What is silk? Silk is a fine but strong fiber that silkworms produce when they make their cocoons. It can be woven to obtain a very soft and smooth fabric. Silk fabric was invented in ancient China and played an important role in its culture and economy for thousands of years. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Silk fabric was extremely valuable in ancient China. Wearing silk was an important status symbol. At first, only members of the royal family were allowed to wear silk. Later, silk clothing was reserved for the noble class. Merchants and peasants were not allowed to wear silk. Silk was even used as currency during some ancient Chinese dynasties. Silk became a prized export for the Chinese. Nobles and kings of foreign countries desired silk and paid high prices for the fabric. The emperors of China wanted to keep the process of making silk a secret. Anyone caught revealing the secret or taking silkworms out of China was put to death. Legend has it that the process of making silk fabric was first invented by the Yellow Emperor's wife, Leizu, around 2696 BC. The idea for silk came to Leizu while she was having tea in the imperial gardens. A cocoon fell into his tea and unraveled. She noticed that the cocoon was actually made of a long thread that was both strong and soft. Leizu then discovered how to combine silk fiber to obtain thread. She also invented the silk loom which combined threads to make a soft fabric. Soon, Leizu had a mulberry forest for silkworms to feed on and taught the rest of China how to make silk. The Chinese managed to keep silk a secret for over 1000 years. However, in 550 AD, the secret of silk became known to other countries when two monks from the Byzantine Empire managed to smuggle silkworm eggs out of the country. They hid the eggs inside their bamboo canes. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers. Get a Personalized Essay The ancient Chinese bred special butterflies to produce the quality silk they wanted. Here are the steps in the silk making process: A butterfly lays 500 eggs and then dies. The baby worms hatch from the eggs and are fed mulberry leaves for a month until they are fat. Worms spin cocoons. The cocoons are steamed to kill the butterfly growing inside. The cocoons are rinsed. in hot water to loosen the threads, the women unrolled the cocoons then combined six of these fibers into the silk thread. The threads are woven to form a fabric. The fabric is then pounded to make it softer. Works Cited: Fitzgerald, FS (1925). The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's sons. Hanson, S. and Zogby, J. (2003). Trend polls: the American dream. Public Opinion Quarterly, 67(2), 165-178. doi:10.1086/368085Newman, K.S. (1999). Falling from grace: The experience of downward mobility in the American middle class. Journal of Social Issues, 55(4), 747-764. doi: 10.1111/0022-4537.00133Hsu, H.-C. and Feng, J. Y. (2017). A review of empirical studies on the American dream: conceptualization, measurement and associated factors. Journal of Social Psychology, 157(4), 375-396. doi:10.1080/00224545.2016.1254292Bluestone, B. and Harrison, B. (2010). The great U-turn: restructuring of companies and.