Guxiu Embroidery 顾绣

时间：2006年
Time: 2006
类别：民间美术
Category: Folk Art
地区：上海
Region: Shanghai
编号：VII-17
Ref. No.: VII-17
申报地区或单位：上海市松江区
Nominating unit[s]: Songjiang District, Shanghai Municipality
顾绣系明嘉靖三十八年松江府进士顾名世之子顾汇海之妾缪氏所创，是江南惟一以家族冠名的绣艺流派。顾名世次孙媳韩希孟善画，在针法与色彩运用上独具巧思，显著提高了这种绣法的艺术品格，顾绣由此又称"画绣"。
Guxiu embroidery was created in the 38th year of the reign of Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty by Ms. Miao, a concubine of Gu Huihai whose father was Gu Mingshi, a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in feudal China) residing in Songjiang Prefecture at that time, and it is the only embroidery style named after a family in the south of the Yangzi River. Han Ximeng, the wife of Gu Mingshi's second grandson, was good at painting, and she substantially further developed the craft for her unique and smart stitching and color application. Guxiu embroidery is also known as "painting embroidery".
据明代崇祯年间《松江县志》记载："顾绣，斗方作花鸟，香囊做（作）人物，刻划精巧，为他郡所未有。"
"From the flowers and birds in the size of Doufang (a format for painting and calligraphy, about 25 - 50cm2) to the figures on sachets, Guxiu embroidery is so elaborate and exquisite that no other embroidery style at any other place can rival with it", as recorded by the Log of Songjiang County (or Song Jiang Xian Zhi) written during the reign of Chongzhen Emperor in the Ming Dynasty.
其特点主要有三：第一，半绣半绘，以补色、借色见长；第二，用料奇特；第三，运用中间色化晕。韩希孟以这种绣、画结合的方法，穷数年心力摹绣宋元绘画名迹八幅（册页），为世所重。明代松江画派代表人物董其昌对顾绣极为赞赏，称它"精工夺巧，同侪不能望其项背……人巧极天工，错奇矣"。韩希孟创立"画绣"阶段是顾绣发展的初期，绣品多为家庭女红，世称"韩媛绣"，基本用于家藏或馈赠。
Guxiu embroidery is characterized by: a) integration of embroidery and painting (which provides an edge in adding new color and borrowing bottom color); b) curiousness in material selecion; c) demitint evolved from halftone. It was such combination of embroidery and painting as well as Han Ximeng's strenuous efforts for years that created the venerable and admirable embroidery works, copying the eight painting masterpieces in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Dong Qichang, the typical representative of Songjiang painting school in the Ming Dynasty, rendered a high praise to Guxiu Embroidery that "ingenious and delicate, beyond the reach of other cotemporary embroideries…with superb craftsmanship excelling the nature, how remarkable it is!". Indeed, this "Painting Embroidery" period established by Han Ximeng is the initial stage for the development of Guxiu Embroidery, which is also called as "Hanyuan Embroidery (a kind of embroidery founded by Ms. Han Ximeng)". At this stage, a majority of embroideries were from the hands of the womenfolk of the Gu family and used for the purposes of personal collection and presents.
韩希孟之后，顾氏家道中落，逐渐倚赖女眷刺绣维持生计，并广招女工，从此顾绣由家庭女红转向商品绣。顾名世的曾孙女顾兰玉得缪、韩之亲授，并将技艺传承下去。据清代嘉庆年间《松江府志》记载，顾兰玉"工针黹，设幔授徒，女弟子咸来就学，时人亦目之为顾绣。顾绣针法外传，顾绣之名震溢天下"。清代道光年间，松江丁佩既精刺绣又通画理，著《绣谱》，于顾绣"心知其妙而能言其所妙者"。"后以仿效者皆称顾绣，绣品肆竟以顾绣相称榜，凡苏属之绣几无不以顾绣名矣。"20世纪初，松江出现了松筠女子职校的顾绣班，现年近九旬的戴明教老人曾为该班学生，她是近半个世纪顾绣在松江的代表性传承人，著有《顾绣针法初探》一书。
As the Gu family declined after the death of Han Ximeng, it gradually turned to be a family business which had provided subsistence to the Gu family, and which had employed a large amount of women workers. Guxiu embroidery transformed from family needlework to embroidery commodities afterwards. Directly inculcated by Ms. Miao and Ms. Han, Gu Lanyu, the great-granddaughter of Gu Mingshi, carried on the technique and know-how of the Guxiu Embroidery. According to Log of Songjiang Prefecture (Song Jiang Fu Zhi) written during the reign ruled by Jiaqing Emperor in the Qing Dynasty, "Adept in embroidery, (Gu Lanyu) opened a training workshop to pass on her techniques. All the women apprentices came for learning, whose works were also regarded as the Guxiu Embroidery by the contemporaries. In this way, the Guxiu Embroidery was spread out, enjoying tremendous popularity across the country." Another master in this flied was Ding Pei, also from Songjiang, in the reign of Daoguang Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. Proficient in both embroidery and painting arts, she wrote a treatise titled with Embroidery Book (Xiu Pu), for which she was praised as "the one who is capable to expound the excellence and ingeniousness comprehended from the Guxiu Embroider". "All the imitations in the later ages were called as 'Guxiu Embroidery'. Moreover, all the embroideries were honored by a label of 'Guxiu Embroidery'. So, such a name can be found in almost all the embroiders from the area around Suzhou." At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a class of Guxiu Embroidery founded in Songyun Girls' Vocational School, Songjiang District. A student in this class, Dai Mingjiao, close to 90 now, is considered as a representative successor of the Guxiu Embroidery, for the period near 50 years. She wrote a book named as Preliminary Discussion on Method of the Guxiu Embroidery (Gu Xiu Zhen Fa Chu Tan).
顾绣是民间绣艺与文人画结合的产物，从业人员须具备传统的书画修养。正因如此，它很难普及，且制作费时耗工。20世纪50年代以后，上海曾办过不少顾绣厂，现基本都已关闭。受现代工业的影响，大量顾绣仿制品涌入市场，形成对顾绣的冲击，顾绣之名虽盛而真得"画绣"真谛者在上海几乎不复可寻，因此必须要采取措施对这一传统绣艺进行抢救、保护、整理、挖掘。
As a product of folk embroidery and literati painting, Guxiu embroidery requires embroiderers to be equipped with attainments of painting and calligraphy. For such reason, it is hard to be popularized, let alone that its fabrication consumes much time and efforts. After the 1950s,, many a Guxiu embroidery factory emerged in Shanghai. Unfortunately, nearly all of them were wound up in the end. In the context of the modern industry, a mass of fake Guxiu embroideries can be found in the market, casting a great shadow on the traditional craft. Furthermore, the fabulous reputation of the Guxiu Embroidery is eclipsed by the fact that those who have mastered the "painting embroidery" skill are hardly available in Shanghai. Therefore, necessary measures must be taken to save, protect, sort out and exploit this traditional embroidery style.