What are the four schools of Chinese embroidery?

Suzhou embroidery, Xiang embroidery, Yue embroidery and Shu embroidery.

Suzhou embroidery

Colorful Suzhou embroidery is regarded as a pearl in China's art treasure house.

Suzhou embroidery originated in Wuxian county, Suzhou, and now it has spread all over Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Jiangnan has fertile land, mild climate, developed sericulture and rich silk, which has been a splendid place since ancient times. Superior geographical environment, rich brocade and colorful flower lines have created favorable conditions for the development of Suzhou embroidery.

According to Liu Xiang's Shuo Yuan in the Western Han Dynasty, as early as 2000 years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu had used embroidery for clothing. During the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan, the king of Wu, ordered Zhao Dacheng's sister to embroider maps of various countries with her own hands, and embroidered five mountains, rivers, seas, cities, rows and other patterns on the silk, which is said to be "a splendid world". According to "The Secret Collection of Qing Dynasty", "Song people embroidered with fine needle and thread, with one or two threads and one needle as thin as hair. Exquisite colors are dazzling. The mountains and rivers are interesting from a distance, and the characters in the pavilions are vivid, colorful and graceful. The best is better than painting. " It can be seen that the art of Suzhou embroidery in Song Dynasty has reached a quite high level. By the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan had become the center of silk weaving handicraft industry. In painting art, Wu Pai, represented by Tang Yin and Shen Zhou, promoted the development of embroidery. Embroidery artists combine painting to reproduce, and the masterpieces embroidered are vivid and exquisite, which is known as "painting with needles" and "outstanding". Since then, the embroidery art has formed its own artistic style in stitches and color patterns, which is beautiful in the art garden and competes with the art of calligraphy and painting.

The Qing Dynasty was the heyday of Suzhou embroidery, which was characterized by various schools and famous artists. A large number of embroideries enjoyed by the royal family are almost all made by Suzhou embroidery artists. Folk embroidery is rich and colorful, widely used in clothing, costumes, quilts, pillow bags, curtains, cushions, uppers, sachets, fan bags and so on. These Suzhou embroidery articles for daily use not only have diverse stitches, exquisite embroidery and elegant color matching, but also have patterns and patterns with festive, longevity and auspicious meanings, which are deeply loved by the masses. There is also a kind of "painting embroidery" which belongs to advanced appreciation and is called "boudoir embroidery". He Cao in Wuxian, He Guanguan in Wujiang, and Xue Wenhua in Wuxi are all famous for their masterpieces. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, in the trend of western learning spreading to the east, Suzhou embroidery also showed signs of innovation. During Guangxu period, Shen, who had excellent embroidery skills, was quite famous in Suzhou embroidery field. She integrated the characteristics of Xiao Shen's imitation of western paintings into embroidery and created a new kind of "imitation embroidery". In the 30th year of Guangxu (A.D. 1904), Cixi celebrated her seventieth birthday, and Shen Xiu presented eight works, including the Buddha statue, to celebrate her birthday. Empress Dowager Cixi wrote the words "longevity" and "happiness" for Shen and her husband Yu Jue. From then on, Shen changed his name to Shen Shou. Later, her work "The Portrait of the Italian Queen Elena" was presented to Italy as a national gift, which caused a sensation among the Italian government and people. The statue of Nasu 19 15 won the first prize in the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition held in the United States, and the price was as high as 13000 US dollars. When the portrait of Vorbeck, an American woman, was exhibited in the United States, its grand occasion was unprecedented. Shen Shou's "Imitation Embroidery" is famous all over the world, which has opened a brand-new page for Suzhou embroidery. Under her advocacy, Suzhou, Nantong, Danyang, Wuxi, Changshu and other places in Jiangsu held embroidery workshops, embroidery engineering courses, embroidery trade unions and so on. She has been to Suzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, Nantong and other places to teach students and cultivate a new generation. At that time, other famous artists were Tang, Li Peikai, Cai Qunxiu and Jin Jingfen ... Their works were successively exhibited at Dulang International Expo (19 1 1) and Panama-Pacific International Expo (19/kloc-). In the early 1930s, Yang Shouyu, director of embroidery engineering in Danyang Zheng Zheng Women's Vocational School, initiated criss-crossing and layered embroidery, which enriched and improved the expressive force of Suzhou embroidery.

Since the early 1950s, the creation of Suzhou embroidery artists has opened up a new and broad world. Suzhou, Nantong, Changzhou, Wuxi, Yangzhou, Dongtai, Hangzhou and other places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have successively established embroidery research institutions or factories, so that embroidery artists can devote themselves to research and creation with peace of mind. The lost skills have been excavated, summarized, improved and developed, which makes the ancient Suzhou embroidery art glow again.

Hunan embroidery

Xiang embroidery originated from folk embroidery and has a history of more than 2000 years. The earliest discovered object is 1958 Dragon Wind Map unearthed from Chu Tomb in Changsha. 1972, 40 embroidered clothes and one embroidered brocade were unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb. There are many kinds of embroidery patterns 10, embroidery thread 18 colors, and various stitches are used to achieve the state of neat stitches, free and easy lines and skillful embroidery. By the Qing Dynasty, Changsha embroidery was all over the city and countryside. According to the Qing Tongzhi's Changsha County Records, "In the provincial capital, there are many female embroiderers and few weavers, and everyone is rich in cymbals. Shaping in Changsha County and Xianing in Kaifu District are the traditional bases of Xiang embroidery production, and most of the peasant women are engaged in embroidery, which was once called "the hometown of embroidery". There are many embroidery villages in the city, but there are no 26 in Qing Dynasty. There are more than 10,000 embroidery workers 1 10,000, with an annual output of more than 20,000 pieces of embroidery. Embroideries are mainly daily necessities such as quilt covers and pillowcases, and there are also a few high-end painting screens.

The artistic features of Xiang embroidery are vividness, vividness and strong texture. It is based on the draft, "ghost with needle" and "shadow with line", and recreates the art on the basis of deliberately pursuing the original appearance of the draft. So its unique skill lies in "needle thread" The stitches of Xiang embroidery are changeable, mainly mixed stitches. According to the different requirements of different parts to express different objects and natural texture, it has developed to more than 70 kinds of stitches. Lines come in thousands of colors. According to the theme of different pictures, different colors of embroidery thread-silk thread or wool thread are selected with different stitches. Embroidered objects not only retain the original charm of the drawing, but also increase the authenticity and three-dimensional sense of the object through embroidery technology with the help of the special expressive force of the stitch and the luster effect of the embroidery thread, which has played an artistic effect that ordinary painting can not achieve. Therefore, Xiang embroidery has become a unique school. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, "Xiang embroidery prevailed, surpassing Su embroidery, and was no longer in the name of Gu embroidery. The method is to change the blueprint to dye silk, not to take a step back. "

Since then, Xiang embroidery has attracted people at home and abroad with its unique charm of playing tricks. 19 10 years, which was praised as "muddy pen without trace" and "the words were embroidered and the needle and thread were destroyed" at Nanyang persuasion meeting. Xiang embroidery became an instant hit at the international exposition held in Chicago, USA from 65438 to 0933. A bust of American President Roosevelt embroidered in Hunan was unveiled at Jinhua Embroidery Workshop in Changsha, causing a sensation. He Jian, chairman of Hunan Province, instructed him to give it to Roosevelt in his own name, which is a much-told story. Xiu Xiang is now in the Alexandria Museum.

After liberation, Hunan embroidery workers changed the traditional craft of single-sided embroidery in the past, focused on developing Shuang Mianxiu art, and created a more difficult "double-sided different embroidery", which raised Hunan embroidery art to a new level. It embroiders two objects with different themes, ideas, colors and stitches on both sides of the transparent base. For example, the embroidered screen embroidered with "Mulan" on both sides is based on the famous sentence in Mulan Ci. On the one hand, it is embroidered with "Wan Li goes to Rongji ... cold light and iron clothes", and on the other hand, it is embroidered with "the window is bright and clean, and the mirror is painted yellow." This not only reflects the heroic image of Mulan disguised as a man, but also reflects the school attitude of disguised as a man, making the comparative image more vivid. On the one hand, wearing military uniforms, on the other hand, ingenious ideas and exquisite embroidery are ingenious and amazing.

Xiang embroidery has a wide range of themes, diverse styles and rich embroidery. Famous traditional famous brands such as "Tiger", "Lion" and "A hundred birds fly at the phoenix" hang screens; There are "500" quilts of birds, fish, flowers, children and butterflies that have won "provincial excellent products"; There are also many exquisite Xiang embroidery products, which use completely different embroidery on both sides.

Sichuan embroidery

At first, Shu embroidery was mainly popular among the people. After the middle of Qing Dynasty, industries gradually formed, especially Jiulong Lane and Hakka Lane in Chengdu. At that time, the embroidery department was also set up in the "Quitting Bureau" run by the county government, which shows its extensive production. At that time, the main varieties produced were official clothes, gifts, daily flower clothes, border flowers, wedding dresses, colored accounts and strips.

Shu embroidery takes soft satin and colored silk as the main raw materials, and its embroidery skills are very unique. There are at least 65,438+000 kinds of exquisite needle embroidery techniques, such as colorful embroidery, thread embroidery with embroidery and painting, exquisite Shuang Mianxiu, gauze needle, pointed needle and needle cover, which are all very unique and exquisite techniques. In today's embroidery, there are both huge screens and small pocket pieces; There are both high-precision appreciation of famous products and ordinary consumer goods. For example, the giant screen of Lotus Carp in the Sichuan Hall of the Great Hall of the People, the hanging screen of famous Shu embroidery "The Picture of Gong Shu's Musical Girl Yan Le", the screen of Water Grass Carp with different colors on both sides and the screen of Giant Panda are all representative works of Shu embroidery.

Dong Yang of the Eastern Jin Dynasty called Shu embroidery and Shu brocade the treasures of Shu. Many embroidery shops developed in Chengdu in Qing Dynasty. Embroidery is made of local woven red and green satin and important real estate loose thread. The line is neat and thick, and the color is elegant. Its needle method is "neat needle method, bright thread method, tight and soft, and the car is screwed home (car, that is, from the center to the surrounding; Twist, that is, the long and short needles are added and subtracted from the outside to the inside). There are sets of needles, dizzy needles, oblique needle rollers, household needles, reference needles, shed reference needles, knitting needles and so on. Products include mirror curtains, lace, wedding dresses, scrolls, shoes and hats, skirts, pillowcases, quilts, curtains and so on. The theme is auspicious, symbolic and folk. Shu embroidery has become one of the four famous embroideries in China with its exquisite craftsmanship and fine lines. Shu embroidery with the theme of nature (such as pandas, flowers and birds) is even more attractive. There are single-sided embroidery and Shuang Mianxiu. Pure hand embroidery, vivid pictures, changeable shapes and exquisite patterns.

Influenced by geographical environment, customs, culture and art, Sichuan embroidery, which originated from western Sichuan folk, has gradually formed a unique style of rigor, delicacy, fluency, neatness, roundness and bright colors.

The technical characteristics of Shu embroidery are smooth and lively thread method, neat needle method, rigorous needle use, soft color matching, free turning, vivid charm, lifelike and decent. Any Shu embroidery work vividly shows these unique skills. According to statistics, there are 122 stitches in Shu embroidery. Commonly used acupuncture methods include dizzy needle, laying needle, needle roller, cutting needle, mixed needle, sand needle and covering needle. Shu embroidery often uses dizzy needles to express the texture of embroidered objects, reflecting the light, color and shape of embroidered objects, and the embroidery is vivid. For example, the agility of carp, the agility of golden monkey, the beauty of characters, the magnificence of mountains and rivers, the variety of flowers and birds, and the naivety of pandas all present different textures such as light, clean, thick, thin, soft, hard, loose and loose.

Shu embroidery is flexible and adaptable. Generally, silk, satin, silk, yarn and crepe are used as embroidery fabrics. According to the needs of embroidery, the production procedures, color matching and thread use are different.

Yuexiu

Guangdong embroidery is the general name of Guangdong embroidery art, including Guangdong embroidery and Chaozhou embroidery. Embroidery has a long history, exquisite skills, strong decorative elements, rich and bright colors, smooth and bright embroidered velvet, distinct arts and sciences, free and easy velvet strips, strong three-dimensional sense of gold and silver cushion velvet, exquisite embroidery workers, gorgeous embroidery and other unique local styles and artistic characteristics, and has become an integral part of Chinese national culture. We can also describe the exquisite skills of Cantonese embroidery from Du Yang's Essays written by Su E: "Yong Zhenyuan is fourteen years old, with seven eyebrows and seven women in Nanhai, and she is ingenious. She can embroider seven rolls of Hokkekyo on a foot of silk. The size of the word is not more than millet, but it is clearly divided, as thin as hair, and there is no chapter missing. It is better to be a flying fairy, and the cover is divided into three strands with a silk hook, dyed in five colors, golden and thick. Among them, there are ten continents and three islands, and there are naturally beautiful women, and the statues in the temple are rare. There are no fewer than 1000 boys holding the festival, and its coverage is ten feet wide. It is said that there are no three or two fried incense cases, and they are tenacious. Tang Shunzong emperor Jia Qigong called her godmother ... ".

From the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, because Guangzhou belonged to the frontier area and was not affected by the war, embroidery, like agriculture and handicrafts, developed by leaps and bounds, and the skills of Guangdong embroidery were further improved from the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, embroidery shops were established in Guangzhou, and embroidery villages and workshops were also widely set up in Guangzhou and Chaozhou. Guangdong embroidery showed a thriving scene. After liberation, under the impetus of the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom, masterpieces appeared.

With the prosperity of Guangdong embroidery, there are more and more varieties of Guangdong embroidery, and its application range is also very wide. Among them, high-grade embroidery mainly includes banners, hanging screens and table screens, while ordinary embroidery covers all aspects of daily necessities, such as embroidered paintings, gold and silver velvet hanging skirts, quilts, pillowcases, bed lintels, cushions, towels, headscarves, various embroidered clothes, embroidered shoes, embroidered bags and costumes. Guangdong embroidery has a wide range of themes, including figures, animals, flowers and birds, dragons and phoenixes, landscapes, rivers, vessels and various patterns, among which flying phoenix, dragons and phoenixes and Bo Gu are the most traditional themes.

Guangdong embroidery includes two schools, namely "Guang embroidery" and "Chao embroidery", so its stitches are different due to different schools. There are more than 30 kinds of stitches in 7 categories, including straight twist stitch, binding stitch, continuous stitch, auxiliary stitch, knitting stitch, Rao embroidery, variant embroidery, etc., and 6 kinds of stitches 10, such as Ping Xiu, Weaving Splendid Embroidery, Rao Embroidery, Convex Embroidery and Decal Embroidery. As for "tide embroidery", there are more than 60 kinds of stitch and knitting methods, such as double-needle spinning, spinning, bridge crossing, concave needle embroidery and cushion embroidery, and more than 40 kinds of velvet embroidery methods. At the same time, artists also use various techniques such as folding embroidery, inserting embroidery, gold and silver sketching and brown silk sketching. In this way, "Chaozhou embroidery" can be used in "embroidery, nailing, padding, pasting, spelling" and so on. Guangdong embroidery not only uses a variety of stitches, but also pays attention to ideas in creative design, and is good at integrating auspicious and beautiful wishes into embroidery. In terms of creative methods, we adopted the depiction that originated from life and attached importance to tradition, and pursued a better ideal instead of being satisfied with reality. At the same time, he is good at learning from the advantages of painting, folk paper-cutting, etc., so that the embroidery composition is full, complicated but not chaotic, the needle steps are even, bright and flat, the texture is clear and distinct, and both objects and images are vivid, which fully embodies the local style and artistic characteristics of Guangdong embroidery.