Silk Legend & the History of Silk

Silk Legend & the History of Silk

According to Chinese legend, the history of silk begins about 5,000 years ago in the garden of Emperor Huang-Ti. The emperor ordered his wife Hsi-Ling-Shi to investigate what was eating the leaves on his mulberry trees.... (Detail)
 

Silk is a very soft and smooth material. silk can be very expensive because they are taken from little worms which will take days to make silk into silk dress.

No one knows how much, if any, of the story is true. But historians do know that silk was first used in China. The Chinese guarded the secret of the silk worm. Disgrace and death faced the traitor who disclosed the origin of silk to the outside world. Only the Chinese knew how to make silk for about 3,000 years.

Traders probably began to bring silk from East Asia to Western Asia around 2000 BC. By the time of the Roman and Parthian Empires, silk was very popular in Western Asia and around the Mediterranean and a lot of silk scarf was being imported. Because it had to come from so far away, silk was very very expensive. Ordinary people could not afford to wear silk. But everyone wanted to wear silk. It was very pretty, smooth and shiny and soft, and comfortable to wear. Also it was cooler in the summertime than wool or linen.