Suzhou Kesi Weaving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
In the Southern Song dynasty, the Suzhou kesi silk industry had already achieved brilliant results. From the Ming dynasty onward, kesi silk techniques spread widely through the Suzhou urban area and the surrounding towns of Likou, Lumou, Huangqiao, Guangfu, and Dongzhu, becoming one of the most representative cultural expressions of the region. By the Qing dynasty, a new technique combining kesi weaving with painting had emerged. In the 1960s, starting from the reproduction of famous Southern Song kesi works, artisans revived kesi silk weaving, which had been on the verge of extinction before the founding of the People's Republic of China. By the 1970s and 1980s, five kesi silk factories had successively been established in Suzhou, and kesi weaving techniques underwent unprecedented development.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Kesi is an ancient silk-weaving technique of Suzhou, found mainly in Suzhou and its surrounding areas. Kesi silk weaving mainly uses an ancient wooden loom together with several bamboo shuttles and picks; through the technique of continuous warp and broken weft, multicolored silk threads are woven into a fabric rich in color and complete in tonal gradation. This fabric has the distinguishing feature that its patterns and designs look the same on both the front and the back. At the outlines of patterns and at tonal transitions, the surface of the fabric appears as if scored with a small knife, showing small gaps or breaks; viewed through the gaps, it has the appearance of carving, hence the name kesi (carved) silk. In the Ming dynasty, Suzhou kesi weaving techniques became even more exquisite, famed for imperial dragon robes in kesi and for kesi works of painting and calligraphy in which facial features are woven. The two double-faced kesi works with entirely different designs on each side, Twin Butterflies, Peony, and Camellia and Longevity Star, achieved a new breakthrough on the basis of traditional kesi and have attracted wide attention; they are collected as national-treasure-level rarities. As the earliest silk fabric used for artistic appreciation, kesi has long been celebrated for its fine workmanship and its artistic character — simple and elegant, with beauty glowing through splendor — and is praised as the sage of weaves. At the same time, because it withstands touching, rubbing, kneading, scrubbing, and washing, it has also earned the reputation of an art fabric that lasts a thousand years.
The wooden loom and bamboo shuttles
On an old wooden loom with bamboo shuttles, the warp runs unbroken while wefts change with each colour band, producing a fully graduated image.
The breaks at the colour change
The design reads the same on both faces, and at every contour and gradation the surface shows small knife-like openings unique to kesi.
Household looms at Zhenhu and Hushuguan
Household looms once stood in almost every household at Zhenhu and Hushuguan, supplying both the court and mounters of paintings.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Kesi silk weaving techniques are found mainly in Suzhou and its surrounding areas; the ancient wooden loom with bamboo shuttles and picks is the basic tool. The Zhenhu and Xushuguan areas of Suzhou once had household workshops in which every household wove kesi. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, kesi has also supplied top-quality pieces for imperial court weaving and for mounting paintings and calligraphy. Suzhou Master Wang Jinshan Kesi Studio Co., Ltd. serves as the project protection unit, and kesi artisans are trained mainly through master-apprentice instruction alongside family transmission.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Kesi works have high ornamental value; the finest kesi pieces of successive dynasties embody rich cultural information, and kesi techniques express the character of traditional culture, possessing corresponding cultural and scientific value. Under the impact of modernization, Suzhou kesi weaving techniques are on the verge of extinction because of long production cycles, high costs, and high prices; most people currently engaged in the industry are middle-aged or older, and their prospects are cause for concern, so it is necessary to draw up plans for their protection. Wang Jinshan (record from the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1939, of Suzhou, Jiangsu. Representative inheritor of Suzhou kesi silk weaving technique, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the first batch; master of Chinese arts and crafts. Wang Jinshan joined the Suzhou Embroidery Arts and Crafts Cooperative in 1956 and studied kesi under Shen Jinshui. Through many years of practice and exploration, he became able to correctly analyze the weave structure, style, and characteristics of kesi works of each period, and then to carry out effective technique identification, thread preparation, dyeing, repair, and reproduction of the works. On the basis of inheriting tradition, he developed new kesi techniques and pioneered the fully-different-faced kesi Longevity Star. His 1965 reproduction of the Song kesi master Shen Zifan's Plum Tree and Magpie was listed as a national first-grade cultural relic and collected by the Palace Museum. The large-scale kesi work on a gold ground of Chairman Mao's poem West River Moon: Jinggang Mountains, made in 1977, was collected by the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. In 2006, the kesi hall hanging of peonies and butterflies on a gold ground was collected by the Chinese National Academy of Arts. Wang Jinshan began taking apprentices in the 1960s, and in recent years has continually expanded his influence; he has published numerous articles.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Jinshan 01-0133
- Ma Huijuan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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