Yi Embroidery
01 · Historical Records
The history of Yi embroidery runs parallel with the process by which the Yi people shifted from gathering, fishing and hunting to farming and settled life; embroidery and dress must have arisen together, before the convention could exist of using patterns to mark lineage, family and age grade. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the women's dress of the various branches of the Yi people in Liangshan has gradually formed three main colour schemes of "black, red and yellow", and embroidery accordingly became the principal means of distinguishing branches and status; in recent years, driven by the national and local intangible cultural heritage protection projects, Yi embroidery has once more come out of the mountains, becoming a key category for export and industrialisation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yi embroidery is an outstanding traditional folk craft of the Yi people. It has a long history, exquisite workmanship, distinctive modelling, fine patterns and magnificent colours, and is rich in local character; with its distinctive ethnic decorative style it has become a remarkable flower in the embroidery art of China's ethnic groups. Yi embroidery generally uses flat-woven cloth of woollen, kapok and hemp textures as its ground; the embroidery threads include cotton thread, bulked coloured yarn, mercerised thread and gold thread; the common techniques include picked-flower work (tiaohua), appliqué, coiling, threading, locking and mending flower work. Its patterns consist chiefly of animal, plant and natural motifs such as the sun, flowers and grasses, the fire-steel (fire flint), ferns, oxen and sheep, and animal teeth. In colour, blue and black serve as the ground, with red, white, cyan, green, blue and yellow as the pattern colours. The technique and colouring of Yi embroidery have distinctly local features: Ganluo County relies mainly on picked-flower, appliqué, lock-stitch and coiling embroidery, with an elegant and archaic colour scheme that is brilliant but not vulgar; Yuexi County focuses on inlay embroidery and animal-tooth patterns, with a predominance of blue and green; Zhaojue mainly uses appliqué and picked-flower embroidery, with goat-horn and fire-steel patterns as the principal motifs, worked in red thread. Yi embroidery is applied mostly to the headscarves, floral hats, collars, shoulder yokes, front panels, cuffs, waistbands, capes and skirt hems of Yi dress, and also appears on everyday articles such as satchels, triangular bags, sewing kits and sachets. The layout of the embroidery shows technical skill, giving consideration to both aesthetics and durability: collars, cuffs and garment corners, for example, mostly use mending and locking flower work, deliberately reinforced to resist wear; headscarves, chest panels, trouser hems and triangular bags mostly use picked-flower work and embroidery for beauty's sake. Yi embroidery, with its brilliant colours, natural patterns, distinctive modelling and fine workmanship, is an outstanding traditional folk craft of the Yi people. Traditional Yi embroidery is transmitted in the form of mother-to-daughter and master-to-apprentice transmission. Yi embroidery contains the way of life, customs, folk beliefs, history, culture and aesthetic tastes of the Yi people, embodying their ethnic feeling and their hopes for a better life. It conveys meaning and feeling through form, and is the outward expression of the Yi people's inner emotions and sense of beauty.
Sun, firesteel, cattle and sheep
Sun, firesteel, fern, cattle, sheep and beast-tooth patterns run in continuous repeats suited to sleeves, collars and aprons.
Black and blue grounds
Dark blue and black grounds carry red, white, green and yellow flowers, the bright stitches standing out against the heavy cloth.
Six working methods
On wool, cotton or hemp plain weave, six methods — picking, patching, coiling, threading, lacing and darning — are worked in cotton, bulked acrylic, mercerised and gold threads.
The three main counties
Centred on Ganluo, Zhaojue and Yuexi in Liangshan, the craft now supports rural income and social stability alongside its cultural role.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It is distributed mainly in Ganluo County, Zhaojue County, Yuexi County and other areas of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and radiates to the surrounding regions.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Transmitting and developing it is an effective means of passing on the fine traditional culture of the ethnic group, and at the same time it plays a positive role in helping local employment and income growth, realising rural revitalisation, and promoting social harmony and stability.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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