Chinese culture has been up and down for five thousand years, and the farming civilization should have been six or seven thousand years since it was first seen, which has run through the development of Chinese civilization and also formed the tradition of male farming and female weaving. From an early age, women learn to draw flowers and embroidery, spin and weave fabrics, tailoring and sewing. In the "Book of Rites and Suburban Special Animals," it is said: "The beauty of the embroidery of the yellow, the beauty of the sparse cloth, and the beginning of the anti-female merit." The female skills here are also what we often call female red, and they are particularly valued in the Jiangnan area. Especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, everyone's standards for bridesmaids were measured in four aspects, such as "morality, speech, tolerance, and work". Coupled with the high development of the handicraft industry at that time, the female red was truly widely popular in the general sense during this period, of which embroidery was particularly prominent, because of its comprehensive skill and aesthetic subtlety, not only the need for techniques but also the embodiment of cultivation, becoming a compulsory skill for the family bridesmaids. During the Ming Dynasty, Han Ximeng, daughter-in-law of The Luxiang Garden in Songjiang District, Shanghai, was good at painting flowers and was good at embroidery, and the embroidery painted by the Song and Yuan painters was the most impressive, and the exquisite embroidery method was loved and treasured by the world Called "Han Yuan Embroidery" also known as "Luxiang Garden Gu Embroidery"; In the Qing Dynasty, Gu Lanyu, the great-granddaughter of the Gu family, began to set up an embroidery workshop, recruiting disciples and teaching Gu embroidery techniques. Since then, Gu embroidery has spread in the vicinity of Shanghai and has been passed down through folk traditions to this day, and on May 20, 2006, Gu embroidery was approved by the State Council of the People's Republic of China to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
It is said that Gu embroidery method comes from the imperial palace, the embroidery surface is exquisite, the craftsmanship is extremely ingenious, and the embroidery products are mostly family female red, which is basically used for family collection or gifts. The unique embroidery technique is mainly reflected in: first, half painting and half embroidery, painting and embroidery combination; Second, the stitching method is changeable, and the timing is innovative; Third, the intercolor halo, complementary color chromatic. Gu embroidery themes mainly involve famous paintings, landscapes, figures, flowers and birds. The poet Guo Rong wrote in the "Preface" of Han Ximeng's embroidery: "All characters, feathers, flowers, trees, insects and fish, etc., are dark and light, all are unsatisfactory, and there are no stitch marks and stitches, so that people cannot distinguish embroidery as paintings." Therefore, it is known as "painting embroidery".
From the beginning, Gu embroidery is different from the four famous embroideries of Su, Guangdong, Xiang and Shu, and it specializes in embroidering calligraphy and painting works, which has become a unique art. It combines the traditional stitching method in Song embroidery with the Chinese brush method, using needles to replace the pen, using lines to replace ink, sketching and blending, blending into one, adding color to the splendid culture and art of the motherland.
Special Planner: Huayi Tomorrow Fashion Content Center
Editorial Director : Huang Wei
Image source: Gong Wei Huang Wei's artistic reconstruction
Text Editing: Tao Zi Video Production: Feixun Video
Layout Design: BBird . Poplar wood
Some of the picture data sources are invaded and deleted online
References: Gu Xiu Introduction. Shanghai Gu Embroidery Art Museum