Qiang embroidery Qiang embroidery is an art created by the Qiang people with their own wisdom and ingenuity. It is rooted in the ancient history and culture of the Qiang people and carries the profound Qiang culture, showing the customs and aesthetic characteristics of this long-established nation in an intuitive form. In 28, Qiang embroidery was selected into the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative list.
the history of Qiang embroidery
Qiang embroidery is created by Qiang women through their daily life and labor in a long history. In Qiangzhai, almost all women know Qiang embroidery, which has become a symbol of the ingenuity of Qiang women, and its inheritance is almost always passed down by the family. Qiang embroidery has distinct regional characteristics and national style in traditional manual techniques and color application. There is a saying of "Southern Yi and Northern Qiang" in Sichuan folk embroidery technology, which shows that it has its own system.
The historical record that "in Shennong's world, men plowed and ate, while women wove and clothed" is a true portrayal that the ancient Qiang people were good at decorating and beautifying their lives with folk handicrafts. Qiang women are good at moving needles and threads, twisting threads and brocade, and have produced many excellent embroideries.
The history of Qiang embroidery can be seen from its decorative patterns. Pottery pots with "rope patterns" were unearthed in Maoxian and Wenchuan, and Western Zhou bronzes unearthed in Alzhai, Longxi Township had "gluttonous" patterns. It can be seen that this type of Qiang embroidery pattern has been widely used in the ancient Qiang settlement in the upper reaches of Minjiang River.
Qiang embroidery techniques
Qiang embroidery is mostly made of coarse cloth and cotton thread with white stripes on a black background, and then embroidered with various patterns. The colors are in sharp contrast, but they are very harmonious. When embroidered by Qiang women, cotton thread is mostly used, and sometimes colored silk thread is also used. The color is mostly black and white, so as to achieve a bright, simple and generous visual effect.
Qiang embroidery techniques are primitive and quaint, with exquisite and wonderful composition, beautiful and pure colors, beautiful and bright pictures, rich and diverse themes, beautiful and vivid patterns, and auspicious and festive meanings, which express Qiang people's longing for a happy life and reflect Qiang women's intelligent mind and outstanding artistic talent.
the traditional techniques of Qiang embroidery are primitive and simple, with various stitches, and most of them are used to frame flowers (pick flowers), weave words (jacquard), accept flowers (tie flowers), skim flowers (flat embroidery) and hook flowers (chain buckle).
the pattern picking is exquisite and exquisite, and there are three kinds of stitches, namely cross picking, string picking and weaving picking. Cross stitch is composed of oblique cross stitches, which are laid according to the warp and weft of the cloth. The stitches are exquisite, the stitching is rigorous and the group diagram is beautiful. However, meticulous work is time-consuming, and small-scale stitching is often the main method. Cross pick is often used on small strips such as headscarves, collars and sleeves. String picking, also known as chain buckle, is a pattern formed by connecting a needle and thread into a chain buckle. The pattern is formed by drawing the string with white powder and fine stitching with thick needles, which saves labor and is suitable for large-scale waist decoration. Multi-purpose colored silk thread is used for weaving and picking, which is combined with weaving and closely arranged, leaving blank to show the pattern. The weaving and picking is beautiful and elegant, but it is not washed, and it is mostly suitable for small-area streamers, uppers and headscarves. The colors of flower picking are mostly black and white contrast, but also a little color line picking; Some streamers are all arranged in staggered stripes with color lines, using the method of flower-receiving needle, with strong contrast and dazzling colors, such as colorful rainbows. Cotton thread is often used to pick flowers, which is simple and generous and extremely bright.
other stitches of Qiang embroidery also have their own characteristics, such as leaving flowers and accepting them beautifully. Weaving flowers is wonderful, simple and exquisite; Gouhua is vigorous and simple, rough and unrestrained.
materials of Qiang embroidery
Qiang embroidery is rigorous in composition, mostly geometric, neat and symmetrical, and highly decorative. The themes of Qiang embroidery patterns mostly reflect the natural scenery in real life, such as flowers and plants, melons and fruits in plants, deer, lions, rabbits, insects, fish, birds, people and so on in animals. In addition, there are some abstract patterns of worship and yearning for Qiang embroidery patterns. For example, there are dozens of pictures such as "Four Sheep Protecting the Treasure", "Flowers in Flowers", "Harmony between Fish and Water", "Moths Playing with Flowers", "Magpies Climbing Branches", "Flowers in braziers" and "Wan Zi". The content mostly contains good luck and longing for a happy life.
Qiang embroidery patterns are delicate and rich in connotation. For example, the color of nano-flowers and fiber flowers is in great contrast; The pattern of ribbon is also very decorative, coupled with the process of chain buckle embroidery, which shows the rough and unconstrained and delicate character of Qiang nationality.
The ancient traditional techniques of Qiang embroidery can be seen everywhere in the decorative patterns of neckline, shoulder pads, hanging edges, feet and cuffs of clothing, as well as in waist, shoulder bag, belly bag, flower shoes, flower mats and tablecloth sheets.
the application of Qiang embroidery in Qiang people's life
Qiang embroidery is an important part of Qiang people's clothing technology, which is widely applied to the head handkerchief, collar, sleeve, skirt, waistbelt, belly wrap and vamp, etc. It has a quaint, rich flavor of local life and strong decoration, which reflects the history of Qiang people's clothing culture.
Qiang people apply exquisite embroidery techniques to Qiang costumes. Firstly, it has aesthetic function. Qiang embroidery patterns are diverse, including not only plants such as flowers, melons and fruits, but also animals such as deer, lions, rabbits, insects, fish, birds and figures. It can be described as colorful. In addition to beauty, embroidery on Qiang costumes has enhanced the wear resistance of clothes and extended the service life with the help of dense stitches. It can be seen that Qiang embroidery is a handicraft that combines aesthetic and practical values.
But at a deeper level, Qiang embroidery actually expresses their prayers and blessings for life with colorful patterns, reflecting their dreams beyond reality. For example, the patterns they chose: insects, fish, flowers and birds, birds and animals, figures, melons and fruits, flowers, auspicious (chickens and sheep), golden jade (fish) full house, birds flying at the phoenix, are profound and vivid. Although geometric or other forms of pattern processing have been made, they are always closely related to their real environment, and their ideal starting point for a better life is in this sense of reality.
Qiang women choose the images of embroidery patterns according to the practical objects. If it is used for the elderly, choose patterns such as blessing, luck and longevity, and wish the elderly health and longevity; For children, choose to ward off evil spirits to bless their healthy growth, or use flower patterns, which also means thriving. The cigarette pouch embroidered by the young Amei is a gift for her sentimental brother. There are two patterns embroidered on the cigarette pouch, one is Yuanyang playing in the water, and the other is that the swallow leaves in winter and comes in spring, and fly with me. These two kinds of embroidery patterns imply the love between men and women and grow old together, which is the so-called love in the purse.
Today, most Qiang people still wear traditional national costumes. Qiang men and women wear white linen gowns shaped like cheongsam and sheepskin vests, with fur facing inward on sunny days and outward on rainy days. Women often wear embroidered black-headed handkerchief, and men wear black headscarves. White-headed handkerchief is only worn when the dead are dead, and it is burned as soon as the mourning period is over. However, in Hei Hu Township, Maowen area, all women wear white headscarves. Qiang men's clothing is usually a blue gown, a sheepskin jacket and a blue handkerchief. Qiang women's costumes are bright. They wear blue or green lace gowns, with a row of small plum blossom-shaped silver ornaments on their collars, embroidered aprons and streamers around their waists, and black headscarves. Qiang men and women each have a unique carry-on. Women have a silver sewing box and men have a silver cigarette case.
Yunyun shoes and embroidered waists are the most representative handicrafts in Qiang embroidery. There are also Tibetan-style packages, satchels, hats, blankets, mattresses, wall hangings, etc., which are also exquisite.
Yunyun shoes of the Qiang nationality are clouds embroidered shoes worn by Qiang men, which are the perfect combination of realism and idealism. They are the most distinctive embroidered shoes of the Qiang nationality and a kind of self-made cloth shoes worn by Qiang people on festive days. Yunyun shoes are shaped like boats, with slightly upturned toes, thick soles and embroidered clouds on the uppers, which are very chic and durable. It can be described as a typical embroidery that expresses emotion by borrowing things. According to legend, a carp fairy living in a lake was very distressed when she saw the Qiang teenagers grazing barefoot. She tore off a cloud and a bunch of cornucopia and made shoes for the teenagers. Later, they fell in love and became the happiest couple. People call this kind of shoes Yunyun shoes, and Yunyun shoes become tokens of love. This kind of craft form, which has both spiritual appeal and material practicality, is concentrated in the simple desire to wish good luck and a better life, thus extending its cultural character. This character belongs to both the Qiang people and all the working people.
In the Qiang people, the Qiang people's costumes adorn their lives with beauty. They are more beautiful than legends and memories. The headscarf on the girls' heads, apron on their bodies, Yunyun shoes on their feet, sleeves, collars, and even trousers corners are all embroidered with beautiful patterns. Or pink or red, or charming or bright, with the glittering silver ornaments of the girls, people have a feeling of walking in the rosy clouds.
after thousands of years of inheritance and development, Qiang embroidery has formed its own unique artistic style, which is the artistic crystallization of Qiang traditional culture and an important part of our national folk arts and crafts.