Information about Suzhou Embroidery

Su Embroidery Introduction

Su Embroidery is Suzhou Embroidery, which originated in the area of Wu County, Suzhou, and is now spread throughout Jiangsu Province, Wuxi, Changzhou, Yangzhou, Suqian, Dongtai and other places. Suzhou embroidery origin of Jiangsu fertile land, mild climate, developed sericulture, silk, since ancient times is the hometown of embroidery. Superior geographical environment, rich and colorful brocade, colorful floral line, for the development of Su embroidery to create favorable conditions. According to the Western Han Dynasty Liu Xiang " Say Yuan " records, as early as more than two thousand years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Wu has been used in the Su embroidery for clothing. During the Three Kingdoms era, Sun Quan, the king of Wu, ordered Zhao Da, the sister of the prime minister, to hand-embroidered the "Diagram of the Warring States". According to the Qing Secret Collection, "the embroidery of the Song people, fine needle and thread, with one or two threads, with a needle as thin as a hair for it. The color is exquisite, the light is shining." Can be seen in the Song Dynasty Su embroidery art has a fairly high level.

■Su embroidery types of division:

Local embroidery: produced in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province (Southern Jiangsu), neighboring Shanghai. Can not say that as long as the Suzhou business can be called Suzhou embroidery, authentic Suzhou embroidery should be under the "local embroidery", more accurately should be embroidered by the local people in Suzhou works. Embroidery are belong to the local people, the product is delicate and glossy, color transition with coordinated, embroidery line split silk, moderate price.

Su Bei Embroidery: produced in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, Huai'an area (north of Suzhou), Suzhou locals called Su Bei Embroidery, Jiang Bei Embroidery. The price is very low, but the workmanship is also very poor, embroidery line does not split silk, are two velvet or a velvet half embroidery, talk about art, graffiti only, not to the Hall of Harmlessness. The most classic famous works are "Golden Road", "red maple", in addition, whether it is workmanship or sales price, it is difficult to improve. In recent years, the northern embroidery stirred up the embroidery market, posing as embroidery, substandard things happen frequently. But objectively speaking, the northern embroidery on the suppression of local embroidery prices, also played a positive role.

Baoying embroidery: produced in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, Baoying (Suzhong), rich in color and three-dimensional sense of strong, but the embroidery line does not split the silk, are two velvet embroidery, that is, a line of direct embroidery. Therefore, from a distance or look at the photo, the feeling of three-dimensional effect is still possible, but close look is quite coarse, not memorable. Landscape, people embroidery is its strength, but the character of the face embroidery (open phase) and other delicate work, or delivery of skillful Suzhou locals to complete, in addition to the price of BaoYing embroidery is also high, the domestic market is difficult to accept.

■Su embroidery production methods:

Su embroidery production methods generally have "piecework system" and "time system" two.

"Piecework system" that is, "pieces" as a unit, the embroidery base material to the embroidery, to help it with a good embroidery thread and specify the quality standards, and finally agreed on a mutually agreed upon appropriate wages, and agreed on the completion date of a production method, commonly known as the "release order". It is commonly known as "put single", "put life". Embroiderers can be completely at home processing, not subject to location constraints, not supervised by a person, but even if the actual hours exceeded, manual labor costs are basically unchanged.

"Hourly system" refers to the actual hours of work to calculate the amount of money due to the embroiderer in the professional technician's guidance, supervision and training, according to the eight-hour working time, quality and quantity to complete the embroidery processing. Embroiderers are supervised by specialists and must be on time for work at a fixed place every day, and are not allowed to take private work, but are paid in the form of a monthly salary.

In addition, Hunan embroidery, Shu embroidery, Cantonese embroidery and Su embroidery is known as China's "four famous embroidery". But China's embroidery market annual domestic consumption and export statistics show that the proportion of Suzhou embroidery accounted for more than 83% of the total amount of embroidery, Hunan embroidery for 12%, the rest of the market share were Shu embroidery, Guangdong embroidery, Bian embroidery, etc. divided. Thus, the dominant position of Suzhou embroidery in the domestic and international embroidery market is unquestionable. As a national culture, we welcome the blossoming of a hundred flowers, the four famous embroidery, the top ten embroidery are on the list, each of which is the crystallization of the wisdom of the children of China, but we have to face up to the fact that: Suzhou embroidery's position as the king, to this day, and even after a few decades, are strong and unshakeable!

Su embroidery's birthplace in Suzhou, Wu County area, now spread throughout Jiangsu Province, Wuxi, Changzhou, Yangzhou, Suqian, Dongtai and other places. Jiangsu fertile land, mild climate, developed sericulture, silk, since ancient times is the hometown of embroidery. Superior geographical environment, rich and colorful brocade, colorful floral line, for the development of Su embroidery to create favorable conditions. According to the Western Han Dynasty Liu Xiang "Say Yuan" records, as early as two thousand years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu has been used for clothing. During the Three Kingdoms era, Sun Quan, the king of Wu, ordered Zhao Da, the sister of the prime minister, to embroider the "Diagram of the Warring States", embroidering the five mountains, rivers and oceans, cities and towns, rows of formations and other patterns on the square silk, and there is the saying that "embroider ten thousand countries in one brocade". According to the Qing Secret Collection, "Song embroidery, needle and thread fine, with one or two threads, with a needle as thin as a hair for the. The colors are exquisite, and the light is dazzling. Landscapes divided into near and far the interest of the pavilion to the depth of the body characters with a lookout vivid feelings, birds and flowers extremely nicknamed bottom gobbling attitude, the best better than the painting is even better." Can be seen in the Song Dynasty Su embroidery art has a fairly high level. To the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan has become the center of silk weaving industry. In the art of painting appeared to Tang Yin (Bohu), Shen Zhou as the representative of the Wu school of painting, promoting the development of. Artists combined with paintings for re-production, the embroidered masterpieces are vivid, ink and brush flavor, there is a "needle painting" "skillful work of art," said. Since then, the art of needlework, color and pattern have formed a unique artistic style, in the art garden, and the art of painting and calligraphy comparable to the competition. The Qing Dynasty is the heyday of Su embroidery, can be described as a proliferation of schools, the famous hand competition show. The royal family enjoyed a large number of products, almost all out of the hands of artists. Folk is more colorful, widely used in clothing, theater clothes, quilt tops, pillow bags tent, cushions, shoes, bags, fan bags and other aspects. These Su embroidery household items are not only a variety of needlework, embroidery, color matching elegant, and the pattern contains festive, longevity, auspicious meaning, loved by the masses. There is also a kind of "painting embroidery", which belongs to the high-grade appreciation products, called "boudoir embroidery". History shows that the masterpieces of Qian Hui and Cao Moqin from Wu County, Yang Maojun and Shen Guanguan from Wujiang, and Ding Pei and Xue Wenhua from Wuxi were all famous for a long time. Especially at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, in the trend of Western learning, Su embroidery also appeared in the signs of innovation. In the Guangxu period, Shen Yunzhi, a skillful artist famous for her embroidery in Suzhou, dissolved the characteristics of Western painting and simulation in embroidery, and created "simulation embroidery". Guangxu thirty years (1904 AD) the seventieth birthday of Cixi, Shen Yunyi embroidered eight pieces of work such as Buddha to celebrate her birthday. Cixi highly appreciated, wrote "longevity", "blessed" two characters, given to Shen Yunzhi and her husband Yu Jue. From then on Shen Yunzhi changed her name to Shen Shou, and then her works, "Italy Queen Alina statue", as a national gift to Italy, stirred up the Italian dynasty and the country, "that Jesus statue" in 1915 in the United States organized by the "Panama - the Pacific International Exposition" on the First Prize, sold for as much as thirteen thousand U.S. dollars. The American female vobbek statue" to the United States when the exhibition, its unprecedented. Shen Shou's "simulation embroidery" reputation at home and abroad, opened up a new page of Su embroidery.

On her initiative, Jiangsu's Suzhou, Nantong, Danyang, Wuxi, Changshu and other places were organized training centers, embroidery, embroidery trade unions. She has been to Suzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, Nantong and other places to teach apprenticeship, training a generation of new people. Other famous artists at that time included Hua Ji, Tang Yi Zhen, Li Pei My, Cai Qun Xiu, Zhang Ying Xiu, and Jin Jing Fen. ...... Their works were successively exhibited at the "Turang Universal Exposition of Italy" (1911), "Panama-Pacific International Exposition" (1911), and "Panama-Pacific International Exposition" (1911), as well as the "Panama-Pacific International Exposition" (1911). International Exposition" (1915), "Belgium Universal Exposition" (1930), won awards, for the Chinese traditional crafts in the international honor. In the early thirties, Yang Shouyu, the director of the embroidery department of Danyang Zhengze Women's Vocational High School, created the "messy needle embroidery" with vertical and horizontal crossings, varying lengths and overlapping layers, which enriched and improved the expressive ability of the art of Su embroidery. Since the early 1950s, artists have opened up new horizons. Suzhou, Nantong, Changzhou, Wuxi, Yangzhou, Dongtai and other places have successively set up research institutes or factories, so that artists can concentrate on research and creation. The lost skills have been excavated, summarized, improved and developed, so that the ancient art of Suzhou embroidery has regained its splendor.

Suzhou embroidery is a general term for embroidery products centered in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Suzhou embroidery has a history of more than 2,000 years, as early as in the Three Kingdoms period (220 to 280 AD) there is a record of the production of Suzhou embroidery. Since then, it has been developed and perfected through successive generations, and by the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Suzhou embroidery had already become a common mass sideline product in the Suzhou area, forming a situation where "every family raised silkworms and every household embroidered". During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Suzhou embroidery was famous for its "fine and elegant work", and Suzhou was known as the "city of embroidery". In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Suzhou embroidery was further developed in embroidery technology, with the emergence of exquisite "double-sided embroidery", and there were as many as 65 merchants specializing in embroidery in Suzhou alone. During the Republic of China (1912-1949), due to years of war, the embroidery industry once declined. After the founding of New China, Suzhou embroidery was further restored and developed, and after 1950, the State specially set up the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute and opened embroidery training courses. The needlework of Suzhou embroidery has developed from the original 18 kinds to more than 40 kinds today.

Su embroidery has a beautiful pattern, clever ideas, meticulous embroidery, stitch lively, colorful and elegant unique style, rich in local characteristics. Embroidery techniques with "flat, flush, fine, dense, and, light, smooth, uniform" characteristics. Flat" means the embroidery surface is flat and spreading; "Qi" means the edges of the pattern are neat and tidy; "Fine" means the use of fine needles and fine embroidery threads; "Dense" means the lines are arranged in a compact manner without showing any stitching; "Harmonious" means the colors are suitable; "Light" means the light is bright and vivid; "Shun" means the silk is round and smooth; and "Uniform" means the lines are fine and even and uniformly sparse and dense. In terms of types, Su embroidery works can be divided into three main categories: zero-cut, theater clothes, and hanging screens, which are both decorative and practical. Among them, "double-sided embroidery" works are the most exquisite.

Su embroidery has a long history, built in the fifth generation of the Northern Song Dynasty in Suzhou, Ruiguang Tower and Huqiu Tower have been unearthed Su embroidery baggage, in the stitching has been able to use the flat robbing paving needles and needles, this is the earliest discovery of Su embroidery in kind. According to relevant historical records, since the Song Dynasty, Suzhou embroidery skills are very prosperous, the craft is also becoming more mature. In the countryside, "every family raised silkworms, and every household embroidered", and in the city, there were alleys such as Embroidery Thread Alley, Rolling Embroidery Workshop, Brocade Workshop and Embroidery Lane, which showed the prosperity of embroidery in Suzhou. At that time, not only embroidery for a living, but also the rich girls tend to spend their time and cultivate their temperament, the so-called "folk embroidery", "boudoir embroidery", "court embroidery" name also came from this. In the Qing Dynasty, Suzhou embroidery was even more popular, and Suzhou was known as the "embroidery city" and famous all over the world. At that time, the number of needlework, the application of a wide range, no more than in the previous dynasty, landscape, pavilion, birds and flowers, figures, omnipotent, omnipotent work. Coupled with the large number of needs of the court, the luxury of the rich embroidery endless. Suzhou embroidery later absorbed Shanghai "Gu embroidery" and the characteristics of Western painting, creating a strong light and dark, three-dimensional style.

The double-sided embroidery "Cat" is one of the representative works of Suzhou embroidery. Artists divide a hair-thick embroidery thread into one-half, one-fourth, even one-twelfth, one-forty-eighth of the fine thread embroidery, and hide millions of threads and knots without a trace. The kitten's mischievous and lively demeanor can be seen from both the front and the back. Embroidery cat is the most difficult pair of cat eyes, artists need to use more than 20 colors of silk thread in order to the cat eyes embroidered to the eyes of the eyes, lifelike.

Su embroidery process is to lead the color threads with embroidery needles, according to the pre-designed patterns and colors, in silk, cotton and other fabrics embellished with needles, through the embroidered composition of patterns, designs, text to achieve artistic effect.

Su embroidery is China's famous handicrafts, known for its fine embroidery, stitching, beautiful patterns, color and elegance of Chinese and foreign, many times by national leaders as a national gift to foreign guests.

Su embroidery is a famous handicraft in China.