In the vast galaxy of Chinese Embroidery art, Shanghai Gu Embroidery occupies a pivotal position with its unique temperament of “integrating painting and embroidery, elegant and refined”. It is not only a magnificent treasure of folk traditional art in Shanghai, but also one of the most famous Embroidery schools in Chinese history. On May 20, 2006, it was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the heritage number Ⅶ-17, known as the “ancestor of embroidery art”, carrying the warmth and profoundness of Jiangnan Culture for hundreds of years.
Gu Embroidery, also known as “Luxiang Garden Gu Embroidery”, originated from the Gu family in Shanghai during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. It got its name because Gu Mingshi built “Luxiang Garden” in the old city of Shanghai. It is said that during the construction of the garden, a stone tablet inscribed with the seal script “Luxiang Pool” by Zhao Mengfu, a famous calligrapher and painter of the Yuan Dynasty, was unearthed, hence the name. The founding and development of Gu Embroidery are inseparable from the unremitting efforts of three women in the Gu family — Mrs. Miao, the concubine of Gu Mingshi, was good at embroidering figures and Buddha statues, and her works were lifelike with outstanding embroidery skills, which was verified by Dai Youqi, the number one scholar of Songjiang Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty, as the origin of Gu Embroidery; Han Ximeng, the granddaughter-in-law of Gu Mingshi, pushed Gu Embroidery to its peak. She was proficient in the six principles of painting, good at calligraphy and painting, and broke the limitation that embroidery was only a decoration for clothes. She advocated that embroidery should have an independent artistic status, taking famous paintings of the Song and Yuan Dynasties as models and reproducing the charm of the paintings with exquisite needlework. Her works were called “Han Yuan Embroidery”, which was highly praised by Dong Qichang, a painter of the Ming Dynasty, who said that “its exquisite craftsmanship is unmatched by peers”. Gu Lanyu, the great-granddaughter of Gu Mingshi, set up an embroidery workshop and recruited apprentices extensively, making Gu Embroidery step out of the boudoir and spread all over Jiangnan.
The artistic charm of Gu Embroidery is concentrated in its three major characteristics: “integrating painting and embroidery, various stitches, and exquisite materials”. Different from other embroidery schools, Gu Embroidery is the only school named after a family that specializes in embroidering calligraphy and painting works. Nourished by the artistic theory of the Songjiang School of Painting, it has formed a unique style of “half embroidery and half painting, replacing painting with embroidery”. In the embroidery process, craftsmen first outline the outline of the painting on the base material, then use different stitches to embroider according to the layers and colors of the picture. For example, the faces of figures are embroidered first and then painted, and the clouds and mists are directly rendered with paintbrushes, making the silk thread and paint blend seamlessly. From a distance, it looks like a painting or calligraphy work, but upon careful inspection, it is found to be embroidery. In terms of stitches, Gu Embroidery has dozens of techniques such as even stitch, laying stitch, seed stitch and joining stitch. Craftsmen also innovate stitches according to the needs of the picture, among which the “thread splitting” technique is the most exquisite — splitting a single silk thread into 36 thin strands, thinner than hair. It takes an entire afternoon to embroider just one feather of a bird, which shows its delicacy. In terms of materials, Gu Embroidery uses high-quality silk thread, gold thread, silver thread, and even feathers. The color matching pays attention to intermediate colors, gradual colors, complementary colors and color matching, accurately restoring the color layers and charm of the original works.
Over the inheritance road of more than 400 years, Gu Embroidery has experienced ups and downs: prosperity, near extinction, and rebirth. From the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, Gu Embroidery reached its peak, becoming a tribute to the imperial court, imitated by the people everywhere, and embroidery workshops spread all over Jiangnan, exerting a far-reaching influence. The four famous embroidery schools in the Qing Dynasty — Su Embroidery, Yue Embroidery, Xiang Embroidery and Shu Embroidery — all drew on the stitches and styles of Gu Embroidery. After the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Gu Embroidery gradually declined. Especially in modern times, affected by wars and modern industrial impact, the technique of Gu Embroidery was almost lost, and there were very few craftsmen who really mastered the true meaning of “painting embroidery”. After the founding of New China, Gu Embroidery ushered in an opportunity for recovery. In 1972, in response to the call, Songjiang Arts and Crafts Factory invited Dai Mingjiao, an inheritor of Gu Embroidery, to Teach apprentices. In 1978, the Gu Embroidery Workshop was officially established, and Gu Embroidery, which had been silent for nearly half a century, regained vitality. As the only national-level inheritor of Gu Embroidery, Dai Mingjiao not only embroidered 41 masterpieces, but also dictated and sorted out “A Preliminary Study on Gu Embroidery Stitches”, summarizing the artistic characteristics of Gu Embroidery as “elegant style, simple color; half painting and half embroidery, like gradual dyeing”, laying a foundation for the inheritance of the technique.
Today, Gu Embroidery ushered in new opportunities for inheritance and development. As the birthplace and inheritance place of Gu Embroidery, Songjiang in Shanghai has set up two creation venues: the Gu Embroidery Studio of Songjiang District Cultural Center and the Gu Embroidery Research Institute of Yueyang Sub-district, cultivating municipal-level inheritors such as Zhu Qinghua, Qian Yuefang and Fu Yongping, as well as post-80s district-level inheritors such as Zhang Li, forming an inheritance echelon of three generations: the elderly, middle-aged and young. To expand the scope of inheritance, Gu Embroidery has entered campuses — Sanxin School has set up Gu Embroidery training courses, and Shanghai University of Engineering Science and Shanghai Normal University have opened related courses, encouraging students to participate in intangible cultural heritage practice through credits. At the same time, Gu Embroidery actively embraces innovation, develops cultural and creative products combined with modern design concepts, and holds special auctions, allowing this ancient art to step out of the boudoir and approach the public. At present, many institutions including Liaoning Provincial Museum and Shanghai Museum have collected a large number of precious handed-down Gu Embroidery works, among which Han Ximeng’s “Album of Song and Yuan Masterpieces” and “Algae and Shrimp Painting” have become important physical materials for studying Gu Embroidery art.
Gu Embroidery is not only an embroidery technique, but also a carrier of Jiangnan Culture. It perfectly integrates folk embroidery art with literati painting, embodying the wisdom and ingenuity of ancient craftsmen, and carrying the Chinese people’s pursuit and perseverance of beauty. Today, with the increasing emphasis on the protection of intangible cultural heritage, this art on the needlepoint is continuing to inherit the Jiangnan culture of hundreds of years with a new attitude, showing the brilliant charm of traditional Chinese craftsmanship to the world.
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