Tu Panxiu
01 · Historical Records
The origins of Tu pan embroidery can be traced back to around the fourth century CE. In tombs of the Tuyuhun, ancestors of the Tu people, excavated at Dulan County, Qinghai Province, embroidered pieces similar to pan embroidery were unearthed, showing that the technique already existed at that time. The Huzhu Tu Autonomous County lies on the southeastern foothills of the Qilian Mountains, in the transitional zone where the Loess Plateau meets the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau; pan embroidery was born, spread, and continued for more than a thousand years in this region.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Huzhu Tu Autonomous County is located in northeastern Qinghai Province, on the southeastern foothills of the Qilian Mountains, in the transitional zone where the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau interlock. Pan embroidery, the distinctive embroidery art of the Tu people, arose in this region. Tu pan embroidery is transmitted mainly in the townships of Donggou, Dongshan, Wushi, Songduo, and Danma in Huzhu County, Qinghai. In tombs of the Tuyuhun, ancestors of the Tu people, excavated at Dulan County, Qinghai Province, pieces similar to pan embroidery were unearthed, from which it can be seen that the technique already existed around the fourth century. Pan embroidery uses carefully chosen materials and fine workmanship: black pure-cotton cloth serves as the ground, over which a facing fabric is applied. Pan embroidery is worked in silk thread, in seven colors — red, yellow, green, blue, cinnamon red, purple, and white. All seven colors are generally used together, harmoniously coordinated and dazzlingly bright. The stitch of pan embroidery is quite unique: two threads of the same color are used together, one as the coiling thread and one as the stitching thread. Pan embroidery uses no frame; the embroiderer works directly with both hands, holding the cloth in the left hand and the needle in the right. The coiling thread is hung over the right chest, while the stitching thread is passed through the eye of the needle. On the upward stroke the thread is coiled and on the downward stroke it is stitched — one needle, two threads. Though it costs extra labor and material, the finished piece is thick, rich, and durable. The patterns of pan embroidery are ingeniously conceived and have a strong ethnic style; they include several dozen designs such as the dharma wheel (called 'kuangriluo' in the Tu language), the taiji (supreme ultimate) diagram, the five-petal plum, the shenxian-kuizi motif, cloud patterns, lozenges, sparrow heads, the 'endless wealth' pattern, human figures, and Buddha images. For more than a thousand years, pan embroidery has been transmitted mainly from mother to daughter, and also among sisters, sisters-in-law, and mothers- and daughters-in-law. At present, most of the older generation of pan-embroidery experts are advanced in years, and many have already passed away; some unique skills have quietly died out for want of successors. Young women, meanwhile, mostly prefer simpler embroidery techniques such as chopped stitch and machine work. These conditions have left pan embroidery short of successors and on the verge of extinction, and it urgently needs the mobilization of all available forces for its rescue and protection.
One needle, two threads: coiling above, stitching below
Holding two like-coloured threads at once—one coiled, one sewn—and working freehand without a frame, the embroiderer produces thick, splendid and durable pieces.
Seven colours on black cotton
Made carefully on black cotton with a facing of chosen cloth, pile embroidery uses seven silk colours—red, yellow, green, blue, cassia-red, purple and white—usually all together.
Prayer wheel, taiji and other motifs
Its motifs include the prayer wheel, called kuoriluo in the Tu language, the taiji diagram, five-petalled plum, cloud scrolls, diamonds, sparrow heads and figures and Buddhas.
Transmission from mother to daughter
For over a thousand years pile embroidery has passed mainly from mother to daughter; modern bearers include Ma Baoqing, Niu Masuo and Li Fashou, who has taught hundreds in county classes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Tu pan embroidery is transmitted mainly in Tu villages in the townships of Donggou, Dongshan, Wushi, Songduo, and Danma in the Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province, and has spread with Tu settlement to Minhe, Datong, Ledu, and other places.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The principal inheritors today include Ma Baoqing and Niu Masuo. Tu pan embroidery, with its thousand-year history, has been handed down to the present day, and its cultural and artistic value should not be underestimated. Tu pan embroidery is colorful and its patterns lifelike; in form, color, texture, and meaning it expresses the aesthetic attitudes and value judgments of its own ethnic group, providing living material for research in ethnology, aesthetics, and related fields. Since 1949, and especially over the past twenty-odd years, government departments at all levels and relevant personnel have carried out some excavation, rescue, and protection work on Tu pan embroidery, but this ancient ethnic craft still faces many difficult problems today. Li Faxiu (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, Tu ethnicity, born in 1959, from the Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai. From the age of thirteen she learned embroidery from her mother. Pan embroidery is a stitch technique with distinctive Tu characteristics, using two needles and threads at once; the work is fine, complex, and even. Li Faxiu uses the agricultural off-season to organize local embroidery enthusiasts and teach them pan embroidery, and since 1996 she has taught repeatedly at Tu embroidery training classes in the county's ethnic-minority townships, with more than a hundred person-times of trainees. Representative inheritor of Tu pan embroidery, a first-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Faxiu 01-0084
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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