Guxiu
01 · Historical Records
According to the Songjiang County Gazetteer of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming dynasty, "Gu embroidery: on square pieces it works in flowers and birds, on sachets, figures; the needlework is exquisite and is found in no other prefecture." Dong Qichang, a representative figure of the Songjiang school of painting in the Ming dynasty, greatly admired Gu embroidery, praising it as "exquisite workmanship that surpasses all ingenuity, beyond the reach of peers ... human skill pushed to the extreme equals the work of nature — truly marvelous." According to the Songjiang Prefecture Gazetteer of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty, Gu Lanyu "was skilled at needlework, set up a curtained studio to teach disciples, and female students all came to study under her; people of the time also referred to it as Gu embroidery." After the 1950s, Shanghai ran quite a number of Gu embroidery factories, most of which have now closed.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Gu embroidery was founded by Mistress Miao, a concubine of Gu Huihai, son of Gu Mingshi — a presented scholar (jinshi) of Songjiang Prefecture in the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty — and is the only embroidery school in Jiangnan named after a family. Gu Mingshi's second grandson's wife, Han Ximeng, was skilled at painting and showed remarkable ingenuity in stitch technique and the use of color, markedly raising the artistic quality of this embroidery; Gu embroidery thus also came to be called "painting embroidery" (huaxiu). Its main characteristics are three: first, it is half embroidery and half painting, excelling at supplementing colors and borrowing colors; second, its materials are unusual; third, it uses intermediate tones to create graduated blending. Using this method of combining embroidery and painting, Han Ximeng spent several years of effort embroidering copies of eight famous Song and Yuan paintings (album leaves), which were highly prized by the world. The "painting embroidery" stage founded by Han Ximeng was the early period of Gu embroidery's development; the embroidered pieces were mostly family needlework, known at the time as "Han Yuan embroidery," and were used essentially for the family collection or as gifts. After Han Ximeng, the Gu family's fortunes declined, and they gradually came to rely on the embroidery of the women of the household for their livelihood, recruiting female workers on a wide scale; from then on Gu embroidery shifted from family needlework to commodity embroidery. "The stitch techniques of Gu embroidery spread beyond the family, and the fame of Gu embroidery resounded throughout the land." During the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty, Ding Pei of Songjiang, who was expert in both embroidery and the principles of painting, wrote the Embroidery Manual (Xiu Pu), and was one who "knew the subtlety of Gu embroidery in her heart and could put that subtlety into words." "Thereafter all who imitated it called their work Gu embroidery; the embroidery shops even used Gu embroidery as their signboard, and almost all embroidery produced in Suzhou came to be known by the name Gu embroidery." "In the early 20th century a Gu embroidery class appeared at the Songyun Girls' Vocational School in Songjiang. Dai Mingjiao, now nearly ninety years old, was once a student of that class; she is the representative bearer of Gu embroidery in Songjiang for nearly half a century and the author of the book A Preliminary Study of Gu Embroidery Stitch Techniques." Gu embroidery is the product of a combination of folk embroidery art and literati painting; practitioners must possess a traditional cultivation in calligraphy and painting. For this very reason it is difficult to popularize, and its production is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Under the influence of modern industry, large numbers of Gu embroidery imitations have flooded the market, forming an impact on Gu embroidery. Although the name Gu embroidery remains famous, those in Shanghai who have truly grasped the essence of "painting embroidery" can now scarcely be found; measures must therefore be taken to rescue, protect, document, and explore this traditional embroidery art.
Mi's founding of the craft at Luxiang Garden
Gu embroidery was created by Mi, concubine of Gu Huihai; because the family lived at Luxiang Garden it was also called Luxiang Garden embroidery, the only clan-named embroidery school in Jiangnan.
Painting embroidery and Han Ximeng
Han Ximeng, a painter herself, spent years reproducing eight Song and Yuan paintings as album leaves; her work was called 'Han's embroidery' and the craft itself 'painting embroidery'.
Half stitch, half brush and mid-tone blending
Gu embroidery is half stitched and half painted, favours supplementary and borrowed colour, uses unusual materials and blends intermediate tones for a literati-painting effect.
The Embroidery Manual and later codification
In the Daoguang era the Songjiang writer Ding Pei produced the Embroiderry Manual; in modern times Dai Mingjiao wrote a preliminary study of Gu embroidery stitches.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Gu embroidery originated with the Gu family of Luxiang Garden in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture; today its main area of distribution is Songjiang District, Shanghai.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Gu Lanyu, the great-granddaughter of Gu Mingshi, received direct instruction from Mistress Miao and Han Ximeng and passed the technique on. Dai Mingjiao (recorded in the official archives of associated inheritors): Female; Han; born in 1922; a native of Shanghai. From childhood Dai Mingjiao had a passion for embroidery; in the Gu embroidery class of Songyun Girls' School she systematically studied basic skills including embroidery and fine art, and fully mastered the fundamental techniques of Gu embroidery and the methods of fine art. Gu embroidery is adept at expressing the physical structure of images through various stitch techniques; it takes a long time, and even a small work requires six months to complete. Dai Mingjiao embroidered more than forty works, and also learned double-sided embroidery from Su embroidery, completing Fish Sporting Among Algae, the first double-sided work in the history of Gu embroidery. Dai Mingjiao played a vital linking role in the transmission of Gu embroidery technique, enabling Gu embroidery, which had been on the verge of being lost, to continue and be passed on in Songjiang, and she trained a group of successors to Gu embroidery. Two manuscripts — A Preliminary Study of Gu Embroidery Stitch Techniques and A Brief Discussion of the Relationship between Embroidery and Painting in Gu Embroidery and Its Prospects — were dictated by her and recorded and compiled by her son. Her representative works include Japanese Court Ladies, Red Smartweed and Waterfowl, and The Cloth-Bag Monk. She is a representative inheritor of the first national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Gu Embroidery.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Dai Mingjiao 01-0077
- Qian Yuefang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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