Hunan cross-stitch embroidery
Hunan Cross-Stitch
Dear friends:
Hello, everyone! Cross-stitch is a traditional ethnic folk craft, with distinctive styles of various ethnic minorities: the elegance of the Tujia, the splendor of the Miao, the plainness of the Yao, the vivacity of the Dong... Among them, the Yao cross-stitch is the most typical, with rigorous composition, rich rhythm, colorful palette, exquisite stitching, beautiful and elegant, full of ethnic flavor.
Cross-stitch, also known as rack embroidery or cross-stitch work, is a branch of embroidery that originated from the ancient craft of weaving and embroidery, integrating both weaving and embroidery. It mainly relies on the grid formed by the intersection of warp and weft threads in the base fabric, using silk or cotton threads to pick out patterns. Therefore, cross-stitch generally uses homespun cloth with clearly defined warp and weft as the base material, and uses hand-spun threads with strong color contrast against the cloth as the material for picking patterns. It uses the "×" shape or the "一" shape as the smallest unit, and these smallest units are connected and extended to form neat and beautiful clothing patterns. The cross-stitch craft is very complex: first, count the threads; second, form crosses; third, use the needle on the reverse side. Especially when counting threads, there must not be the slightest mistake. Therefore, cross-stitch seems simple but is actually quite troublesome, and using fine cloth for cross-stitch is even more time-consuming.
The techniques of cross-stitch are generally divided into two types: open stitch and hidden stitch. Open stitch is done with the right side of the base cloth facing up and the wrong side facing down, stitching from the right side and producing the pattern on the right side. This is a relatively popular and easy-to-learn technique, but it is slow. The so-called hidden stitch is done with the right side of the base cloth facing down and the wrong side facing up, stitching from the wrong side that faces up and producing the pattern on the right side that faces down. This technique is locally called "stitching on the reverse, viewing on the front." Its advantage is that stitching from the reverse side allows the back of the pattern to show a clear route of stitching, thus increasing speed and also making the design more neat, beautiful, and varied. However, to master this skill proficiently requires a long period of arduous training before one can operate it with ease.
Folk cross-stitch patterns have a wide range of subjects, mostly selecting the totems of one's own ethnic group and all things in nature as patterns, especially animals and plants, which through exaggeration and generalization form a special decorative style, mostly implying auspiciousness and celebration, happiness and fulfillment, good fortune and longevity, and the joys of life. For example, auspicious dragons and phoenixes, wealthy peonies, lotuses (year after year) with fish (surplus), magpies frolicking among plum blossoms, pine, bamboo, orchid, and plum, two dragons playing with a pearl, the crimson phoenix facing the sun, the Eight Immortals crossing the sea... and so on. Folk cross-stitch generally does not use drafts; the maker creates impromptu according to her own wishes, freely giving play to her talents, relying on her skillful hands to "count threads and embroider." Colorful silk threads, through the girls' flying needles and threading, become pieces of brilliantly colored, lifelike exquisite works.
Cross-stitch generally uses white cotton thread on black cloth, or black cotton thread on white cloth, or colored silk thread on satin. The color contrast is strong, mostly using bright red as the keynote, configured with warm and cool color blocks of varying lightness and darkness, bright and dazzling, full of festive atmosphere. The composition mostly forms patterns through curves and straight turns, and the decorative patterns are generally left-right symmetrical, with curves and straight lines connecting, with both emptiness and solidity.
Cross-stitch originated in the Han and Tang dynasties and developed to maturity in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Needles are used to stitch colorful silk threads onto the grid formed by the crossing of warp and weft threads of the base cloth, forming brilliantly colored patterns with a strong three-dimensional effect. In ancient times, cross-stitch was very popular among farm girls, especially girls before marriage had to pass the test of cross-stitch handiwork. A girl's wedding dress was a sign by which elders and young men measured a girl's ability. If a girl could not embroider or did not embroider well, no matter how beautiful she was, it would be difficult for her to find an ideal husband.
"To see whose daughter is skillful, look at her needlework." The quality of needlework had become an important standard for measuring a girl's virtue and talent. In the past, girls began at about ten years old to weave and embroider behind closed doors at home, called "doing needlework," regarded as the basic training for a maiden. In the folk song "One Line Up" it is sung: "A lone wild goose flies north and south, the man is single and the woman acts as matchmaker. If you want to take a wife, take me; I can do cross-stitch and embroidery and everything. Through seas of swords and flames I will accompany you." That "everything" means capability, their diligence and skill; "cross-stitch and embroidery" was the handiwork they were proud of. Because of what they saw and heard, family teaching and personal example, they took up the needle and thread from childhood, and by sixteen or seventeen their skills reached proficiency, enabling them to embroider a beloved complete set of dowry, and all their personal clothing was made by themselves. Because of this connection, cross-stitch became ever more alive in the hands of farm girls generation after generation, and over thousands of years, through the careful stitching of one generation after another of farm women, the craft became ever more refined. In modern times it has attracted world attention with its bright color combinations, exquisite pattern conceptions, and unique artistic forms of expression. Whether flowers, birds, insects, and fish, or landscapes, fields, and forests, or even mythological and operatic stories, its compositions condense the wisdom of the laboring people and their beautiful wishes for life. In 1938, cross-stitch won the gold medal at the Panama International Exposition. In 1959, Premier Zhou Enlai personally selected it among many handicrafts to decorate the Great Hall of the People. Since reform and opening up, cross-stitch has many times gone abroad on touring exhibitions as a representative work of national handicraft, winning the favor of a broad audience and customers and high praise from experts and scholars of all kinds, who have praised it as "silent poetry, three-dimensional painting."
The techniques of folk cross-stitch embroidery are varied, including plain-color stitching, colored stitching, single-sided stitching, and double-sided stitching. These embroidered articles, produced by the hands of mountain girls, give off the fragrance of mountain soil and have a simple, fresh artistic character. They are both articles for daily folk use and beautiful works of art. "Plain cross-stitch embroidery" refers to the monochrome embroidery in which white thread is stitched by cross-stitch onto black, dark, or blue backgrounds, using plainness to bring out brilliance. Plain embroidery stitches white thread onto black, dark, or blue ground (or the reverse), belonging to monochrome embroidery, thereby achieving the artistic conception of "pure and white, with brilliance within plainness," reflecting the ancestors' aesthetic custom of pursuing freshness and beauty, elegance and simplicity.
The styles of cross-stitch vary from place to place. Sichuan cross-stitch likes to stitch blue patterns on white homespun cloth, called "sapphire-blue thread picking blue flowers," appearing pure and simple, pleasing to the eye and durable to look at. Hubei prefers black backgrounds with colored threads, with rich colors, simple and elegant. Hunan has always been at the junction of Wu and Chu, absorbing both the delicacy and beauty of Wu and the rugged simplicity of Chu, with a rich flavor of life and local soil that is intoxicating. Hunan Yao cross-stitch is bright and heavy; Dong cross-stitch is clear, beautiful, and classic; Tujia cross-stitch has grand compositions and a warm atmosphere; Miao cross-stitch mostly uses bright red or deep red silk thread as the main tone, then uses yellow, green, blue, and pink silk threads as borders, forming a strong contrast with the color of the base cloth, giving people a warm yet simple feeling, expressing the temperament and style of the Miao people.
The patterns are basically geometric figures, fully covering the surface, with exquisite craftsmanship and brilliant colors, but the basic patterns are relatively few. Some are made by adding two parallel long lines into several squares. Legend says the squares represent the fields and gardens where the ancestors originally lived, because their distant ancestors were forced to migrate and longed for their original homeland, so they made these. The squares represent the original fields and gardens, the red cloth strips in the squares represent fish, the patterns represent field snails and stars, and the curved strips represent trees. These are commemorative patterns and may not be changed or abandoned at will. But the basic patterns can be connected and, according to one's needs and preferences, stitched into various symmetrical flower clusters, block flowers, round flowers, and strip flowers. Another type is round flowers, that is, stitching several basic patterns together into flower clusters, and then combining several flower clusters into round flowers. In flower clusters and round flowers, the patterns above, below, left, and right are all symmetrical to one another; the basic patterns are the most numerous and the process is the most complex. The finished patterns vary from sparse to dense, and the flower clusters from complex to simple, setting each other off, elegant and beautiful.
Tujia cross-stitch is a traditional craft at which Tujia women excel, with a history of more than a thousand years, possessing a strong local flavor and rich ethnic characteristics. Traditional Tujia cross-stitch is either black thread on a white background or white thread on a black background, with bright colors and great elegance. Its characteristic is the clear distinction between black and white, with concise and neat patterns. Those black-and-white lines are sometimes light and graceful, as if swaying; sometimes continuous, like long vines in empty mountains; sometimes vigorous, like bamboo branches facing the wind; sometimes soft, like butterflies raising their antennae. An excellent cross-stitch work can bring the charm of black-and-white lines to the fullest, making one feel relaxed and happy. The Tujia people's latent ethnic feelings toward their ancestors are elevated and revealed through their love of the two colors black and white. The preference for white originates from the Tujia people's worship of the white tiger totem, which in reality is ancestor worship. Tujia cross-stitch not only embodies the Tujia people's strong passion for loving life, but also reflects the ancient customs and folkways of the Tujia, allowing one to appreciate the rich imagination and delicate artistic personality of Tujia women, and displaying the plain artistic beauty of Tujia ethnic art.
The Dong are an ancient ethnic group, originating from the Xi'ou and Luoyue of the ancient Baiyue. The Dong are a beauty-loving people. Not only are their clothing and ornaments exquisite and harmonious, but even daily necessities, farm tools, and some household items all pay attention to beautiful shapes and harmonious colors. The great quantity of Dong daily clothing and ornaments is truly a feast for the eyes. Those thousands upon thousands of Dong festival costumes constitute a brilliant and colorful corridor of costume art, and even the accessories worn are dazzlingly gorgeous.
Han cross-stitch is mostly done with blue cotton thread alone on white cloth, possessing a simple and classic beauty. Dong cross-stitch, however, is not only done on white cloth, but also on dark and patterned cloth, and also uses silk thread or colored cotton thread. The most widely used are two colors: light green and light rose red. These two colors, matched on light blue, white, and cyan clothing colors, further display a fresh, harmonious, and quietly elegant beauty, which also reflects the characteristics of the Dong's geography and climate, ethnic psychology, and ethnic culture. The most widely used application of Dong cross-stitch craft is as decoration on Dong clothing. It is used on the most crucial parts of clothing, such as the collar, chest panel, cuffs, and decorative bands, possessing the wonderful effect of adding the finishing touch.
Dong cross-stitch art stands out in the world with its unique ethnic forms and its bright yet elegant artistic style. The connotations of its cross-stitch motifs include both totem worship and the pursuit of etiquette, as well as the longing for a better life and beautiful wishes. From the plainness and gentleness of its colors and the auspiciousness, elegance, fineness, neatness, and generosity of its patterns, one can see the aesthetic psychology of the ethnic group. These characteristics constitute the artistic features of Dong culture and are also a contribution to the treasure house of world culture.
Our country is a multi-ethnic nation, and among China's ethnic minorities, the Yao have the greatest variety of clothing types. Among traditional Yao clothing, the most famous is the cross-stitch skirt, which once received special attention from the famous writer and aesthetician Mr. Shen Congwen. Because its patterns are complex and varied, mostly taking animal motifs as the theme, and often containing pictures within pictures, its ingenuity of design and brilliance of color are breathtaking.
At an altitude of more than 1,300 meters in the Huxingshan area of Longhui County, Hunan, there is a place called Xiaoshajiang. Here are high mountains and towering ancient trees, and a grand canyon with waterfalls crafted by nature's extraordinary work. Here lives a branch of the Yao ethnic group that was once forgotten by Chinese folklore historical materials, ancient and unique. Independent of other Yao branches, they were enclosed in these wild mountains, faithfully transmitting the most ancient and pure life of their ancestors. This Yao clan branch of only about 5,000 people has always lived in remote mountainous areas, speaking its own distinctive language, singing loud and clear mountain songs, and passing down unique customs. The women here especially love beauty, and their clothing is very gorgeous. They wrap their heads in brightly colored cross-stitch headscarves, wear red-and-blue or white round-collared jackets, tie five-colored flowered cloth belts at the waist, wear aprons that are gaudy in front and plain in back, wear cross-stitch tube skirts below, and bind their feet with brilliant cross-stitch leggings, dazzling and colorful from head to toe. In the Yao mountains, one can often see Huayao women holding oil-paper umbrellas, walking briskly along mountain paths, like flowing scenery adorning the vast Yao mountains. This is probably why they are called "Huayao" (Flower Yao). The Huayao people are hardworking, simple, honest, and kind, with many peculiar costumes and customs completely different from other ethnic groups and also very different from other Yao branches.
Huayao is an ancient clan branch of the Yao. Unlike other Yao, the Huayao people revere ancient trees; wherever there are ancient trees, there are Yao households. Today in Chongmudang of Huxingshan Yao Township, more than a thousand ancient trees over a thousand years old are still preserved, and on the hill in front of the Yao village there is an ancient tree called the "Tree King" by the Yao. Everyone here believes that the ancient trees protect the clan, and they worship even more the tenacious vitality of the ancient trees. Passing by this place, they are accustomed to touching it, saying "this will bring everyone good luck."
"Where there are ancient trees, there are Yao households." This very directly leads one to connect the vitality of this ethnic group with the vitality of ancient trees. Whether in the land struggles between the Yao ancestors and the tribes of the Yellow Emperor and Yan Emperor, or in the face of the pressing racial system of feudal society, the Yao people have always shown a tenacious vitality.
What the Huayao are most famous for is singing and cross-stitch. The magnificent and magical "Wuwa Song" is called "the swan song among folk songs," and its plaintive yet melodious rhyme is enough to intoxicate anyone. Cross-stitch is one of the handcrafts at which Yao women excel; its characteristic is that it requires no tracing and no molds, and is made entirely by hand. Cross-stitch patterns are mostly birds and beasts and flowers and plants, composed of geometric figures such as straight lines, right angles, diamonds, and triangles, with bright colors and brisk outlining, possessing a unique ethnic style.
The cross-stitch embroidery art of the Yao has a long history. Ying Shao of the Eastern Han in his Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Mores recorded: the Yao ancestors "accumulated and spun tree bark, dyed it with plant fruits, and loved five-colored clothes." Before the Han dynasty, the Yao already used cross-stitch as decoration on clothing and skirts. Yao cross-stitch relies entirely on the keen eyes and skillful hands of Yao women, working freely according to the warp and weft of homespun cloth. Its ideas are ingenious, its layout reasonable, its patterns ancient and complex, symmetrical left and right, embodying rich ethnic characteristics and local flavor. In addition, the stitching is fine, and every piece is unique, with great collectible value. The famous Chinese writer and expert in historical relics, Mr. Shen Congwen, once sincerely praised Huayao cross-stitch as "first-rate cross-stitch in the world." In 1994, at the China Folk Art Unique Exhibition held by the Ministry of Culture, Yao cross-stitch won the bronze award. At the 2003 China Folk Handicraft Exhibition, 30 fine cross-stitch works won the gold award. Now, cross-stitch has become a synonym for Huayao. Enjoying extremely high reputation at home and abroad, Huayao cross-stitch holds in the field of cross-stitch a fame comparable to that of "Su embroidery" and "Xiang embroidery" in the field of embroidery.
Many folk treasures are always given some myth or legend, and cross-stitch is no exception. Long, long ago, a branch of the Yao with the surname Feng lived on the mountaintop of Tongqianping in Huxingshan, where the forest was deep and the ravines secluded, with huge rocks and cliffs and murmuring springs. One day, with gentle wind and warm sun, the Feng girls of the Yao family were playing on the rock wall when they suddenly discovered green flowers growing in clusters on the cliff, each clinging to the stone wall, most lovely. So they sang and danced on the rock wall. In Yao language these rock flowers were called "Beiganyue." Later, people kept coming to paint and admire them, and Yao women often came to this place to imitate them in cross-stitch clothing. Very soon, "Beiganyue" clothing appeared. One person told ten, ten told a hundred, and over time it spread throughout the Yao mountains—and thus today's Yao cross-stitch clothing came into being.
Yao girls' clothing pays attention to "color viewed from afar, flowers viewed up close," using strongly stimulating colors to interpret the whole ethnic group's understanding of beauty. The red-and-yellow headscarf is wrapped into a hat like a compass, with several tufts of strung sequined colored ribbons hanging from the back edge, level with the shoulders. As they rise and sway, the ribbons hang like a curtain and sway gracefully... The front-opening long gowns are mostly sky blue or white, with exquisite patterns cross-stitched along the sleeve edges. A colorful waistband separates the lower black-and-white flowered skirt from the front of the garment. On the calves are white leggings embroidered with black lace. The whole body is fiery and eye-catching in color...
On traditional Yao festivals such as "Taoliaogui," girls will put on their most beautiful cross-stitch clothing to compare beauty with one another, exchange skills, and attract the admiration and pursuit of young men. "Little sister does cross-stitch well, stitching sparrows to fly all over the mountains, stitching horses to run toward the mountain. Brother thinks of you at night; by day he runs after you. Fear not that you run into the deep mountains, brother will still chase and find you." The Yao have no writing, but they have their own language and their own songs.
Cross-stitch is a traditional skill of Yao women. According to Yao custom, when girls reach eleven or twelve years old they must master cross-stitch technique. Cross-stitch products are also one of the love tokens girls give to the sweetheart in their hearts. Yao girls begin learning to make cross-stitch skirts at age 10, and by the time they marry at sixteen or seventeen they can prepare four or five sets of dowry for themselves. Before marriage, all the cross-stitch skirts they will need for life must be made and stored in the dowry wooden chest for lifelong use after marriage. Girls who do cross-stitch well are regarded by young men as virtuous and good, while those who cannot are called "foolish girls who cannot be married off." Therefore, cross-stitch is the favorite work of Huayao girls. Whether working in the fields or chatting under ancient trees, whenever there is a little free time, they immediately take out embroidered pieces from the colored belts at their waists and stitch. They need no pattern samples or drafts, and no paper-cutting or tracing; they rely entirely on experience and wisdom, following their hearts, perfectly natural. According to the warp and weft threads of the cloth, they use the "cross-stitch needle" method—starting from one place and spreading out, then returning in turns, and the girls' magical and romantic thoughts melt into this flying needle and threading. The content of cross-stitch includes much history and legend, such as riding a dragon across the sea, King Pan ascending the hall, Langqiu (Yao language, meaning headman) resisting the enemy, and so on, all expressing the spiritual world of this ethnic group and also highlighting their artistic style.
In Huayao cross-stitch skirts, what we see most are birds and beasts, trees, flowers, and grasses, insects, geometric figures, and historical figures, among which snakes and tigers are the most prominent. Since ancient times the Yao have regarded snakes as spiritual beings, believing that snakes live long, can fly to the sky, swim in water, climb trees, burrow into the ground, endure hunger, and even transform into dragons... Among the cross-stitch patterns there is one called "intertwined snakes," in which two snakes are embroidered entwined and mating in joy, and male and female can be distinguished; the part where the snake heads come together also combines into a human head. This ingenious, magical, and romantic conception has obvious characteristics of Chu shaman culture. Therefore the most demanding work is the flowered skirt. The ethnic feelings between black and white, and the ancient and plain patterns directly or indirectly reflect the totems this ethnic group once had and the history it once had. Wearing totems on the head and history on the body, Huayao women interpret everything with the beauty of cross-stitch.
In Baiping Group of Chongmudang Village, Huxingshan Yao Township, lives a 95-year-old Yao longevity star—Feng Yimei. She began learning cross-stitch at six or seven and could not clearly say herself how many cross-stitch skirts she had made in her lifetime. When she married at 16, her dowry was 4 sets of cross-stitch clothing. Her daughter-in-law found the last cross-stitch skirt she had embroidered at age 86. This is a typical classical version of "snake coiling around tree," with very dense stitching, clearly much thicker than ordinary ones, and expressing a stronger force. Although she can no longer see anything else clearly, when she carefully examines her cross-stitch works, her eyes seem to regain their former brilliance...
The Huayao compatriots living among the high mountains and steep ridges have preserved too much excellent traditional culture and art for modern society. Cross-stitch, hailed as a treasure of ethnic art, is enough to make you sincerely marvel at the ingenuity of Huayao girls. Generation after generation of Yao women, from early childhood, devote themselves wholeheartedly to cross-stitch embroidery. They place beautiful wishes and their pursuit of life entirely in their needles and threads, and together with their ethnic culture, stitch various patterns such as King Pan ascending the hall, a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix, the Eight Immortals offering birthday greetings, tigers, leopards, lions, and elephants, and plum, lotus, osmanthus, and chrysanthemum into their clothing, skirts, bags, handkerchiefs, bed sheets, door curtains, bed canopies, and pillowcases. No matter which pattern is embroidered, it all depends on imagination in the heart, with intention before the needle, stitched freely by hand. Therefore, every cross-stitch work is a process of creation. Moreover, the lines are graceful, ancient and spiritually similar, exquisite and smooth. Seeing these exquisite and peerless works of art, who can fail to be moved by them!