Embroidery, also known as "needle embroidery", is commonly known as "embroidery". Drawing colored lines (silk, velvet and thread) with embroidery needles, and embroidering needles on fabrics (silk, cloth and silk) according to the designed patterns to form patterns or characters with embroidery marks is one of the excellent national traditional crafts in China. It was called "haze" and "needle haze" in ancient times. Later, because embroidery was mostly made by women, it was also called "needlework". According to the Book of History, as early as 4,000 years ago, the system of chapter clothes stipulated that "clothes should be embroidered". In the Zhou Dynasty, there was a record of "embroidery * * *". The level of embroidery in the Warring States and Han Dynasties unearthed in Hubei and Hunan is very high. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, embroidery was used for painting, calligraphy and decoration. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the scale of court embroidery was large, and folk embroidery was further developed. Suzhou Embroidery, Guangdong Embroidery, Xiang Embroidery and Shu Embroidery came into being one after another, and they are called "Four Famous Embroideries". In addition, there are Gu Embroideries, such as Beijing Embroidery, Ou Embroidery, Lu Embroidery, Min Embroidery, Bian Embroidery, Han Embroidery and Miao Xiu, all of which have their own styles, which have been handed down for a long time. There are dozens of embroidery stitches, such as Qi Zhen, sleeve needle, inserting needle, long and short needle, minute needle, Ping Jin, and shifting sand, which are rich in colors and have their own characteristics. The uses of embroidery include: shroud, song and dance or opera clothes, tablecloths, pillowcases, cushions and other daily necessities, screens, wall hangings and other furnishings.

The Origin of Chinese Embroidery

Embroidery originated very early. Embroidered characters of hedgehogs can be found in history books. At the time of Yu Shun, there was embroidery. Officials were appointed to perform their duties in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and there was court embroidery in the Han Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, Wu asked Mrs. Zhao to embroider the landscape army array. In the first year of Tang Yongzhen (A.D. 805), Lu Meiniang embroidered seven volumes of "Northern Territory" on the ruler and silk, which was famous for its embroidery and recorded before. Since the Han Dynasty, embroidery has gradually become a boudoir stunt, and famous embroidery workers have also occupied a place in the art history.

At present, the earliest embroideries are two embroideries from the Warring States Period unearthed from Chu Tomb in Changsha, Hunan. Looking at its stitch, it is completely embroidered on silk and Luo with braided needles (that is, lock embroidery). The stitch is neat, the color is elegant, and the lines are smooth, which makes the pattern like a dragon and a phoenix dance, natural and vivid, lively and powerful, which fully shows chu xiu's artistic achievements. The embroidery of the Han Dynasty was unearthed in the Thousand Buddha Cave in Dunhuang, Wuluchong Tomb in Hebei Province, and the northern tombs of Astana in northern Inner Mongolia and Turpan, Xinjiang, especially 1972 Changsha Mawang. Judging from these embroideries, the themes of Han embroidery patterns are mostly wave moire, phoenix flying with wings, galloping beasts, and ribbon patterns and geometric patterns common in mirror decoration in Han Dynasty. The newly adopted base material for embroidery was the popular fabric at that time, such as silk brocade woven into auspicious words such as "Long life and bright future" and "Changle". Its techniques are mainly lock embroidery, with full patterns, compact composition, neat stitches and extremely smooth lines.

Silk fabrics from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Northern Dynasties were unearthed in Dunhuang, Xinjiang, Hotan, Gansu, Bachu and Turpan. The whole embroidery, whether it is a pattern or a blank space, is embroidered with fine lock embroidery, which has become the characteristic of embroidery everywhere. Embroidery spread and unearthed in the Tang Dynasty is closely related to religion and art in the Tang Dynasty. Among them, there are many embroidered Buddha statues in the Tang Dynasty, such as the embroidered account of Ling jiusan found in the Thousand Buddha Cave in Dunhuang and the illustration of Sakyamuni in Nara National Museum, which are directly related to the belief in Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the embroidery technology still follows the lock embroidery of Han Dynasty, but the stitch technology has already started to change to the flat embroidery, and a variety of different stitches and colors have been adopted. The embroidery base used is not limited to brocade and plain silk. The patterns used in embroidery are closely related to painting. In the paintings of the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the Buddha figures, landscape flowers and birds are also very prosperous. Therefore, Buddha statues, pavilions, flowers and birds have also become embroidery patterns, with lively composition and bright colors. The use of micro-embroidery, combined with the use of various color lines and stitches, replaces the painting depicted by pigments, forming a special art, which is also the unique style of Tang embroidery. As for winding the outline of the pattern with gold and silver thread to enhance the three-dimensional sense of the object, it can also be regarded as an innovation of embroidery in the Tang Dynasty.

Before the Tang Dynasty, embroidery was mostly for practical and decorative purposes, and the content of embroidery was related to the needs and customs of life. Embroidery works in Song Dynasty are not only practical products, but also devoted to embroidery. Since the Jin and Tang Dynasties, literati loved calligraphy and applied it to painting. Calligraphy and painting was the highest artistic expression at that time, but in Song Dynasty, it was applied to silk embroidery, and the style of calligraphy and painting directly affected the style of embroidery. Embroidery painting should be closely related to the paintings of all ages up to the Qing Dynasty.

The development of embroidery in Song Dynasty was encouraged by the imperial court at that time. According to the Official History of Song Dynasty, the Chinese Embroidery Institute of the Forbidden City compiled embroidery products. During the reign of Hui Zong, there was also an expert in embroidery painting, who divided embroidery painting into landscapes, pavilions, figures and flowers and birds. As a result, famous embroidery workers appeared one after another, which made painting develop to the highest level, and brought calligraphy and painting into embroidery from practicality to artistic appreciation, forming a unique ornamental embroidery. In order to make the works achieve vivid artistic conception of painting and calligraphy, there should be a plan before embroidery, and the situation should be assessed and refined when embroidery. Composition must be simplified, and the choice of patterns is very important, which is completely different from embroidery with or without patterns in the Tang Dynasty. Dong Qichang's Secret Records of Yun Qing Xuan in the Ming Dynasty recorded: "Song people embroidered with fine needle and thread, one or two threads were stopped by velvet, and one needle was as thin as hair, making it gorgeous and brilliant. The mountains and rivers are far interesting, the pavilions are deep, the figures are vivid and the flowers and birds are graceful. The best one is better than painting, the third one is interesting and well prepared, and the spring breeze is covered here. " This description roughly explains the characteristics of Song embroidery.

There are few embroideries handed down from the Yuan Dynasty. Taiwan Province Province only hired one work in the Palace Museum, which still inherited the legacy of the Song Dynasty. The velvet used by Yuan people is a little thicker and the needles are not dense, which is not as beautiful as Song embroidery.

The dyeing and weaving technology of the Ming Dynasty was only developed during the Xuande period. Embroidery began in Shanghai Guluxiang Garden during Jiajing period, and it was handed down from generation to generation with embroidery, and many famous ladies came forth in large numbers. Gu Shouqian, the second grandson of Gu Ming, and his wife, Han Ximeng, are well versed in the six methods, far from the true biography of hair embroidery in Tang and Song Dynasties. Imitation embroidery of ancient and modern celebrity calligraphy and painting, silk color matching, secret biography, so it can be printed in words, embroidered landscape figures, flowers and birds, all exquisite, known as Luxiangyuan Gu embroidery, covered with so-called painting embroidery. This is the famous ancient embroidery.

Gu embroidery stitch mainly inherited the most complete embroidery stitch in Song Dynasty, and changed and applied it, which can be described as a great achievement of stitch. Most of the wires used are flat wires, and sometimes twisted wires are used. The thread is as thin as a hair and the stitches are flat, but the variety of colored threads used is incomparable to Song embroidery. At the same time, the middle color line is used, and the color is borrowed and supplemented, and embroidery and painting are used together to make the manuscript realistic. According to the needs of the pattern, you can use materials at will, regardless of the method. True grass, Siamese cockfighting tail hair, fine gold and hair can all be embroidered with innovative ideas, especially with hair embroidery to complete the production of paintings, which has never been seen in the history of dyeing and weaving in the world. This shows that Gu embroidery has extremely ingenious embroidery techniques.

Embroidery in Qing Dynasty was mostly court embroidery, which was mostly drawn by painters in Ruyige, a palace manufacturing office. After approval, it was sent to three weaving and embroidery workshops under the jurisdiction of Jiangnan Weaving, and the embroidery was still very neat and exquisite. Besides the court embroidery, there are many local embroideries, such as Lu embroidery, Yue embroidery, Xiang embroidery, Jing embroidery, Su embroidery and Shu embroidery, all of which have their own local characteristics. Suzhou Embroidery, Sichuan Embroidery, Guangdong Embroidery and Hunan Embroidery are the four major local embroideries, which are later called "Four Famous Embroideries", among which Suzhou Embroidery is the most famous. In the heyday of Suzhou embroidery, schools proliferated, famous artists competed for beauty, and embroidery was widely used in daily life, which led to various changes in embroidery stitch, refinement of embroidery workers and more ingenious color matching of embroidery thread. Most of the patterns made are festive, long-lived and auspicious, especially flower-and-bird embroidery, which is deeply loved by people, and famous embroidery has come out one after another, such as Ding Pei and Shen Shou.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, western learning spread to the east, and innovative works appeared in Suzhou embroidery. During Guangxu period, Yu Jue's wife Shen was famous for her exquisite embroidery skills and Suzhou embroidery world. When Shen Shi was 30 years old, it was the 70th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi. Shen Shi embroidered eight "Eight Immortals' Birthdays" and was given the words "Fu" and "Shou", so he changed his name to Shen Shou. Shen Xiu developed the old methods with new ideas, expressed light and color, and participated in realism. In his embroidery, he showed the characteristics of imitating western painting, and created a new kind of "simulated embroidery" or "artistic embroidery" with diverse stitches and three-dimensional sense.

With the development and innovation of Suzhou embroidery, many new embroideries have been formed today, such as random embroidery, bundle embroidery, Shuang Mianxiu, double-sided embroidery with different colors, subtle embroidery and colorful embroidery. In addition, there are many embroidery of frontier ethnic minorities, which also fully shows the natural beauty and simple beauty of the original style. Embroidery was mostly practical at first, but by the production of Song, Yuan, Guang and calligraphy and painting, it gradually became an artistic treasure. Most of the embroideries in the Forbidden City belong to this category. The earliest era was the Five Dynasties, and the most articles were the Qing Dynasty. After several generations of innovation and development, each has its own characteristics and achieved great success. The collections of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan are almost all fine works, with even embroidery, fine needle and thread, exquisite color and won the essence of calligraphy, and all of them are mounted into scrolls, which often makes viewers mistakenly think that calligraphy and painting are to appreciate the artistic value of the collection.