ANCIENT CHINESE NEEDLECRAFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

ANCIENT CHINESE NEEDLECRAFT

The beautiful display of needlework of every description at the Auckland Winter Exhibition gains an added lillip of interest when one reflects that this art of the noodle which wo, ill the 20th century, continue to find so fascinating is after all nearly as "old as Time" itself " and that it is China which may most truly bo regarded as the birthplace of this as of so many other crafts. Moreover, it is a peculiar and striking fact that, in China, from the very beginning, the decorations for pottery and mats and tho designs for pictures were alwavs taken from samples of tho embroiderer's art, not, as in the West, the designs for embroideries borrowed from the design of tho painter. The history of tho silks and embroideries of the East is full of romance. The discovery of silk and tho rearing of silkworms first originated with HsiLing, wife of tho Emperor, Huang-Ti, three millennniums before the Christian era. Indeed, it is from tho silk that China derived its name " Chin," meaning gold, being tho Chinese name for silk, for it is held to be as precious as gold. The ancient Greeks knew it as tho silk country, and, in tho third century, tho monk, Dionysius Peerages, wrote of China's "precious flowered garments, delicate as a spider's web." Even to tho present day the Empress Hsi-Ling is honoured at tho annual celebrations, held to commemorate tho discovery of silk, and, for many generations, it was customary for tho reigning Emperor, as the first agriculturist of the land, to turn tho first furrow of the season, and for tho Empress to pick the first mulberry leaves and offer them on tho altar. Tho care of tho silkworms was held to bo one of the duties of Chinese women, and wild ones, as well as mulberry-feeding ones, were kept in great numbers. China was undoubtedly tho first nation to ornament its materials with a pattern, and tho pattern has altered surprisingly littlo throughout the centuries. To know tho significance of tho patterns gives, of course, an additional interest to tho beautiful work. Tho dragon is much used, but in China the dragon is not looked upon as a symbol of evil as in the Western world. It is a celestial dragon, and that is why it is

EMBROIDERY STEEPED IN TRADITION

usually surrounded by flowers. Butterflies are emblems of happiness, and tho mandarin ducks (always found in pairs) signify wedded happiness. Tortoises, lotus flowers and tho phoenix are also favourite designs, together, and t.ho Dog of Fo, usually featured playing with a ball of brocade. Then there are the twelve ornaments, which, at 0110 time, might only be embroidered on the garment of an Emperor, the rank of the other Court officials being denoted by tho number of embroidered ornaments. Principal among the ornaments are Shih-Erh-Chuang (the eighth Buddhist felicitous emblem), Meru (the sacred Buddhist mountain) rising from the sea, and tho Jui sceptres. A wonderful symbolism runs through the patterns of these embroideries. The manufacture of silk and tho rearing of silkworms wero for a long time exclusive to China, the secret being jealously guarded, but, about the boginning of the Christian era, somo eggs of tho silkworm were carried to Khotan by a Chinese Princess in her hair. Wo do not know her reason for betraying the secret of her native land, but probably she had a lover whom she desired to enrich. In the reign of the Emperor Yustinian, two Nestorian monks brought some eggs of silkworms to Bvzantium in bamboo canes.

The untiring patience of the people of the Orient is strikingly exemplified in their embroderies, some of which are so fine that the work can only bo properly appreciated when seen under a microscope. In the eighth century a princess of tho Tuang Dynasty embroidered on a small square of silk 3000 mandarin ducks and surrounded them with flowers. The Chinese loom is upright, and only in the matter of size has it changed through many generations. The weaver sits below, and his assistant, perched on top, pulls the treadle and helps to change the threads. When embroideries aro worked by two, with the material stretched over a frame, one pushes the needle to the other. Thus the work is exactly the same on both sides. Sometimes a flower made up of about twenty small pieces is touched with a brush, and the effect is marvellous.