Development of Tin Embroidery

Tin embroidery was famous more than 200 years ago, and the earliest historical records appeared in the middle of Ming Dynasty. At that time, "cross stitch" and "overlapping yarn embroidery" were popular. For a long time, tin embroidery has been mainly decorated with broken flowers and patterns. During the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods of the Qing Dynasty (from the end of 18 to the middle of 19), Ding Pei, a famous embroidery artist from the south of the Yangtze River, once lived in Wuxi. During her life in Wuxi, she lived in a boudoir for a long time, engaged in embroidery creation and research, and constantly summed up her experience in her spare time, and occasionally learned something, that is, wrote down a record, "accumulated over time." In this 9,000-word book, Ding Pei first put forward the seven-character formula of "Qi, light, straightness, uniformity, thinness, smoothness and density", which summarized the basic characteristics and creative laws of Chinese embroidery and became the theoretical basis for future generations to study embroidery. She also wrote in the book: "Last spring, the boat crossed Liangxi and the scenery was colorful." After returning home, she immediately embroidered a yard of Yaoshan with "red velvet (light red velvet) and tooth color (like light red and reddish)", only to see that "the mountain pepper is green and the water scales in the stream", and even she herself "suddenly felt refreshed" and exclaimed: "This painter has not arrived". This lyrical description expresses Ding Pei's love for Wuxi's beautiful landscape, and also reflects Wuxi's fertile soil in Zhong Ling. Although Ding Pei's embroidery works handed down from ancient times have not been discovered so far, according to the analysis of her own embroidery in the Embroidery Manual, we can know that her works are not ordinary practical embroidery, but exquisite and elegant, belonging to elegant ornamental embroidery. Ding Pei said: "Embroidery uses needles instead of pens, silk as paper, and silk as Zhu Mo and lead yellow." Like calligraphy and painting, it is also a superb art, and it is "calligraphy in the boudoir." Therefore, this kind of ornamental embroidery from boudoir is called "boudoir embroidery" by later generations, and "boudoir embroidery" has always occupied a very important position in the history of modern Wuxi embroidery art.

In the heyday of the development of tin embroidery art, many outstanding embroidery artists emerged. Among them, Huada is the most influential and successful. The Xishan Embroidery Association led by her and Li became two major schools of tin embroidery.

In the thirty-third year of Guangxu (1907), with the support of Huawenchuan, Li founded the first private embroidery education institution-Xishan Embroidery Society in Wuxi, and served as the general teacher (later renamed as the president). With the help of painters such as Huawenchuan, Wang and Chen Jiucun, China's traditional painting theory was used to guide embroidery workers to create patterns and teach embroidery skills. In terms of embroidery design, special attention should be paid to maintaining the elegant and beautiful Jiangnan painting style; Embroidery is mainly based on winding, arranging and scattering needles, but according to the needs of the object, methods such as horse hair cutting, seed beating, high embroidery and silk stacking are also adopted to improve the artistic effect of embroidery. The establishment of "color-filling sparse paving method" skillfully solves the problems of large-area rendering and long-term contrast. On the basis of the original tin embroidery process, the embroidery process has been improved, and a new embroidery method combining painting with calligraphy and embroidery has been created, which is full of unique characteristics. The embroidery workshop will offer two courses: embroidery and self-cultivation. She organizes her usual practical experience into handouts and teaches embroidery skills to students in the form of lectures and comments. When the Embroidery Association was founded, 102 women joined the association. Later, several girls' schools in Wuxi added embroidery courses. First, there is a special embroidery school attached to girls' schools, and then there are embroidery classes in girls' schools such as Zhicheng, Yi Xue and Zhenxiu. Young women regard learning embroidery as a fashion. Since then, Wuxi embroidery has entered its heyday in history, forming the artistic characteristics of "tin embroidery", which is as elegant and beautiful as "Xiang embroidery" and "Su embroidery".

1938, Huaxuan and Xu Boyun embroidered together. This is another technique monograph in the history of Chinese embroidery after the first monograph in the history of Chinese embroidery-Ding Pei Embroidery Manual and Shen Shou Embroidery Manual. Huaxuan's works are based on western gouache and oil painting, and create a wind of innovation in embroidery industry with Chinese painting as the manuscript. What is more commendable is that she not only introduced the realistic style of modern painting in content, but also made bold innovations and breakthroughs in embroidery stitch. With its unique style of "arranging stitches" and "closing stitches", Huada has broken the rigid practice of traditional secondary embroidery that blindly pursues flatness, uniformity, fineness and density. She puts the needle freely, the lines are lively and changeable, and the embroidery thread she uses is also multi-colored, not limited to dense needles and thin lines, but thick and fine, which is particularly free and unrestrained. In terms of color, she pays special attention to the arrangement of light and shade levels, skillfully arranges hundreds of color lines in a painting, and truly reflects the sky, clouds, trees and grass in nature with the color light of silk thread, giving people a harmonious aesthetic feeling. Huada, a method of freely carrying needles, became the forerunner of the popular random needle embroidery method. In his embroidery monograph, he paid special attention to the study of light and color in nature, and especially emphasized the key of the new method of landscape embroidery, that is, how to truly reflect the natural beauty of objects through clever stitches and the use of the material beauty of mercerized embroidery thread, which is of great significance to the reform and innovation of tin embroidery.

In the spring of the thirty-third year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1907), Li, He and his eldest sister-in-law founded "Xishan Embroidery Society", which was also the earliest folk embroidery teaching institution in China. Li He is the wife of Huawenchuan and Hua brothers. Chinese teachers and brothers are all famous for their good painting. In the Huashi family, Hua Tingzao, Hua Jingyu, Hua Jilun, Hua Yuheng and others are listed in the history books of calligraphy and painting because of their good paintings. Hua Yuheng's (female) paintings are especially famous. People say her paintings are elegant and generous, and there is no boudoir. Fahrenheit team, famous artists come forth in large numbers. They combined folk embroidery technology with China's traditional painting theory, absorbed the technique of "Luxiangyuan Embroidery" and created Wuxi embroidery with unique style. The establishment of "Xishan Embroidery Society" has a great influence. Nine years later, under the advocacy of Tang, an official embroidery engineering class appeared in Beijing.

When Xishan Embroidery Society was founded, it was divided into two parts: North and South. The first time was in the Lu Ting Pavilion of the Three Gorges Hall in the south gate, hosted by Li Yunhe and Zhang Yingxiu. Tang Wang of Beimen Taiding Bridge is presided over, and Li is also the head teacher of the two places (hereinafter referred to as President Fu). The session will be held on the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar in the south and the first day of the lunar calendar in the north. At that time, each member will bring embroidery and the teacher will evaluate it. There are 102 people who can find out their membership in the club when they were founded in the existing roster. Embroidery patterns will be distributed on behalf of the Chinese Medicine Association, and the fees will be collected by themselves. Embroideries produced by members are valued by teachers at prices and purchased in three levels: upper, middle and lower. Since then, tin embroidery has been circulated in the market as a commodity. Since tin embroidery has been circulated in the market in the form of commodities, producers have economic benefits. The number of women engaged in embroidery gradually increased, and later it expanded to four townships.

After the establishment of the Embroidery Society, several girls' schools in Wuxi have also set up embroidery courses, such as Bugong Girls' School, Zhicheng Girls' School, Yi Xue Girls' School, Xuezhen Girls' School, etc., all of which have set up embroidery courses one after another, and young women are used to learning embroidery. All girls' schools also held literary exhibitions to show students' embroidery and picture works, which promoted the continuous improvement of embroidery technology and greatly improved embroidery skills. After the establishment of the embroidery trade union, they also made their own handouts such as Embroidery Self-cultivation to teach embroidery self-cultivation. Embroidery is divided into ten chapters, including painting, appearance, color matching, composition, needle movement, light, thickness, thickness, elegance and vulgarity, and spirit. The general requirements of these ten chapters are: embroidery must be combined with painting theory, advocating the improvement and innovation of embroidery, adopting the elegant and beautiful painting style of Jiangnan school, expressing the image of painting with various stitches, improving the artistic effect of embroidery, and achieving the unique style of Wuxi embroidery. Embroidery is mainly based on winding, arranging and scattering needles, but according to the needs of the object, techniques such as seed beating, high embroidery and silk stacking are also used to improve the artistic effect of embroidery. In particular, the creation of "color-filling thin paving method" and "silhouette horsehair method" can be used for drying and foregrounding in a large area in order to strengthen difficult techniques such as visualization. "Cultivation" is also divided into ten chapters, such as decoration, conduct, quantity, interest, communication, sports, obedience, occupation, constant virtue and specialization. Generally speaking, it encouraged students to be honest and upright, concentrate on learning skills and support themselves with capital, which reflected some emerging bourgeois ideas and was relatively progressive at that time. Thanks to the efforts of Xishan Embroidery Society, the artistic level of Wuxi embroidery rose rapidly during this period and entered the peak stage in history.

1908 Xishan Embroidery Trade Union won the silver prize of Tianjin Industrial Persuasion Workshop, 1909 the first gold medal of Brussels Expo in Belgium, and the gold medal of Dushi Expo in Italy. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (19 10), the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce held the "First Nanyang Persuasion Meeting" in China, and the number of embroidery winning medals ranked first in China. In addition to 20 embroiderers such as Li, Zhao and Dangkou Huaxuan, 78 girls' schools and folk women's works won silver prizes, including 14 girls' schools in Zhenxiu County, 7 girls' schools in Jingzhi County, 4 girls' vocational schools in Jingui County, 4 girls' schools in Jizhong County in Jingui County and 3 girls' schools in Ehu County in Jingui County.

19 15 February 20th to 15 February 4th, the United States held the Panama Pacific World Expo in San Francisco. In this world-famous international competition, "Wuxi won 50 kinds of awards, as many as the provincial capital". Among them, Huayun, Nianchen, Qin, and others won awards respectively.

192 1 year1October130, the 2nd Jiangsu Local Articles Exhibition was held in Nanjing, and the artworks won *** 153, the embroidery in Jiangsu won ***37, and the embroidery in Wuxi won/.

During the thirteen years from 1908 to 192 1, Wuxi embroidery artworks won the first place in the country in various competitions at home and abroad, forming a prosperous scene that "tin embroidery is famous all over the world, not only in China, but also at home and abroad".

After the establishment of Xishan Embroidery Trade Union, Japanese woman Jinyuan Village and American Sun Zongpeng made a special trip to study. 1908 On the Double Ninth Festival, the embroidery trade union held a rally, and Huawenchuan wrote an article entitled "Guangxu Five Applications for Nine Meetings" to record it. More than 50 people attended the meeting, and Japanese woman Jinyuan Village also attended. In addition, students' embroidery was also displayed. At the meeting, the chairman reported the purpose of the meeting, announced the articles of association of the seminar and the eulogy of the delegates. I also mentioned a Japanese woman, Jinyuan Village, who came to learn embroidery. I asked her, Japanese embroidery is also very famous, so why come to study? Jinyuan village answered "rough" in one word! Japanese embroidery is not as exquisite as tin embroidery, which shows the influence of tin embroidery and Xishan embroidery workshop abroad at that time.

In the second year of Qing Dynasty (A.D. 19 10), the president of Xishan Embroidery Society, Li He, the host of the embroidery manuscript, died successively, but the vice president and the newly widowed woman ignored it. Since then, Zhang Yingxiu has been presiding over it. The meeting site was moved from Yanlu Pavilion to Dahongni Bridge High House in Street (now Xixi), and then extended to Wuwu. In the twenty-fifth year of the Republic of China (AD 1936), he moved to the Qin mansion next to Qinhuai Haici on Dahe Road (now Chongning Road). At that time, there was a great demand for Wuxi embroidery abroad. Wuxi painter Wang also often participates in embroidery. Wang Shan's paintings of figures, flowers, birds, landscapes and animals are also innovative in composition and color setting. At the same time, his introductory student Chen Jiucun also provided drawings. Thanks to the cooperation of a group of people who can innovate in painting, the embroidery trade union broke through the conservative situation of taking "literati painting" as the embroidery manuscript in the early days and opened up a new situation of embroidery manuscript full of life breath.

The embroidery trade union chaired by Zhang Yingxiu founded the first embroidery workshop to teach embroidery skills, and eight students graduated successively. At that time, apart from teaching skills, the workshop was also engaged in commercial trade, specializing in the distribution of embroidery processing, the distribution of raw materials and works embroidered by students, and accepting customer appointments, which was closely related to the demand for Wuxi embroidery at home and abroad at that time. Embroidery unions existed until the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. After the fall of Wuxi from 65438 to 0937, tin embroidery declined day by day.

After liberation, due to the government's attention, it gradually recovered. 1957 the establishment of the academy of arts and crafts restored the traditional art of tin embroidery, in which the old artist Hua played a key role in connecting the past with the future. Hua (1908- 1994) studied embroidery and menstruation with her mother since childhood, and1921-kloc-0/924 studied painting and embroidery at Zhicheng Girls' School in Wuxi County. 1924 entered Xishan embroidery union to study tin. 1957, with the attention of the government, Hua was hired to study tin embroidery in the Academy of Arts and Crafts. She has successively restored the traditional varieties of tin embroidery such as "plucking embroidery" and "cutting horse hair embroidery", sorted out the traditional stitches of tin embroidery and explored new techniques. In cooperation with the painter Mr. Tang Yuandao, she created a unique method to embroider birds by poking yarn, which was well received by the embroidery industry.

On 1965, tin embroidery was incorporated into the research room of China embroidery factory. 1965- 1978 trained a group of young embroidery artists and embroidered a large number of outstanding works, among which works such as Red Plum Bamboo Horse, Pheasant Peony and Chinese Rose Ribbon were selected and sent to Canada, the United States and other countries.

1978 After the re-establishment of Wuxi Institute of Arts and Crafts, the embroidery workshop was re-established and tin embroidery began to shine again. First of all, on the basis of inheriting the traditional stitch of tin embroidery, a new kind of embroidery is created, and the "cat beating mantis" made with horsehair as embroidery thread is very realistic. Embroidery "Eighty-seven Immortals Volume" (partial) was selected for the National Embroidery Exhibition in 198 1 year, which included fine Suzhou embroidery.

In the process of 198 1 exploring new products, Su E recorded in Du Yang Miscellanies in the Tang Dynasty: "During the Yongzhenyuan period, Nanhai Gong Nv Yu Mei Niang was fourteen years old and wise. She is skilled, and can embroider seven rolls of Hokkekyo on a foot of silk. The size of the words is not more than that of millet, but the stippling is clear and fine. According to the only written records in the literature, the technicians of Wuxi Institute of Arts and Crafts, under the guidance of farmer director Zhang Wei and old artist Hua, formed an innovative research group composed of Lu Jinxian, Jin Jiaxiang, etc., and successfully created a new embroidery art variety of "double-sided fine embroidery". The artistic features of implicit embroidery are mainly manifested in its small size, ingenious conception and exquisite embroidery skills. Works are often in a very small picture, carefully constructed colorful words and patterns, and carefully embroidered by embroidery artists with Shuang Mianxiu technology. No matter what kind of words, they are both form and spirit, full of interest, and people can't put it down. Implicit embroidery has been appreciated by artists and collectors at home and abroad since it came out, and won many awards in the national arts and crafts exhibition, which is regarded as a wonderful flower in the hundred gardens of Chinese embroidery art.