The culture of silkworms using mulberry leaves as well as silk reeling and weaving, are the invention of ancient Chinese people. Almost 5000 years ago, Chinese began to farm silkworm to produce silk. Archaeological discovery shows, as early as in the late Neolithic Age, residents along the Yellow River and the Yangtze River already learnt to make silk threads, ribbons and silk fabric.

  There are lots of moving stories about the origin of silk. One of these tells a legendry story of silk and Yellow Emperor-said to be the ancestor of the Chinese people-held a celebration, a beautiful girl came down from the heaven. She held a bundle of bright, yellow silks in one hand, and silver ones in another, and presented them to the Yellow Emperor. The ruler was delighted and ordered to make them into soft, light silk cloth. And this girl was respected as the "Goddess of silkworm".

  Another story says, it was the imperial concubine of the Yellow Emperor called Lei zu, who first discovered silk, and she taught people to grasp the art of sericulture and silk reeling and weaving. From that time on, the production of silk was gradually prospered in China.