The Art of Gu Embroidery

Songjiang is the birthplace of the history and culture of the Shanghai area in China. Early in the Ming Dynasty, 400 years ago, Gu embroidery, a rare folk handicraft, enjoyed popularity here. Gu embroidery, colloquially called painting embroidery, was created, developed and spread by the women folk of the family of Gu Mingshi, a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination in the Songjiang Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty, 1559. Handed down from generation to generation, the Picture of Dongshan is the most ancient work of Gu embroidery of the Ming Dynasty. It is clearly characterized by painting embroidery, using a needle instead of a brush, and thread instead of color. Painting was stitches and embroidery skill. As a treasure of Gu embroidery, the Picture of Dongshan was made by Mrs. Miao, the founder of Gu embroidery. Finished in 1634, the volume of original and famous paintings of the Song and Yuan Dynasties has become the classic work of painting embroidery. It was made by Han Ximeng, called the number one maker of Gu embroidery. She merged the painting ideas of the Songjiang Painting School with embroidery skills, passing on the romantic charm of calligraphy and painting clearly. It is in conformity with Confucian ethics advocated by the literati and scholar officials, namely cultivating themselves through meditation, with music, chess, calligraphy and painting. Having undergone the hardships of the Ming Dynasty, Gu embroidery skills have become a purely ornamental school, different from the craft for daily use. Gu embroidery is the only school of needlework which adopts a family name. It was Dong Qichang, leading talent of the Songjiang Painting School, who imparted its artistic soul to painting embroidery. Dong Qichang had a close relationship with the Gu's, so literati paintings of the Songjiang Painting School became the subject matter of Gu embroidery, creating embroidered work that combined painting and needlework. The matchless position of Gu embroidery was therefore established south of the Yangtze River, and its influence reached far to affect the embroidery in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan and Sichuan provinces. Dong Qichang was named Master of Writes and wrote inscriptions for Gu embroidery three times in the last five years of his life. His famous inscription for Han Yuan said that Gu embroidery looked like handwriting and painting from afar, and an expert approaching it realized it was needlework. It was so miraculous that the craftsmanship excelled nature. Authoritative comments on Gu embroidery by Dong Qichang attracted the attention of people at the time to Gu embroidery. Painting embroidery thus came into use. Gu embroidery was the product of folk embroidery imbued with the scholar official culture. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Gu family fortune suffered a decline, which became a turning point for Gu embroidery. It became divorced from scholar official families and spread among the people. Gu embroidery survived among the people in Songjiang. Women tried to impart and learn the skills. The exclusive name of Gu embroidery became a general term for embroidery south of the Yangtze River, influencing Suzhou, Ningbo, and Hangzhou cities, and Hunan and Sichuan provinces. Gu Mingxue was respectfully addressed as the originator of embroidery by the industry south of the Yangtze River due to the preeminent achievements of the women of his family. It was very difficult to popularize painting embroidery because its final product took a long time to produce, and embroiderers of this style had to be well-versed in calligraphy and painting. On October 27, 1914, an exhibition of Gu embroidery was held in the Virtuous People Esteeming Hall in the French Concession in Shanghai. The Times newspaper reported for that day that works of many provinces used the name Gu embroidery, but that from Suzhou was the best. Several hundred kinds of embroidery are now to enter a competition in Panama. All prize-winning work will go to the competition in the name of Gu embroidery. As the Gu's had no descendants, the true essence of painting embroidery has disappeared, although Gu embroidery enjoys a high reputation. However, there were many scholar-officials who understood and loved valuable Gu embroidery. In 1932, a Gu embroidery class was held at Songyun Women's Vocational School in Songjiang. The essence of Gu embroidery of the Ming Dynasty returned to Songjiang by means of education and being handed down through the exchange of teachers and classes between schools. Half a century later, Dai Mingjiao, a woman in the Gu embroidery class, became the successor of Gu embroidery of the Ming Dynasty. She added to the theory and practice of painting embroidery and innovated upon its traditions to some extent. This has resulted in complete production knowledge and technical experience. The tools for Gu embroidery are an embroidery frame, an armrest, and an embroidery needle. The foundation materials for embroidery are thread, silk, silk gauze, satin, nylon, and other similar items. A preliminary sketch is made of an original idea or printed item. Varied stitches are marked on a copy. A brush, copy paper, and a copying desk are used for drawing. And a mounted picture is finally finished. Production is classified into four steps, namely choosing the draft, the use of material, the use of the needle, and the use of thread. All steps today differ from those in older times. Calligraphy and paintings from the Yuan and Ming Dynasties are mostly adopted as preliminary sketches from which to choose a draft. Famous modern paintings are also chosen. Material used includes damask silk, thin but tough silk, silk gauze, and satin, most frequently used in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Taffeta, plain velvet satin, soft satin, nylon, and others are adopted today. Needles used were made by wedding in ancient times, while in modern times people have advanced industrial technology. The steel quality for needles exceeds that in the past. Number 12 is the finest, with a diameter of 0.3 millimeters. Thread used in the Ming Dynasty was boa silk, thicker than today. The finest had 36 threads. The quality of natural silk used nowadays is basically the same as that in ancient times. It may be subdivided into 48 threads. The color grades and levels, with over 1,500 color choices in total, surpass those in ancient times. Many skills from Wu embroidery have been absorbed into other schools of embroidery during lengthy evolution. There are new stitches and techniques for matching colors. The finishing touches after embroidery, and no embroidering after setting the hues steps, were created in Gu embroidery, and differ from other schools of embroidery. Gu embroidery is characterized by its elegant style, simple colors, and luster, and the combination of paintings and embroidery as if painted. Its style is lifelike, and it looks like an integral whole. More than 500 pieces of embroidery were made over 20 years, and were collected in the Songjiao Museum in June 1987. A work which copied the painting, Clearing Up in the Fisherman's Village in Autumn by Nizan of the Yuan Dynasty, was finished in 1986. The technique, called hollow strokes with a dried brush, was used in the original. It was created by six artists over 300 days. Such techniques as empty, solid, applying, level, randomly mixing vertical and horizontal stitches, and other techniques were adopted for the work. It shows the distinctive style of landscape paintings with brushed textured stones of the Ni school, as well as the distant and desolate mood. The thread used was very fine. Each thread was subdivided into 48 finer threads. Great concentration was used for each fine thread. In the case of hollow strokes with a dried brush, tiny dots of various hues were applied in the embroidered work. A work which copied the painting, Quiet and Remote Wuxing by Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty, presents blue mountains and green waters on a remote plain, which looks as if it extends 1,000 li in every direction. Dark, thin, tough silk is used as the foundation for the work, which is divided into two parts. The work was finished in June 1986 and took 350 days. The stitches in the picturesque scene are integrated as a whole. The work presents a very strong sense of light with changes in the shades of light. It expresses the misty, delicately beautiful, and dimly discernible landscape south of the Yangtze River. Originating from a famous watercolor painting from the Song Dynasty, another work copying the painting, Fish Swimming in the Algae, is Double-Sided Embroidery, an innovative branch of Gu embroidery. It was completed in July 1985. The work was done so exquisitely that it shows no trace of threads. Its surface is flat, thin, and even. The painting and embroidery turn into a beautiful, with no difference for either of the sides. The fish look transparent and swim freely. The algae sways with the waves, expressing an interesting scene in the green water. Another work copying figures of Japanese ladies is based on gongbi and exuberant colors and was embroidered on thin, tough silk by Dai Mingjiao in December 1984. The stitches, threads, and colors are applied delicately. The colors are matched in an elegant and bright way. Monk with a Cloth Bag comes from a freehand brushwork of a figure, which was embroidered in December 1985. The exquisitely embroidered work copying the calligraphy of Dong Qichang, the Ode to Gu Embroidery by Han Ximeng, has fine, close, and neat stitches without open spaces, but displays deep and light colors. It towers above the ordinary and can almost pass for the original. It looks fuller, finer, and softer, rich in its three-dimensional effect. Inheriting the essence of painting embroidery, Gu embroidery is dependent on needlework skill done by hand and to a perfect production attitude that does not cater to fashionable commercial trends. It protects the original features of painting embroidery. Early this century, a Gu embroidery class was established at Dajiang Vocational School in Shenzhen, China. providing specialists and a guarantee of quality for the sustained development of Gu embroidery. In September 2005, Dai Mingjiao was given the title Prominent Figure in Imparting and Passing Down the Folk Culture of China by the State Council of the People's Republic of China. Dong Qichang and Dai Mingjiao, with 400 years between them, are like two cultural links which maintain closely the humanistic and regional relationship between Songjiang and Gu embroidery. Having enjoyed fame all over the world, Gu embroidery of Songjiang has been sold in 24 countries and regions of the world. Its embroiderers have been invited to many countries for cultural exchange. Gu embroidery has undergone over 400 years of change leading up to its revival. One may say it is a wonder in Shanghai's history of folk embroidery.