The Story of Empress Lei Tsu and the Discovery of Silk

The Story of Empress Lei Tsu and the Discovery of Silk

In this blog we are going to escape the modern world of beauty and look at the wonderful story of the Empress Lei Tsu and how her accidental discovery graced the world with the wonderful cloth we know of as silk.

Lei Tsu also known as Xi Ling Shi was the wife of the Yellow Emperor of China who reigned between 2697 and 2597 BC. The Yellow Emperor is a very famous figure in Chinese mythology. He is credited with helping the ancient Chinese discover agriculture, boat building many hunting techniques and much more.

The book ascribed to him ‘The Yellow Emperors Classic of Medicine’ is the most revered ancient text on Chinese Medicine. Dating back at least several thousand years it is also probably the earliest text to describe the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine for cosmetic purposes.

Anyway on with the story..

The legend claims that Lei Tsu was drinking tea in her sumptuous garden when a silk worms cocoon fell from the tree above into her cup. Lei Tsu became annoyed and tried to remove the cocoon but due to the heat of the tea the cocoon began to unravel. Leu Tsu continued to unravel the cocoon until it had covered the entire garden.

Lei Tsu could see the thread was strong and could be woven. Looking further she realised that the worms responsible for the thread lived exclusively on the mulberry trees in the local region.

Her husband was soon told to plant mulberry trees all around the gardens to help produce the marvellous thread.

Lei Tsu is also credited with as the first sericulturist and the inventor of silk looms allowing the women of the court to produce the wonderful silk clothes we associate with ancient China.

Silk was so important in ancient Chinese culture that Lei Tsu was elevated to the position of Goddess in Chinese mythology and is still referred to as Can Nai Nai or ‘Silk Worm Mother’.

In addition to silk clothing the wealthy in ancient China only slept in silk believing, we now know correctly, that silk stopped moisture leaching from the skin and prevented wrinkles as well as reducing friction and hair loss over night.

White Lotus carries on these traditions making these ancient rituals accessible to the modern world.

To Learn more about White Lotus Silk Beauty Products please follow this link


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