Xueyin Embroidery Manual Illustrations

Author: Wang Yijun
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-06-01
Features: The Snow Courtyard Embroidery Manual is one of the earliest specialized works on embroidery theory in China. This book was dictated by embroidery artist Shen Shou in her later years during an illness, and compiled by Zhang Chun at the time. Embroidery, anciently known as zhenshou (needle embroidery), is also called "women's work." It is a craft that uses an embroidery needle to guide colored threads and, following a designed pattern, stitches on textiles to create decorative patterns by outlining and filling in the designs. The Snow Courtyard Embroidery Manual not only summarizes the embroidery techniques of China since the Tang and Song dynasties, such as qi sha (parallel stitch), tuo zhen (layered stitch), za zhen (tied stitch), chan zhen (long and short stitch), and da zi zhen (buttonhole stitch); but also records the self-invented stitches created by Shen Shou, such as san zhen (scattered stitch) and xuan zhen (spiral stitch), which she developed to express the light and shadow and solidity and void by drawing inspiration from Western sketching, oil painting, and photography. This time, the book has been organized and published with Wang Yijun providing annotations to the original text, translating it into colloquial Chinese, and supplemented with over 200 relevant illustrations to explain the original work. Additionally, an appendix titled A Study of Gu Embroidery is included to share further insights with readers.