The Development History of Chinese Embroidery

Embroidery originates from human’s needs for decoration purposes. It is recorded that painted patterns appeared in the time of Huang Emperor, that is, primitive human beings in ancient times already had the knowledge of beautifying themselves with colors. In the beginning, color was used to paint on the bodies, which was referred to as “Changshen”; further stabbed in the bodies, referred as “Tattoo”; later draw on clothes, and then embroidered on clothes. “The Book of History” says that the clothes of Yushun, an emperor, had colorful designs, with six patterns on his coat, named the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the dragon and pheasant, and six patterns on his trousers, named two goblets, pondweed, flames and rice grains, etc., all together twelve patterns. In Zhou Dynasty, “The Book of Rites” recorded that all the leuds in ancient times had a chamber to raise silkworm porducing silk with colors like dyed red, green, black and yellow, etc. They were used on thread of different colors to embroider a variety of designs on the dresses. In ancient Chinese, “Wen” means embroidering with blue and red, and “Zhang” means embroidering with red and white.

Another meaning of “Wen” is “painting”. According to the explanation in “The Book of Rites”, “Wen” refers to painting, and as for the ancient vestment, the top dress were drawn while the nether dress were embroidered. In a word, embroidery emerged in ancient times. Specialized textile and sewing industry appeared in the Shang Dynasty, during which, silk was attached much importance to and a special civilian was established to be in charge of sericulture by the royal family. The initial form of embroidery is Suo embroidery, a kind of ancient embroidery stitch. So far, the earliest embroidery that can be seen is “The Embroidery of Dragon, Phoenix and Tiger” unearthed in Chu tomb of the Warring States period in Jingzhou. It was represented by Suo embroidery stitch in silk and well preserved. Among the cultural relics later unearthed in Han tomb, there were more works of embroidery, such as embroidered floss gowns, embroidered yellow gowns and red gowns in Western Han cultural relics in Mawangdui. A piece of silk embroidery, unearthed in Eastern Han tomb in Wuwei, Gansu, is unprecedented in its use of fine thread. It seems true that all women were deft in brocading in Han Dynasty, during which most embroidery were Suo embroidery and of course, a few were Ping embroidery.

Buddha Embroidery was prevalent in Tang Dynasty. According to the records during the reign of Tang Gaozong, more than twenty temples were found, and an embroidered portrait about 33.6m high was built, which was unprecedented and the highest among all embroidered portraits. Du Fu, the saint of poets, wrote in “Odes of Eight Brilliant Poets”, “Su Jin, a poet in Tang Dynasty, pays homage to Zen before the Buddha for a long time, but he tends to escape Zen after being drunk.” It also reflected the prevalence of Buddha embroidery in Tang dynasty. Costume embroidery also began to be popular at that time. It is recorded in “Old Book of Tang Dynasty’s History” that more than 700 people brocaded and embroidered for imperial concubine in palace. The phenomenon in palace was followed by the bureaucrat. Later, even the emperor felt it undue and then Tang Daizong declared in A.D.771, “brocading and embroidering waste much female labor force, so brocade and embroidery with patterns of dragon, phoenix, kylin, lion and so on were all forbidden to be produced, while white longevity and flower brocade could be produced as usual. Government officials at all levels should comply with the imperial order without any resistance. However, the emperor’s edict couldn’t stop the advancement of history and times. Embroidery, instead of being prohibited from production, was somehow further developed. In addition to traditional Suo embroidery, techniques of Ping embroidery were also developed, such as neat stitch, wrapped stitch. Set stitch, cutting stitch, and rolling stitch were created at that time. Department of painting and embroidering was set up in Song Dynasty. From the emperors to officials, all wore embroidered clothes, about which there was written provision according to the rank hierarchy. Due to the advocacy of government, embroidery, more popular among the people, has reached an unprecedented height. Besides department of painting and embroidering, special sectors of painting and embroidering were also set up to embark on embroidering all kinds of works of art, including landscape, pavilion, figures, flowers, birds, etc. Since then, embroidery has fallen into two categories, the art for practical fashion and the art for appreciation.

With government’s great advocacy, the artistic quality of embroidery craftsmen had improved continuously. The stitch and method of embroidering have also achieved great innovation. Embroidery in Song Dynasty was pretty exquisite