Printing and dyeing are handicrafts closely related to folk costumes and daily room decoration, mainly including batik, tie-dyeing, blue printed cloth, color printing canvas and so on. , mainly used in clothing, hats, bedding, bed decorations, door curtains, luggage cloth, etc. , is a very widely used fabric.
Embroidery includes four famous embroideries, local folk embroidery and ethnic embroidery. The four famous embroideries are Xiang embroidery, Su embroidery, Shu embroidery and Yue embroidery. Representative national and folk embroidery in various places includes Miao Xiu embroidery, local embroidery, Manchu pillow top embroidery (embroidered at both ends of the pillow), Hubei embroidery and folk hand embroidery in Shaanxi, Shaanxi and Henan. Traditional embroidery in China is divided into folk embroidery and four famous embroideries according to different users, regions and exquisite craftsmanship.
Folk embroidery is a popular embroidery technique in China, which is relative to the "Four Famous Embroideries" with palace culture and literati painting style. Traditional embroidery in China has a long history, which exists with the emergence and development of silk. As early as four or five thousand years ago, embroidery has become an important decorative means in the "Zhangfu System". The embroidery unearthed from Mawangdui tomb in Changsha more than two thousand years ago has been rich in stitches. It can be seen that there were stylized fixing processes with different stitches in the embroidery process at that time. 1982 Embroidered quilts and Zen (single) clothes from the Warring States Period were unearthed from No.1 Chu Tomb in Mashan, Jiangling, Hubei Province. They were embroidered with dragons, phoenixes and tigers, which were vivid and gorgeous.
There is a poem "I have embroidered my waist, and there is light in life" in the Yuefu poem "Peacock flies southeast" in Han Dynasty. During the late Han Dynasty and the Six Dynasties, figures appeared in embroidery themes, which set a precedent for later figure embroidery. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, literati began to participate in the design of embroidery drawings. The poetic and elegant paintings of literati paintings influenced the creation of folk embroidery, and embroidery began to develop in the direction of refinement and literati. In the Song Dynasty, embroidery almost became the most common and important kind of women's embroidery, and the embroidery creation of many well-educated wealthy women made the embroidery process more exquisite and wonderful. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many commercial embroidery workshops appeared in urban and rural areas of China. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, China traditional embroidery first appeared in Shanghai, called Gu Embroidery. It is famous for its exquisite embroidery and ingenious personal style with needles. It is good at embroidering flowers and birds, animals, pictures, hand scrolls and other furnishings, indicating that traditional embroidery has become an independent art from a decorative means attached to clothing. In the Qing Dynasty, several important embroidery schools appeared, such as Beijing embroidery, Kaifeng embroidery, Lu Xiu embroidery, and four famous embroideries praised by later generations.
In the late Qing Dynasty, folk embroidery techniques with local and technical characteristics appeared in various places. However, for a long time, the official culture and elite culture have paid little attention to the folk embroidery skills that have appeared in various places, let alone recorded and commented on them. Folk embroidery is basically in the position of ordinary "craft" which is completely integrated with daily life, but it is the art of this kind of life that makes folk embroidery spontaneously preserved from generation to generation and become the most wonderful, vivid and culturally rich intangible cultural category in traditional art we see today. China brocade has a long history. According to archaeological findings, as early as the pre-Qin period, multicolor jacquard tapestries such as "He Ling Brocade", "Flowers Fill Yan Brocade" and "Dragon and Phoenix Brocade" were produced. In the Han dynasty, brocade with beautiful patterns was woven with complex and precise jacquard machines. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, brocade and makeup satin made of various silk and gold and silver threads were colorful and magnificent, and were praised as icing on the cake.
Shu brocade is produced in Sichuan, mainly in Chengdu, so Chengdu is also known as Jincheng and Jinguan City. In addition, Sichuan brocade is also produced in Nanchong, Langzhong, Leshan, Mianyang and Xindu. Shu brocade still uses the weaving of dyed silk, with tough texture, rich colors and unique local style. Jin Song, also known as "Suzhou Jin Song" because it originated in Suzhou today, is famous for its simplicity and elegance, and now it is facing the endangered situation of skill interruption. The origin of brocade is in Nanjing, and it is named after its magnificent brocade. Its pattern layout is rigorous and rich in decoration, and most of them use gold thread to show flowers or twist edges. It is the royal brocade of China, representing the highest technical level of brocade technology.