How did embroidery in Xibe history come into being?

Xibe folk embroidery has a long history and rich connotation, and it is the best manual skill of Xibe women. In the past, girls had to learn to sew before they got married, otherwise they would be teased by their in-laws. If a girl knows how to make shoes and socks and embroidery, she will be praised as a smart, promising girl and a good daughter-in-law in the future. On the contrary, she will be rejected or even called a silly girl.

In the traditional concept of Xibe people, embroidery is one of the important standards to measure the character and ability of Xibe women. Young women who can embroider are symbols of ingenuity and are the objects pursued by young men. In the past, a girl had to embroider a pair of embroidered shoes before getting married, put them on at the wedding celebration, and then keep them as birthday shoes when she was old. When a girl gets married, her embroidered pillowcases, quilt covers, handkerchiefs and other daily necessities embroidered with exquisite embroidery patterns will win the praise, love and respect of her parents-in-law. According to the old man, a married woman should embroider a cigarette bag for her husband and embroider her own carefully designed auspicious patterns and decorations.

Xibe embroidery originated in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties or even earlier. At present, the early embroidery products investigated are generally used as military uniforms and official uniforms after 28 years of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, Xibo family decorations often appear, such as pillows, door curtains, tea sets and other physical objects are the world where women display embroidery. In particular, as a token of love, the purse (sachet) is a handicraft with various patterns on both sides, which is exquisite and generous.

Xibo embroidery pays attention to the diversity of pattern design and is divided into two categories: plane pattern and three-dimensional pattern. There are two kinds of plane patterns: single pattern and continuous pattern. Individual patterns are divided into adaptive patterns, corner patterns, edge patterns and so on. Such as embroidery patterns, select exquisite examples from thousands of patterns, organize them to make a series of changes, make them repeat constantly, and form groups of embroidery products with unified ideas and different changes. Plane patterns are widely used, and all plane objects can be embroidered with patterns. Corner patterns and edge patterns are generally only used for corners, hems, etc. According to different requirements for patterns, vertical patterns, conversion patterns and rotation patterns are formed on quilt covers, sheets and door curtains. There are two kinds of continuous patterns, such as loose pattern, broken line, vertical pattern, twill pattern, wavy pattern and cloudy pattern. , widely used in wood carving and individual embroidery. Quadrilateral continuous patterns are complex, including continuous patterns, square continuous patterns, diamond continuous patterns, continuous waves, and heavy sewing patterns, which are mostly used in large-area embroidery products such as curtains, wall hangings, and bed quilts. Embroidery products embroidered on the basis of various design patterns are beautiful in shape, colorful, diverse in style and full of life breath. In the process of embroidery, various silk threads are skillfully used, and sometimes fluff is creatively embroidered into velvet embroidery, which makes embroidery more dazzling. Xibo women's embroidery deliberately pursues the original natural beauty, with various embroidery methods, uniform stitches, distinct textures, needles everywhere and neat stitches. Xibo women are best at embroidery techniques, such as embroidery, applique and knitting. Embroideries include clothing, shoes and socks, door and window curtains, wall covering, brocade curtains, pillow flowers, hems and embroidered wallets, dowry, mourning clothes, etc. Among many embroideries, the most common ones are rectangular pillow top embroidery and embroidered shoes. Pillow embroidery generally uses blue background cloth. Embroidered cloth is rectangular, the pattern is designed, or outlined with colored pens, or paper-cut, pasted on embroidered cloth, and then embroidered with silk threads of various colors. Embroidered shoes are generally made of black cloth (velveteen is much used). First make the vamp, draw or cut and paste embroidery patterns on the vamp and toe cap, and then embroider them with silk threads of various colors according to the patterns.

Xibe women's embroidery has formed a variety of artistic styles. Its main characteristics are: deliberately pursuing the original natural beauty, novel colors, strong contrast, fullness and uniformity, neat contrast, strong decoration, or elegance or gorgeous, suitable for different objects, men, women and children. Xibe women also have a long history of picking flowers. With high aesthetic ability and skillful embroidery skills, women can pick flowers on the back of the fabric without sampling, and with various colored lines, the front of the fabric will present bright and beautiful patterns. Most patterns are single and both sides are continuous. Embroidery with separated patterns is generally used on corners, sleeves and skirts; Erlian embroidery is used for clothing curtains, sheets, curtains, etc.

Xibo female embroidery also pays attention to the reasonable collocation of colors. Color processing can be roughly divided into two categories: one is shallow flowers with deep bottom, the back looks like flowers, the front is light, and the pattern is mainly bright. For example, the curtains on the counter are mostly red and crimson, and the patterns are lighter and hidden in the background color, with strong contrast. The other is a shallow bottom with deep flowers, with flowers in front and light colors in the back. The pattern is dark in different degrees, which makes the chromaticity of the main pattern less obvious and makes embroidery rich in shade and three-dimensional sense. The latter category is mostly used for bed sheets, quilt covers, pillowcases and curtains. Tone is generally selected and determined by background color, and the difference between dark, medium and light background colors determines the chromaticity and appearance of embroidery. Color processing has also gone through delicate and rigorous contrast methods, such as beading, tattooing, inlaying, painting, gold lacquer, carving, weaving, applique, gold and silver thread, inlaying, flower picking, flower tying and so on.

Xibo embroidery deliberately pursues the original natural beauty, and the patterns are mostly selected from grass, flowers, birds and insects that express auspicious meanings in real life, which are commonly found in window screens, wall covering, pillow flowers, purses, dowry and burial clothes. The patterns commonly used in Xibe embroidery are peony, lotus and bat. In recent years, with the continuous development of folk artists, more patterns have appeared in the embroidery content, such as symbolic embroidery of Xibo nationality, such as animals, ox carts, bows and arrows, etc.

In the long-term practice, Xibo people have embroidered beautiful things endowed by nature into their works with dexterous hands. The embroidery works of Xibe women who moved to Yili in the west are more mature in pattern and material selection, thus opening a new page of Xibe embroidery. The architectural design art of Han nationality, the flower design art of Uygur nationality, the saddle design art of Kazak nationality and the wine design art of Mongolian nationality are all organically combined with the folk embroidery of Xibe nationality, which naturally forms Xibe embroidery that other nationalities can't match.

But Xibe embroidery is different from Mongolian embroidery and Kazak embroidery. Xibo embroidery is characterized by the deliberate pursuit of primitive natural beauty, and most of the patterns are selected from real life to express good luck. Such as peach blossom, peony, fish, bat, clouds and flowers, which are commonly found in curtains, wall covering, pillow flowers, purses, dowry and mourning clothes. Among them, peony, lotus and bat are the majority. These patterns are very realistic. In particular, these years have enriched the symbolic patterns of Xianbei, bows and arrows, ox carts and so on. , more popular with consumers. There are many embroidery patterns of Xibe nationality, and pillow top and needle sticking are the main parts of embroidery. The second is emotional feedback, mainly socks, belts, wallets, purses and so on. , is a good gift for women to relatives and friends and lovers; The third is etiquette, which is mainly used for longevity accounts and elegiac couplets; The fourth is religion, which is mainly used to decorate Buddha statues and temples. If you look closely at Xibe embroidery, you will find that its weaving method is very rich, its stitches are even, its colors are novel, its contrast is strong, its patterns are full and symmetrical, its texture is distinct, needles can be seen everywhere, and its body feeling is obvious. In addition, in Xibe embroidery, skirts and sleeves generally adopt a single pattern structure, while skirts and collars adopt two continuous patterns.