Qingyangxiangbaoxiuzhi
01 · Historical Records
In Qin times the area was Beidi Commandery; in the Sui dynasty it became Qingzhou, and in the Song dynasty it was fixed as Qingyang Prefecture. The Qingyang region has a custom of making and wearing “chu chu” sachets at the Dragon Boat Festival (“chu” originally referred to a sewing method using a primitive bone needle, and later came to denote cloth-sewn bags whose mouths could be drawn tight or loosened). When this custom began cannot be verified; it is said to have taken shape as early as the 23rd century BC. Qibo, the author of the Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine), once carried a medicine bag to ward off epidemics and drive away pestilence and to guard against snake venom, founding the “steaming and fumigation method.” By the Ming and Qing dynasties Qingyang sachets were extremely flourishing, becoming prized items for wearing or giving as gifts. Before the 1960s, the embroidery of Qingyang sachets had spread to every household; girls in Qingyang typically “learned needlework at seven or eight years of age.” In the 1960s Qingyang sachets began to fall into decline.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qingyang City lies in the easternmost part of Gansu Province, on the Loess Plateau in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, at the junction of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia. Medicinal herbs are called “fragrant grasses” (xiang cao), and so the medicine bag came to be called a “sachet” (xiang bao) or “chu chu.” Over the past twenty years the making and embroidery of sachets has revived, and in 2002 the China Folklore Society named Qingyang City the “Home of Sachet Embroidery.” The Qingyang sachet is a purely handmade article combining three-dimensional form with flat embroidery, of simple and unadorned construction. By craft technique it falls into four major types: “chu chu” pieces, thread-coiled pieces, three-dimensional embroidery pieces, and flat embroidery pieces. “Chu chu,” also called hidden-needle embroidery, is characterized by concealing the needle and thread; it shapes objects through form, and its ideal state is to capture both likeness and spirit without revealing any needlework. Its process includes stages such as conception, selecting materials, cutting, and shaping the object. Thread-coiled sachets are “zongzi” (pyramidal rice dumplings) coiled from threads of various colors; the technique includes folding the shell, matching the colored threads, coiling the threads into shape, and finishing (that is, joining the coiled pieces together and hanging colored tassels on them). Sachets made in this way can be worn on the person, hung at the entrance of the home, or given as gifts, symbolizing peace and safety. Three-dimensional embroidered sachets are extremely varied in content and form, with nearly four hundred styles including single-sided hangings and pendants, double-sided hangings and pendants, three-dimensional hanging ornaments, and display pieces. Their production is divided into stages such as composing the design, embroidering, dyeing, stitching, and finishing, with process steps including tracing the pattern, drafting the pattern, enlarging the backing, applying the pattern, embroidering the flowers, shaping, finishing, and decorating. The finished articles seek spiritual likeness rather than literal resemblance. Flat embroidered sachets have a plain, dignified style whose solidity conveys an enduring charm. Their making employs methods such as split-thread stitching, joined-thread stitching, duo stitching, and the satin, braid, seam, mixed, tucked, turned-back, gold-coiling, gold-dotting, and gold-ringing stitches.
Archival Records of Process Steps
“Chu chu,” also called hidden-needle embroidery, is characterized by concealing the needle and thread; it shapes objects through form, and its ideal state is to capture both likeness and spirit without revealing any needlework. Its process includes stages such as conception, selecting materials, cutting, and shaping the object.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Qingyang sachet current in the region is also called “chu chu” and is a folk custom object of Qingyang. Because Qibo was born in Qingyang, this practice gradually became a local custom there and has been handed down without interruption.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xiangbao.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Qingyang sachet embroidery is a traditional craft; its principal inheritors today include Li Xiu'e and He Meiying. At present Qingyang sachet embroidery faces a situation in which handmade products are being replaced by modern reproductions, its embroidery techniques are gradually being lost, the very few workers with knowledge of folk culture are mostly retired, research talent is extremely scarce, and successors are lacking; it urgently awaits rescue and protection. He Meiying (from the official archive of associated inheritors): female, Han ethnicity, born in 1934, a native of Qingyang, Gansu. He Meiying learned embroidery from her mother at seven or eight years old; by thirteen or fourteen she had already produced exquisite needlework of a uniquely distinctive style. Her sachets are finely made, with delicate and varied stitches, gorgeous colors, and distinctive forms; moreover, the embroidery threads she uses are all drawn from natural silkworm cocoons, twisted together, and dyed — a highly exacting craft. In her methods of expression she combined traditional folk sachet embroidery with the wash techniques of Chinese painting, so that her works appeal to both refined and popular tastes. He Meiying's daughter Ji Qing inherited her mother's craft and, building on its foundations, has continually carried Qingyang sachets to deeper levels of development. Representative works include “Peonies and a Hundred Longevity Graphs,” “A Peacock Spreading Its Tail,” and “Plum and Bamboo.” Representative inheritor of Qingyang sachet embroidery, a project of the first national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- He Meiying 01-0087
- Jing Qiuhong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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