Suzhou Kesi Silk Weaving Skills 苏州缂丝织造技艺

时间：2006年
Time: 2006
类别：传统手工技艺
Category: Traditional Handicraft Skills
地区：江苏
Region: Jiangsu Province
编号：Ⅷ—15
Ref. No.: VIII-15
申报地区或单位：江苏省苏州市
Nominating unit[s]: Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province
缂丝是苏州的一种古老丝织技艺，主要存在于苏州及其周边地区。缂丝织造技艺主要是使用古老的木机及若干竹制的梭子和拨子，经过“通经断纬”，将五彩的蚕丝线缂织成一幅色彩丰富、色阶齐备的织物。这种织物具有图案花纹不分正反面的特色。在图案轮廓、色阶变换等处，织物表面像用小刀划刻过一样，呈现出小空或断痕，“承空观之，如雕镂之象”，因此得名“缂(刻)丝”。
Kesi is an ancient silk weaving skill originated from Suzhou and is also mainly employed by people in Suzhou and its surrounding areas. The kesi weaving skill mainly uses an ancient wooden loom and a number of bamboo-made shuttles and plectrums to weave colorful natural silk into a piece of fabric which is rich in color and takes on a complete set of color gradations by “passing warp thread and cutting weft thread”. This kind of fabric has a unique feature that its pattern is identical when seen from both its front and its back. At places like the pattern’s outline and wher a certain color gradation changes to another, the surface of the fabric seems like having been carved by a knife and takes on little crevices or break marks. As “it looks like it is chased when observed in the air”, it earns its name as “kesi”.
南宋苏州缂丝业已有辉煌成就。自明代始，缂丝技艺在苏州市区及周边的蠡口、陆慕、黄桥、光福、东渚等地广为流传，成为该地区最具代表性的文化表现形式之一。明代苏州缂丝织造技艺更为精湛，以御用缂丝龙袍及缂丝书画中的开相织品著称。到了清代，出现了缂、绘结合的新技艺。
Suzhou’s kesi industry had made glorious achievements as early as in the Southern Song Dynasty. Since the Ming Dynasty, the kesi skill began to be widely spread in the downtown of Suzhou City and surrounding Likou, Lumu, Huangqiao, Guangfu, Dongzhu, etc., and became one of the most representative cultural forms of the region. In the Ming Dynasty, the Suzhou kesi weaving skill was even more extraordinary, and was well known for its use to make kesi imperial robes and kesi painting and calligraphy. Then in Qing Dynasty, there emerged a new skill that combined ke with drawing.
20世纪60年代，以复制南宋缂丝名作为起点，艺人们恢复了中华人民共和国成立前已告濒危的缂丝织造技艺。至20世纪70至80年代，苏州先后成立了五家缂丝厂，缂丝织造技艺得到空前发展。《双蝶？牡丹？山茶》和《寿星图》这两件双面全异的缂丝作品在传统缂丝基础上取得了新的突破，备受瞩目，被当作国宝级珍品收藏。
In the 1960s, starting from the reproduction of kesi masterworks in the Southern Song Dynasty, China’s artists restored the kesi weaving skill which was already in danger of being lost before the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Between the 1970s and 1980s, five kesi plants were successively established in Suzhou City, which to a large extent promoted unprecedented development of the kesi weaving skill. Two kesi works, i.e., the Two butterflies – Peony – Camellia japonica and the Drawing of A Long-Lived Person, on both sides of which there are completely different patterns, made new breakthrough on the basis of the traditional kesi weaving skill and drew great attention and were collected as national treasures.
缂丝作为最早用于艺术欣赏的丝织物，素以制作精良、古朴典雅、艳中带秀的艺术特点著称，被誉为“织中之圣”。同时由于经得起摸、擦、揉、搓、洗，它又获得“千年不坏艺术织品”之誉称。缂丝作品具有很高的观赏价值，历代缂丝精品中蕴含着丰富的文化信息，缂丝技艺体现了传统文化的特色，具有相应的文化与科学价值。
As the first fabric used for artistic appreciation, kesi has always been known for its artistic characteristics of being exquisite, elegant with classic simplicity, gorgeous as well as beautiful, and is regarded as “the best one among all fabrics”. At the same time, as it is able to withstand touch, scrape, rub, and washing, it also earns the praise as “an long-lasting millennium artistic fabric”. Kesi works possess high aesthetic values. The kesi masterworks of various dynasties have rich cultural connotations, and the kesi weaving skill reflects characteristics of traditional cultures, and both possess corresponding cultural and scientific value.
在现代化冲击下，苏州缂丝织造技艺因生产周期长、成本高、价格贵而濒临消亡，目前从事这一行业的多为中老年，其发展前景令人忧虑，有必要制定规划加以保护。
Under the impact of modernization, the Suzhou kesi weaving skill is faced with the danger of extinction due to long production cycle, high costs, and expensive price. At present, as most of those who are engaged in this profession are middle-aged and old people, the development of this profession is not very promising and it requires systematic protection.
相关传承人：
Inheritor(s):
王金山
Wang Jinshan