WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: The Silkworm Horse

0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:05.600
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:12.000
<v Speaker 1>My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and

0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.640
<v Speaker 1>this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from

0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.480
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,

0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:25.560
<v Speaker 1>ideas and monsters in time. The domestic silkworm is an

0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.720
<v Speaker 1>important species in both Chinese history and human fiber and

0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.159
<v Speaker 1>fabric history in general. The larvae of these silk moths

0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.640
<v Speaker 1>spends a cocoon of secreted silk, which can then be

0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:43.080
<v Speaker 1>harvested and woven into highly desired textiles. Selective breeding has

0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:47.839
<v Speaker 1>left the domestic silkworm completely dependent on humans for reproduction,

0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.840
<v Speaker 1>and the larvae favor the leaves of the mulberry tree,

0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.760
<v Speaker 1>as related by Anne Beryl in her book Chinese Mythology

0:00:55.760 --> 0:01:00.320
<v Speaker 1>and Introduction. A fascinating mythological tale concerning all of this

0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.520
<v Speaker 1>is found in the fourth century c. E book A

0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:09.000
<v Speaker 1>Record of Researches into Spirits, or the socn G, commonly

0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.200
<v Speaker 1>thought to be the work of Historyan gan Bao. In

0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.640
<v Speaker 1>the story, a father travels forth and leaves his daughter

0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.280
<v Speaker 1>and a horse at home, where they live in poverty.

0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.119
<v Speaker 1>The daughter tires of this and eventually tells the horse

0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:27.320
<v Speaker 1>a stallion, if you find my father and bring him

0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.360
<v Speaker 1>home to us, I will marry you. The horse is

0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.679
<v Speaker 1>eager and agrees to these terms and rides out in

0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.039
<v Speaker 1>search of the old man and indeed finds him. But

0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.080
<v Speaker 1>the father is suspicious of the horse, reasoning that he

0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:45.840
<v Speaker 1>is not doing this for nothing, but he agrees to

0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.080
<v Speaker 1>go with the horse. He travels home on the creature's

0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.520
<v Speaker 1>back and only then learns the truth of the daughter's

0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:56.240
<v Speaker 1>promise to the beast. Of course, the daughter doesn't want

0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.880
<v Speaker 1>to marry the horse, and the father realizes that this

0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.640
<v Speaker 1>would be a shame full horror for the family. He

0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.320
<v Speaker 1>chastises her for making such a pact, kills the horse

0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.480
<v Speaker 1>with an arrow, skins it, and leaves its hide to

0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:15.440
<v Speaker 1>dry on some branches. Later, the daughter is walking past

0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.040
<v Speaker 1>the hide with a friend, and she mocks the horse

0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.240
<v Speaker 1>for thinking she would ever marry him. And this is

0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.600
<v Speaker 1>where things take a horrific turn. The horse hide comes

0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.919
<v Speaker 1>to life, leaps from the branches, envelopes the daughter, and

0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:34.560
<v Speaker 1>drags her away. The friend screams and flees. A few

0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.440
<v Speaker 1>days later, after searching the surrounding area, the father finds

0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:43.239
<v Speaker 1>her once again. The hide wrapped woman has transformed into

0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.320
<v Speaker 1>a great silkworm which feeds amid the branches of an

0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.640
<v Speaker 1>interesting tree. The locals soon discovered that the silk of

0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.560
<v Speaker 1>this silkworm is superior to that of others, and they

0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.720
<v Speaker 1>realize that the reason is not her transforms status, but

0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.440
<v Speaker 1>the tree itself. This is, of course a mulberry tree,

0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.640
<v Speaker 1>and they give it a special name. They call it Song,

0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.640
<v Speaker 1>which means mulberry tree in Mandarin, but can also mean funeral,

0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:18.400
<v Speaker 1>old corpse, or mourning, as in the Mourning of the dead.

0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.560
<v Speaker 1>It is a story of mythic botanical origins, the curse

0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:28.760
<v Speaker 1>of sexual desire and of metamorphosis. I also find it

0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:33.720
<v Speaker 1>interesting that it concerns two different domesticated species and humanities,

0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:38.880
<v Speaker 1>perhaps at times anxious place as the mitigators of their reproduction.

0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.040
<v Speaker 1>Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.

0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.320
<v Speaker 1>As always, you can email us at contact at stuff

0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:57.839
<v Speaker 1>to Blow Your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind.

0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.680
<v Speaker 1>It's production of I Heart Radio from our podcasts. From

0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.720
<v Speaker 1>my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:05.600
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.