Yuanke Rearing Silkworms: A Love Story of Divine Moths and Immortality

Yuanke's extraordinary tale of rearing silkworms with divine assistance, fragrant herbs, and ascension to the unknown.

Yuanke was a man from Jiying. He was handsome, and the locals wanted to marry their daughters to him, but Yuanke never got married. He once planted five-colored fragrant herbs and ate their fruits for several decades. Suddenly, a five-colored divine moth landed on the fragrant herbs. Yuanke adopted the divine moth, covered it with cloth, and the divine moth laid many silkworm eggs on the cloth. During the silkworm rearing season, a divine maiden would come at night to help Yuanke raise the silkworms, and they would also feed them with the fragrant herbs. The silkworms spun 120 large cocoons, each as large as a jar, and it took six or seven days to reel the silk from each cocoon. After the silk was reeled, the divine maiden and Yuanke ascended to immortality together, and no one knew where they went.

《园客养蚕》

园客者，济阴人也。貌美，邑人多欲妻之，客终不娶。尝种五色香草，积数十年，服食其实。忽有五色神蛾，止香草之上，客收而荐之以布，生桑蚕焉。至蚕时，有神女夜至，助客养蚕，亦以香草食蚕。得茧百二十头，大如瓮，每一茧缫六七日乃尽。缫讫，女与客俱仙去，莫知所如。