Embroidery¹

刺绣

Embroidery，a folk art with a long tradition，occupies an important position in the history of Chinese arts and crafts. It is，in its long development，inseparable from silkworm-raising and silk-reeling and weaving.

刺绣，是一种具有悠久传统的民间艺术，在中国艺术和手工艺品史上占有重要地位。刺绣的长期发展离不开蚕的饲养和纺丝技术的发展。

China is the first country in the world that discovered the use of silk. Silkworms were domesticated² as early as 5000 years ago. The production of silk thread and fabrics³ gave rise to the art of embroidery. According to the classical Shangshu (or Book of History )，the “regulations on costumes" of 4000 years ago stipulated⁴ among other things “dresses and skirts with designs and embroideries⁵" .This is evidence that embroidery had become an established art by that remote time. In 1958 a piece of silk was found in a tomb of the state of Chu of the Warring Sates Period (475-221 BC ).It is embroidered⁶ with a dragon-and-phoenix design. More than 2000 years old，it is the earliest piece of Chinese embroidery ever unearthed⁷. The art became widespread during the Han Dynasty(206 8C-220 AD);many embroil-dared finds date back to that period.

中国是世界上第一个发现和使用丝绸的国家。5000年前中国已经开始饲养蚕。丝线和丝制品的生产促进了刺绣艺术的诞生。

Today，silk embroidery is practised nearly all over China. The best commercial products，it is generally agreed，come from four provinces :Jiangsu(notably Suzhou)，Hunan，Sichuan and Guangdong，each with its distinctive⁸ features. Embroidered works have become highly complex and exquisite⁹ today. Take the double-face embroidered“Cat"，representative work of Suzhou embroidery, for example，the artist splits the hair-thin coloured silk thread into filaments¹⁰-half, quarter, 1/12 or even 1 /48 of its original thickness--and uses these in embroidering¹¹ concealing¹² in the process the thousands of ends and joints¹³ and making them disappear as if by magic. The finished work is a cute and mischievous-looking cat on both sides of the groundwork. The most difficult part of the job is the eyes of the cat. To give them lustre¹⁴ and life，silk filaments of more than 20 colours or shades have to be used. Recently，on the basis of two-fate embroidery have developed further innovations-the same design on both sides in different colours，and totally different patterns on the two faces of the same groundwork. It seems that possibilities hitherto unknown to the art may yet be explored.

目前传世最早的刺绣，是湖南长沙楚墓中出土的两件战国时期的刺绣品，针法成熟，配色清雅，图案生动，显示出成熟的刺绣工艺。汉代时，刺绣艺术得到了普及，现在出土的许多刺绣口号都产自这个时期。

时至今日，中国刺绣工艺不仅进入了寻常百姓之家，而且走上了世界舞台。最好的绣品认为来源于下面四省:江苏、湖南、四川、广东，各省绣品各具特色。如今的绣品复杂而美丽。比如苏州刺绣—双面绣品中的“猫”，刺绣时主要的技术就是把彩色绣线分线，一根线劈成一半，四分之一，十二分之一，甚至四十八之一，再把成千上万的线头，结头隐芷起来，这样绣出两面都是温驯、栩栩如生的小猫〔少目前，在两面绣的基础上又作了改进，在同一绣品的两面，用不同的丝线绣出不同的图案。看来，这门艺术还有挖掘的潜力。