Ningbo Jinyincaixiu
01 · Historical Records
After the Song dynasty, physical examples of gold and silver colored embroidery works gradually increased. During the Republican period, the Haiyun Temple and Xiantang Street areas of Ningbo had already become trade streets, with some thirty to forty embroidery shops. After the 1950s, the Ningbo area had embroidery-product cooperatives and embroidery factories producing gold and silver colored embroidery, continuing into the 1990s.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Gold and silver colored embroidery, also called "gold and silver embroidery," is embroidery worked on silk fabrics with gold and silver threads together with silk threads of various other colors, forming pieces bearing different patterns. It can serve both the needs of daily life and the making of theatrical costumes and art objects for appreciation. It is mostly used for government offices, folk celebrations, clothing and accessories, religion and interior furnishing. Ningbo gold and silver colored embroidery is mainly distributed in Yinzhou District of Ningbo City and the surrounding area. Since the Tang dynasty the area has been widely planted with mulberries, with silkworms raised and cocoons reeled, and it has the tradition that "every household weaves mats and every home embroiders." Ningbo gold and silver colored embroidery has gone through a fairly long process of historical evolution; according to relevant historical records and excavated artifacts, although the history of Chinese embroidery can be traced back to the Warring States period, the earliest surviving examples of gold and silver colored embroidery as an independent category are found on Tang dynasty garments. By the Qing dynasty, numerous embroidery teaching workshops, government-run embroidery houses, private embroidery-garment shops and embroidery firms had appeared inside and outside Yinzhou county town. The main techniques of Ningbo gold and silver colored embroidery are gold (silver) coiling and gold (silver) filling, which give full play to the properties of both the materials and the craft to enhance the texture and sense of space of the designs; the large-scale use of gold and silver color allows any color to coexist harmoniously within the same picture, producing an artistic effect that is at once magnificent and elegant; the pursuit is an organic combination of gold, silver and colored threads, giving the work the character of boldness within refinement, dots combined with areas, sturdy yet not stiff, and skillfully applied stitches. With the development of the commodity economy, and because hand embroidery has high costs and low returns, fewer and fewer people are engaged in gold and silver colored embroidery; at present only four or five people in Yinzhou District of Ningbo City are still in this trade.
Coiled and filled gold
Chiefly coiling and filling with gold and silver thread, the technique builds texture and depth in a style both bold and fine.
Gold, silver and coloured silks
Worked on silk with gold and silver as well as coloured threads, its broad metallic areas let any hues coexist in a splendid yet refined whole.
Earliest pieces in Tang dress
Though Chinese embroidery reaches back to the Warring States, the earliest independent gold-and-silver embroideries come from Tang garments.
Hundred Cranes and Four Seasons
The fourth-batch inheritor Xu Jinlun, born in 1948, designed the large screen A Hundred Cranes Facing the Sun, a Baihua gold-cup winner now in the national craft museum.
Official dress, stage costume and interiors
Serving daily needs as well as stage costume and art pieces, it is used for officials, festivities, dress, religion and interiors, though only four or five practitioners remain in Yinzhou.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Ningbo gold and silver colored embroidery centers on Yinzhou District of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, extending to Haishu, Jiangbei and Zhenhai, former counties under Ningbo Prefecture, and continuing in the demand for theatrical costumes and temple-fair attire in Cixi, Fenghua and other places. Together with Ningbo's zhujin lacquered wood carving and clay-gold colored lacquer, it belongs to the local "three golds" system of traditional crafts; because all are found in the same city, the patterns of gold and silver colored embroidery and the decorative motifs of zhujin lacquered wood objects share many common elements.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Gold and silver colored embroidery urgently needs protection and transmission. Xu Jinlun (associated inheritor, according to the official archival record): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1948, native of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. Senior craft and fine-art engineer. In 1962 he joined the Ningbo Embroidery Products Factory, and later served as director of its design office. Since the Yinzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum opened in 2015, he has persisted in conducting teaching and practice sessions there twice a week, transmitting and promoting the culture of Ningbo gold and silver colored embroidery. Representative inheritor of Ningbo gold and silver colored embroidery, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project (fourth batch). As chief designer he produced the large gold-and-silver colored embroidery standing screen A Hundred Cranes Facing the Sun, which won the Gold Cup Award at the 8th China Craft and Fine Art Hundred Flowers Awards and was collected by the China National Museum of Arts and Crafts; his gold and silver colored embroidery Four Seasons of Fragrant Flowers was selected for the 5th National Craft and Fine Art Exhibition; and his Twin Vases of Brocade Splendor, Clustered Cranes, Four-Panel Screen of Antique Motifs and A Hundred Birds Singing in Harmony, among other pieces, won various awards.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xu Jinlun 04-1818
- Qiu Qunzhu
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。