An Attempt at Gu Family Embroidery from Ming China
Squirrels and Grapes by Miao Ruiyun, Ming Dynasty
Introduction
Embroidery has a long history in China, spanning more than 4,000 years. Although it has been difficult to date precisely when embroidery began in China, researchers have established that it likely began around the time of the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1027 BC) [1]. Gu-family embroidery, which will be the focus of this project, developed in Shanghai during the late Ming dynasty. The name of this style of embroidery comes from Gu Mingshi, an imperial candidate, but the style began with Miao Ruiyun, a concubine of Gu Haihai, Gu Mingshi’s first son [2]. Another notable master embroiderer of the Gu family was Han Ximeng, the wife of the second grandson of Gu Mingshi [3]. The works of these two women are some of the only extant pieces of the Gu family. They are displayed or in collection in museums in Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Zhenjiang [4].
Gu family-style embroidery took after embroidery from the Song dynasty. According to Josiane Bertin-Guest, author of Chinese Embroidery: Traditional Techniques, “Gu embroidery was modelled on famous landscape, bird and flower paintings, and portrayals of immortals and human figures, all taken from masterpieces of the Song and Yuan dynasties. In particular, it was greatly influenced by the style of painting of the Ming Dynasty’s Songjiang circle of painters, known among the elite as the Clouds Clique (Don Su Chan).” [5]
For this project, I have decided to attempt to recreate one of the leaves and a bunch of grapes in one of Miao Ruiyun’s pieces, called Squirrels and Grapes, which depict two squirrels eating or otherwise engaging with a branch of leaves and grapes. The piece is in collection at the Shanghai Museum and was displayed as part of the museum’s Spring Blowing in the Wind: Jiangnan Culture Art Exhibition from May to August 2020. The piece that I attempted to recreate can be viewed in more detail here, along with other pieces of embroidery from Miao Ruiyun.
The field of textile arts is already comparatively less frequently studied than other crafts and there are few surviving works of Gu family embroidery, so it was rather difficult to find primary sources, such as written records or other documentation of the embroidery. Instead, I closely examined the extant works that were available through the Shanghai Museum gallery and corroborated my observations with information from secondary sources, including Chinese Embroidery: Traditional Techniques by Josiane Bertin-Guest, a researcher on Chinese embroidery and craft, and Chinese Embroidery: An Illustrated Stitch Guide by Shao Xiaocheng, a Chinese embroidery artist of more than thirty years and the director of Beijing Shao Xiaocheng Embroidery Research Institute. Additional scholarly papers about Gu embroidery were used to understand more about the techniques that Miao Ruiyun and Han Ximeng used in their work.
The Gu family style of embroidery used innovative processes to create the painterly effect that dominates the works, including splitting the fine silk thread into even thinner filaments, using new color combinations, and inventing new stitches and layering techniques [6].
Tools of the Craft
Embroidery frame and stand typically used
Embroidery hoops: I used an eight-inch hoop. According to Shao Xiaocheng, bigger hoops such as the one I’m using are typically used for embroidering articles for daily use. Miao Ruiyun’s piece is about 28 cm by 27 cm [7], so she probably would have created the piece using a stand and a frame that’s typically used for Chinese embroidery [8], but since I was only recreating a small section of the piece, I decided to use a hoop. Additionally, I was bound by financial and space constraints in acquiring the materials for setting up my own embroidery stand and frame.
Fabric: Gu family embroidery was typically done on silk. I used satin, which was slightly thicker than silk would have been, but has a similarly smooth texture.
Thread: Gu family embroidery used silk thread that was then separated into even finer filaments. Cotton thread is also commonly used in Chinese embroidery. I used both kinds of thread. The cotton thread was a bit thicker and easier to split into thinner threads, while the silk threads were already incredibly thin. I was only able to split the silk thread into two. The process of easily splitting thread seems like an example of one kind of tacit knowledge that embroiderers possessed. Although I read directions and watch videos such as this one on how to split the thread, I could not do it consistently without snapping the fine filaments.
Needles: I could not find any primary sources on the specific needle sizes that the Gu women might have used but based on discussions of the technique that required super fine thread and Shao Xiaocheng’s book which said size 9 to 12 needles are typically used in Chinese embroidery [9], I used a size 9 needle for my recreation.
Pencil: Gu family embroidery combined painting and embroidery [10] and a work usually had a sketch prior to its creation [11], so I used a pencil to render an outline before embroidering.
The Process of Recreation
In deciding to recreate Miao Ruiyun’s Squirrels and Grapes, I first needed to do preliminary research about the types of stitching that is often used in Gu style embroidery to identify the stitch types that I would have to use to recreate the piece. According to I-Feng Huang’sTh article, “Gender, Technical Innovation, and Gu Family Embroidery in Late-Ming Shanghai,” the encroaching satin stitch and the long and short stitch were most often used in Gu embroidery [12]. According to Huang, the Gu family tradition developed these stitches further into multiple-pair long and short stitches and irregular long-and-short stitches [13]. The stitches that Huang describes looked very much like ones that appear in Miao Ruiyun’s piece in their alternating pattern that makes the colors of the leaf and grapes blend together seamlessly. To get more detailed references and directions on how to do the actual stitches themselves, I referred to Shao Xiaocheng’s guide, including the pages on the long and short shades satin stitch and the slanted satin stitch—the former of which I used primarily on the leaf and the latter of which I used primarily to create the branches and the grapes. I also referred to Shao’s directions on creating the stem stitch, which I used primarily for the thinner vines [14].
To begin the reproduction after this preliminary research, I traced a square of about ten inches by ten inches onto the fabric and then I traced the circumference of my embroidery hoop inside the square. In traditional Chinese embroidery, the embroiderer uses a frame and a stand that they set up as we’ve discussed above. However, this is usually for larger pieces. Daily and smaller items can be made with a small embroidery hoop like the one I’m using. Gu family embroidery uses very fine thread, so that the pieces look like paintings. In fact, some of the pieces are painted before they are embroidered. I don’t possess much skill in drawing or painting, so I traced the outline of the leaf and grapes from my iPad onto the fabric to get as accurate a shape as I could get. It was a bit tricky because the iPad was sensitive to my touch, even though the fabric, and would move around often so I had to consistently reposition it. I had to make consistent, small strokes to trace the outline. Once this prep work was done, it was time to start the actual embroidering process.
Reflections
I will not lie; embroidering was incredibly difficult and the results I achieved look almost nothing like the work I was attempting to recreate. It lacks the dimension, textures, and color gradient that Miao Ruiyun’s piece has even though I used similar materials and techniques as described in the research. Although I followed the directions and diagrams given by Shao Xiaocheng and Josiane Bertin-Guest along with supplementary videos from YouTube that showed me how to do the specific stitches, I couldn’t achieve the same effect that Miao or the embroiderers in the videos were able to. I had difficulty getting the stitches even and making sure there are no holes or gaps between the stitches. This made me reflect on the experiences of the women who were engaging in the embroidery craft. It most likely took years for them to learn this skill and they most likely spent lots of time practicing it.
The embroidery process also took a long time. This could partly be because I’ve only embroidered a few times before in my life, but even with this in mind, I was only recreating a portion of the whole piece and it still took me over 12 hours to complete. Likewise, the Gu family ladies most likely spent a decent portion of their time working on embroidery. This type of work, while an art form, could and was sold for profit. According to Huang, “Gu Family embroidery already had entered the domestic market during Han Ximeng’s lifetime” contrary to the misconception that embroidery wasn’t made for commercial profit [15]. This receptive commercial environment, combined with the high quality and the copious amounts of labor that goes into the embroidery produced, likely contributed to the demand for Gu family style embroidery.
Additionally, Huang mentions in her article that “different from the traditional individualist notion of ‘innovation,’ the technical innovation of Gu Family embroidery was created within the community of the Gu family ladies…It is entirely possible that the Gu Family ladies worked together, shared their knowledge, and innovated in this community” [16]. Contrary to the social situation of the Gu family, I was alone in my room for most of the time that I was working on this project, with only my boyfriend for occasional company although he does not have any embroidery knowledge that might have proved useful in this process. If I had been working in a similar environment as the Gu family ladies, surrounded by or with access to others who could share their knowledge with me, perhaps my recreation would have looked somewhat more like Miao’s. If I had ready access to other master embroiderers whom I could turn to for guidance, questions, and feedback as I was embroidering, it would have been easier to grasp the technique. This idea of sharing knowledge between masters and apprentices, of conveying knowledge more easily in a social and physically interactive form between bodies, has appeared in other crafts that we’ve discussed in this class, and it seems to be applicable to embroidery as well.
The final product
Through this process of attempting to recreate Gu family style embroidery, I’ve developed a new appreciation for the art of embroidery, recognizing the time, skill, and patience that the ladies of the Gu family put into this art form as well as the innovative techniques that they pioneered.
[1] Josiane Bertin-Guest. Chinese Embroidery: Traditional Techniques (United States: Krause Publications, 2003), 14.
[2] Ying Yu, “Gu’s Embroidery,” Asian Social Science 6, no. 1 (2010): 61, accessed November 13, 2021, https://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/view/4777.
[3] Yu, “Gu’s Embroidery,” 61.
[4] Bertin-Guest. Chinese Embroidery: Traditional Techniques, 30.
[5] Bertin-Guest. Chinese Embroidery: Traditional Techniques, 30.
[6] I-Feng Huang, “Gender, Technical Innovation, and Gu Family Embroidery in Late-Ming Shanghai,” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine no. 12 (2012): 81.
[7] Yu, “Gu’s Embroidery,” 72.
[8] Xiaocheng Shao, Chinese Embroidery: An Illustrated Stitch Guide (Shanghai: Better Link Press, 2018), 32.
[9] Shao, Chinese Embroidery: An Illustrated Stitch Guide, 33.
[10] Yu, “Gu’s Embroidery,” 64.
[11] Bingqing Gao, “A Brief Discussion on the Themes of Women’s Embroidery in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,” Asian Culture and History 2, no. 2 (2010): 73, accessed November 23, 2021, https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.673.7963&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
[12] Huang, “Gender, Technical Innovation, and Gu Family Embroidery in Late-Ming Shanghai,” 85.
[13] Huang, “Gender, Technical Innovation, and Gu Family Embroidery in Late-Ming Shanghai,” 85.
[14] Shao, Chinese Embroidery: An Illustrated Stitch Guide, 51, 77, & 79.
[15] Huang, “Gender, Technical Innovation, and Gu Family Embroidery in Late-Ming Shanghai,” 79.
[16] Huang, “Gender, Technical Innovation, and Gu Family Embroidery in Late-Ming Shanghai,” 88.