Legend has it that the first person to actually discover silk was the Yellow Emperor’s or Huang Di’s consort, Hsi Leng Shih, whilst sitting under a mulberry tree in the courtyard of her house. It is the most accepted myth and tells the story of how a cocoon happened to fall into her tea from above. Due to the somewhat high temperature of the hot liquid, the silk thread began to unwind itself in front of Hsi Leng Shih’s eyes. Amazed and astounded, the empress decided to raise silkworm and initiate her own loom and consequently, she is sometimes attributed the title of “Silk Goddess”. The practice of weaving silk was thought of by the Chinese people soon afterwards. They discovered that it takes approximately twenty-five days for a silkworm to grow old enough in order to spin the cocoon. Once the cocoons are spun, they are heated at night-time for the purpose of killing pupae and to prevent moths from being born. Next, the cocoons are unwound by first placing them in hot water then twisting the loose end on a small wheel. At this point in time, the silk produced is raw. Finally, it is cut a certain length, dyed a specific colour and woven into cloth. The main use of silk was to make clothes and soon after the invention, the wearing of silk became a royal symbol of high status. At one stage, only the emperor was permitted to wear silk but shortly afterwards, the Silk Road was created which enabled other countries to access the expensive material. The invention of silk opened a huge trade market for the Chinese in the time that followed.