Sichuan Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
By around 1925, Chengdu alone had more than 1,000 embroidery workers and over 60 shops. In the 1950s, Shu embroidery spread widely among the people of Sichuan. By the late 1970s, rural western Sichuan was virtually a scene of 'needlework in every household', with embroidery workers numbering four to five thousand.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shu embroidery, also known as Chuan embroidery, originated among the people of western Sichuan and takes its name from that region. The western Sichuan Plain flourished with silkworm raising in ancient times, which is why the area was called 'Shu'. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, during the Spring and Autumn period Shu transported silk and hemp fabrics to Yong, the capital of the Qin state, for trade; by the Eastern and Western Jin dynasties, embroidered goods had already become a specialty of the Shu region. Shu embroidery developed along with the flourishing silk-weaving industry of Shu; by the late Han and Three Kingdoms period, its products were controlled by the government. After the Sui and Tang dynasties, trade along the Silk Road caused demand for woven and embroidered goods to surge, and Shu embroidery grew rapidly under these conditions, reaching a historic peak. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, besides women's needlework in the inner chambers, many professional embroiderers and small embroidery workshops appeared in Sichuan. Shu embroidery is distinguished above all by its stitch techniques, which comprise 12 major categories and 122 individual stitches. Using locally woven satins in red, green, and other colors, together with loose thread as raw materials, Shu embroidery interweaves many different stitches. Its stitching is precise, its threads are laid evenly and steadily, and its coloring is elegant. It excels both at rendering delicate, lifelike images of flowers, birds, insects, and fish and at conveying the majestic momentum of landscapes. Influenced by geography, customs, and local culture and art, Shu embroidery has gradually developed over its long evolution a distinctive style that is meticulous and refined, bright and smooth, open in composition, mellow and rounded, and vivid in color. Shu embroidery has relatively high cultural and artistic value. However, affected by social change and market demand, Shu embroidery has declined markedly in production scale and commercial returns in recent years, causing large numbers of skilled artisans to change trades and disperse, while many ancient embroidery techniques have rapidly been lost.
Twelve categories, one hundred and twenty-two stitches
Shu embroidery is renowned for technique: 122 stitches in twelve categories, used strictly and evenly, adept at both delicate flowers, birds and fish and majestic landscapes.
Hibiscus and Carp and double-sided Shu work
Hibiscus and Carp is a celebrated modern double-sided piece; Meng Dezhi's rendering hangs in the Sichuan Hall of the Great Hall of the People.
The flat-hand thread-pulling stitch
Hao Shuping created the flat-hand thread-pulling stitch; her work is marked by smooth, bright thread surfaces, neat stitching, soft colour blending and vivid force.
Shu textile trade recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian
The Records of the Grand Historian note Shu textiles traded to the Qin capital; by the Jin dynasty embroidery was a Shu speciality, controlled by office in the Three Kingdoms and peaking with the Silk Road trade.
Local red and green satin with loose threads
Shu embroidery uses locally woven red and green satin and loose silk, its style becoming rigorous yet delicate, bright and level, with open composition and clear colour.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shu embroidery is produced mainly in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and on the western Sichuan Plain. In former times, weaving houses and embroidery shops in Chengdu were concentrated around Dongda Street and Qingshi Bridge, while farm women in Pixian, Xindu, Wenjiang, Shuangliang, and other counties took up embroidery as a sideline. By the late 1970s, rural western Sichuan was virtually a scene of 'needlework in every household', with four to five thousand embroiderers.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sichuan Embroidery.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Hao Shuping (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in 1945, from Chengdu, Sichuan. Representative inheritor of Shu embroidery, a first-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item; master of Chinese arts and crafts; recipient of a special government allowance from the State Council. In 1959, Hao Shuping entered the Shu embroidery class of the Chengdu Arts and Crafts Technical School, where, under the patient guidance of her teacher Peng Yongxing, she gradually mastered stitch techniques for figures, for flowers, birds, and animals, and the fine-wave stitch for landscapes; she is especially skilled at embroidering figures. To improve her craft, she also humbly sought instruction from renowned local painters and calligraphers, learning from their creative approach of close observation and emphasis on sketching from life. She has mastered more than one hundred Shu embroidery stitches and brings the full character of the craft — smooth and lustrous thread surfaces, even stitches, precise needlework, softly blended colors, effortless twisting of threads, vigorous and lifelike expression, and a well-judged balance of solid and void — into her embroidered pieces, giving the works vivid texture and spirit. Building on traditional Shu embroidery stitches, she also created the 'flat-hand drawn-flower stitch'. She has traveled abroad many times to demonstrate Shu embroidery in person, and her works have been collected by museums there. Her representative works include 'Wang Zhaojun Departs the Frontier', 'Wenjun Listening to the Zither', 'Double-sided Hibiscus and Carp', and 'A Lady with a Panda'. In training the younger generation of embroiderers, she emphasizes hands-on embroidery practice, supplemented by theoretical knowledge and basic drawing skills, and urges young people to break new ground boldly and to innovate. Meng Dezhi (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in March 1961, from Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Master of Chinese arts and crafts. She comes from a family of embroiderers. After more than thirty years of study and practice, she has fully mastered Shu embroidery techniques and all of its stitches, can embroider works of every kind, and is particularly skilled at 'double-sided different-color embroidery' and 'double-sided different-image embroidery'. Her representative works include 'Musicians of the Shu Palace', the double-sided 'Hibiscus and Carp' and 'Long-haired Dog', the different-color 'Lotus and Carp', and the different-image 'Wenjun Listening to the Zither' and 'Nine Sons and Panda'. 'Hibiscus and Carp' and 'Autumn on the Plateau' are displayed respectively in the Sichuan Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and in the conference hall of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Representative inheritor of Shu embroidery, a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. She has established Shu embroidery skills training bases in several places, training more than one hundred laid-off women workers, farmers who had lost their land, and unemployed young people into Shu embroidery artisans.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hao Shuping 01-0083
- Kang Ning 03-1241
- Huang Min 05-2598
- Meng Dezhi 05-2599
- Peng Shiping
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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