Silk is a natural protein fiber that can be woven into textiles in some forms. The protein fiber of silk is mainly composed of fibrin, which is produced by some insect larvae to form cocoons.

In tracing the legend of the First Sericulturalist we find that as early as the Shang dynasty, diviners offered sacrifices to a silkworm spirit. Lady Yuan-yu and Princess Yu can be regarded as the First Sericulturalists in the sense of being named first. In the Northern Chhi period the legendary emperor Huang-ti was honoured as the First rationalisation of the legend occurred: Lady His-ling, the principal wife of Huang-ti, became the First Sericulturalist, which actually meant crediting a woman with this role, probably because women performed sericultural work in China. Furthermore, the sericultural ceremony of the empress constituted a parallel to the agricultural ceremony of the emperor.

Regrettably, Lady His-ling as legendary culture heroine and goddess of sericulture was not one of the favourite subjects of pictorial art in China. Apart from illustratuins, mostly woodcuts which have their origin in the superstitious folk belief in patron saints, she did not even become a subject of minor interest. During each seasonal cycle of sericulture, such prints were usually pasted on a wall.

Most archaeologists agree that silk, hemp, ramie, and bean-creeper were the materials used to produce fabrics of various types. The silk fragments discovered in China and dated as being from Shang times have always been part of the wrapping material employed for bronzes and jade objects. Hence many of the silk relics are preserved as an integral part of the bronze patina which means that their organic structures have been replaced by the products of bronze corrosion.

In terms of Shang pictographs and inscriptions, scholars found pictographs which can be interpreted as silkworms. Also, they found that besides cultivating the domestic silkworm, gathering wild silkworms was also practiced under the Shang.

Silk fabrics, of which so far only “traces” have been discovered, constituted one of the outstanding and unique achievements in material culture during the Shang dynasty. A high degree of specialisation in the silk workshops which needed a workforce with experience and well-trained administrators.

Silk-reeling means taking up the ends of several fibres and combining them into a thread. Each of the fibres consists of twin filaments, known as brins, gummed together by sericin. It is these which make up the cocoon, being spun in a figure-eight from by the caterpillar before it is transformed into a chrysalis. Silk-reeling takes place just before the moth tries to break through the cocoon. This timing is crucial if “endless” silk threads are required. The length of the cocoon-filaments which can be obtained varies between 700 to 99m, but without a silk-winding instrument, a reel, and a water basin in which to float the cocoons, silk-reeling cannot be performed.