本文以東晉干寶（？－336）《搜神記‧女化蠶》為中心，分析史料性質及各版本的變遷，認為〈女化蠶〉或以《山海經》女子吐絲傳說為原型。干寶則以先秦兩漢氣化宇宙論的變化觀為基礎，援引《周禮》鄭玄注，旁及《國語》、《漢書》等史籍，對〈女化蠶〉提出解釋。及至唐代，〈女化蠶〉為道教傳說所改寫，轉變為〈蠶女〉故事。〈蠶女〉不僅將故事明確繫於蜀地，且賦予女子因孝義升仙、衣被天下的道德形象。以道教傳說形式改寫而成的〈蠶女〉，儘管在南宋仍可見與〈女化蠶〉混同之痕跡，但二故事形成不同的傳承脈絡。〈蠶女〉成為道教中蜀地蠶神馬頭娘的初始傳說；〈女化蠶〉則始終與蠶之起源傳說有緊密的關係。

This article centers on the "Nü-hua-can" (The Story of How a Lady Transformed into a Silkworm) in the Sou-shen-ji (Legends of the Supernatural) written by Kan Pao 干寶 (?-336) to analyze the characteristics of the source and the evolution of the story. In Tang dynasty, the story was rewritten as a Taoist legend titled "Can-nü" 蠶女 (the Silkworm Lady), in which the protagonist was given a new moral image. Although the "Nü-hua-can" and the "Can-nü" were oftentimes mixed up in the source materials of the Southern Song dynasty, these two stories have been preserved in two rather different contexts. I argue that the "Can-nü" should be considered the primal tale of the "Ma-tou-niang" 馬頭娘 (the 'horse-head'-woman) in the Shu 蜀, and the "Nü-hua-can" is usually regarded as a tale about the origin of the silkworms.