annales de la dynastie des Wei.” 

