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.
She found white worms that spin shiny cocoons. She accidentally dropped one of these cocoons into her hot tea—or so goes the story—and a delicate filament separated itself. She drew it out, unwinding a long single strand.
Hsi-Ling-Shi had discovered silk. She persuaded the Emperor to give her a grove of mulberry trees where she could grow thousands of worms that spin these beautiful cocoons. Hsi-Ling-Shi is also credited in Chinese lore with inventing the silk reel, which turns the silk filament into thread.

Its use was confined to China until the silk road opened at some point during the latter half of the first millennium BC. China maintained its virtual monopoly over silk for another thousand years. Not confined to clothing, silk was also used for a number of other applications, including writing, and the colour of silk worn was an important indicator of social class during the Tang Dynasty.
In China, silk worm farming was originally restricted to women, and many women were employed in the silk-making industry. Even though some saw the development of a luxury product as useless, silk provoked such a craze among high society that the rules in the Li Ji were used to regulate and limit its use to the members of the imperial family. For approximately a millennium, the right to wear silk was reserved for the Emperor and the highest dignitaries. Later, it gradually extended to other classes of Chinese society. Silk began to be used for decorative means and also in less luxurious ways: musical instruments, fishing, and bow-making. Peasants did not have the right to wear silk until the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). And silk workers had been making paper since the 2nd century BCE. Silk, bamboo, linen, wheat and rice straw were all used differently, and paper made with silk became the first type of luxury paper.
During the Han Dynasty, silk became progressively more valuable in its own right, and became more than simply a material. It was used to pay government officials and compensate citizens who were particularly worthy. By the same token that one would sometimes estimate the price of products according to a certain weight of gold, the length of the silk cloth became a monetary standard in China (in addition to bronze coins).