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Brief Introduction of Chinese Embroidery
Embroidery, a folk art
with a long tradition, occupies an important position in
the history of Chinese arts and crafts. It is, in its long
development, inseparable from silkworm-raising and
silk-reeling and weaving.
China is the first country in the world that discovered
the use of silk. Silkworms were domesticated as early as
5000 years ago. The production of silk thread and fabrics
gave rise to the art of embroidery. According to the
classical Shangshu(or Book of History), the
"regulations on costumes" of 4000 years ago
stipulated among other things "dresses and skirts
with designs and embroideries". This is evidence that
embroidery had become an established art by that remote
time.
In 1958 a piece of silk was found in a tomb of the state
of Chu of the Warring Sates Period (475-221B.C). It is
embroidered with a dragon-and-phoenix design. More than
2000 years old, it is the earliest piece of Chinese
embroidery ever unearthed.
The art became widespread during the Han Dynasty (206
B.C.-220 A.D.); many embroidered finds date back to that
period.
Today, silk embroidery is practised nearly all over China.
The best commercial products, it is generally agreed, come
from four provinces: Jiangsu (notably Suzhou), Hunan,
Sichuan and Guangdong, each with its distinctive features.
Embroidered works have become highly complex and exquisite
today. Take the double-face embroidered "Cat",
representative work of Suzhou embroidery, for example, the
artist splits the hair-thin coloured silk thread into
filaments-half, quarter 1/12 or even 1/48 of its original
thickness-- and uses these in embroidering concealing in
the process the thousands of ends and joints and making
them disappear as if by magic. The finished work is a cute
and mischievous-looking cat on both sides of the
groundwork. The most difficult part of the job is the eyes
of the cat. To give them lustre and life, silk filaments
of more than 20 colours or shades have to be used.
Recently, on the basis of two-face embroidery have
developed further innovations-- the same design on both
sides in different colours, and totally different patterns
on the two faces of the same groundwork. It seems that
possibilities hitherto unknown to the art may yet be
explored.
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