Suzhou Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
The origins of Su embroidery technique are unknown.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
"Su embroidery" is the abbreviation for Suzhou embroidery, named after the place where it arose; historically it existed widely in the towns and villages of Suzhou. In the past decade the Su embroidery industry has gradually shrunk; it is now concentrated mainly in downtown Suzhou and around Dongzhu Town and Zhenhu Subdistrict in the High-tech Zone. Extant Su embroidery objects dating from the Song dynasty onward reveal the state of development and actual level of Su embroidery technique in different historical periods. For example, fragments of Yuan-dynasty Su embroidery show that at that time one work already employed nine kinds of embroidery stitches; Ming-dynasty embroideries mostly used literati-painting designs and began to form a distinctive style of refined elegance; in the Qing dynasty Su embroidery became an industry, with commodity embroidery extremely developed, so Suzhou gained the reputation of an "embroidery market." During the Daoguang reign, the Suzhou woman Ding Pei summarized embroidery techniques and completed the Embroidery Manual, China's first specialized work on embroidery; in the late Qing and early Republican period, the renowned Su embroidery master Shen Shou created "realistic embroidery" (fangzhen xiu) and in his later years dictated the Xueyi Embroidery Manual, summing up his embroidery experience; in the 1930s the Su embroidery master Yang Shouyu created "random-stitch embroidery" (luanzhen xiu), enriching and expanding the subject matter and content of Su embroidery; in the 1950s the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute was established, gathering and training large numbers of Su embroidery talents who, on the basis of inheriting traditional stitch methods, researched and created many new embroidery methods and stitches, enabling Su embroidery technique to develop and improve continuously. Since the Ming dynasty Su embroidery has produced masters generation after generation and a profusion of schools; the Su embroidery lineages that still have definite successors and influence today can be divided into three main lines: traditional fine embroidery, the "realistic embroidery" created by Shen Shou, and the "random-stitch embroidery" created by Yang Shouyu. The techniques of these three lineages all have rich and varied adaptability, complete and systematic craft principles, a traditional quality of calligraphy and painting, and strong local color. Su embroidery has always been the most representative craft art of the Suzhou region and is of great value to research in disciplines such as the history of craft art, folklore studies, and women's studies. But with the development of the modern commodity economy and of science and technology, computer embroidery technology has come into general use; under these circumstances the living space of Su embroidery is shrinking day by day. Su embroidery inheritors of superb skill and high-quality Su embroidery artworks are becoming fewer and fewer, and Su embroidery faces a crisis of orderly transmission, urgently requiring rescue and protection.
The three lineages of Su embroidery
Su embroidery today has three living lineages: traditional fine embroidery, Shen Shou's simulated embroidery, and Yang Shouyu's random-stitch embroidery.
Shen Shou and the Xueyi Embroidery Manual
The late-Qing master Shen Shou created simulated embroidery and dictated the Xueyi Embroidery Manual; Ding Pei of Suzhou had already written an embroidery manual in the Daoguang era.
Nine stitches on a Yuan dynasty fragment
Surviving Song-and-later pieces record the craft's development: a Yuan fragment shows nine stitches on one work, while Ming pieces took literati paintings as drafts and formed the fine, elegant style.
The 'embroidery market' and its workshops
In the Qing dynasty Su embroidery became a trade and Suzhou was known as an embroidery market; the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute was founded in the 1950s.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The place of origin and distribution of Su embroidery is the old city of Suzhou and its suburbs, which in the Ming and Qing dynasties, because commodity embroidery was so developed, had the reputation of an "embroidery market." In the past decade the industry has contracted, and embroidery workshops and artists are now concentrated in downtown Suzhou and around Dongzhu Town and Zhenhu Subdistrict in the High-tech Zone; in Zhenhu, the villages along the shores of Lake Tai still have an embroidery frame in every household.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Suzhou Embroidery · Suzhou Embroidery · Suzhou Embroidery · Suzhou Embroidery.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Li Eying (recorded in the official archives of associated inheritors): Female; Han; born in 1926; a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu. She is a representative inheritor of the first national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Su Embroidery and a master of Chinese arts and crafts. Li Eying was full of pioneering and innovative spirit: she was the first to use transparent nylon gauze as the ground fabric for double-sided embroidery, a technique especially good at depicting goldfish; she also used a gold-paste ground to embroider Plum Blossoms and a Quiet Bird. Most of her representative works are double-sided embroideries, such as Peace Dove, Kingfisher, and Pine and Crane Longevity; among them, the Peace Dove design was the earliest to be embroidered as a double-sided embroidered handkerchief and was presented as a state gift to foreign friends. Gu Wenxia (recorded in the official archives of associated inheritors): Female; Han; born in 1931; a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu. She is a representative inheritor of the first national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Su Embroidery and a master of Chinese arts and crafts. In the 1950s, under the guidance of the senior artist Jin Jingfen at the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute, her skill advanced rapidly. In 1955 she wrote The Types of Su Embroidery Stitches and Methods of Embroidering, which was translated into Russian by the state and forwarded to the former Soviet Union as material for cultural exchange. In 1969 she went to Albania for a year to teach her craft. In 1986 she founded the China Su Embroidery Art Museum. Her embroideries have the artistic qualities of "antiquity, refinement, and novelty," and she made outstanding contributions to inheriting traditional Su embroidery craft and developing new products. The subjects of her embroideries are mostly cats, fish, flowers, and the like.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Eying 01-0078
- Gu Wenxia 01-0079
- Yao Jianping 03-1238
- Zhao Hongyu 03-1239
- Jin Leilei 03-1240
- Yu Fuzhen 04-1764
- Zhang Yuying 04-1765
- Jiang Xueying 04-1766
- Yao Huifen 04-1767
- Zhang Meifang 04-1768
- Wu Xiaoping 05-2596
- Sun Yanyun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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