Shu Brocade

Shu Brocade

Shu Brocade is a protected geographical indication product.

　　Sichuan was formerly the ancient state of Shu, where “Shu” refers to sericulture. The region has a long history of producing colorful brocades. By the Western Han Dynasty, Shu brocades in a rich variety of patterns were already being sold in Central China. By the Tang Dynasty, Shu brocades were being exported westward via the Silk Road and shipped to Japan. The fabric is tightly woven, durable, and features bright hues. Its designs and patterns are rich in ethnic characteristics and local style, with a rigorous structure that is classic and elegant, making it highly popular both at home and abroad.

　　　　Shu Brocade, along with Nanjing’s Yun Brocade, Suzhou’s Song Brocade, and Guangxi’s Zhuang Brocade, are collectively known as China’s Four Famous Brocades. Chengdu’s Shu Brocade has a long history, forming an important industry as early as the 4th century BC. During the Han Dynasty, the government established a special official called the “Brocade Magistrate” to oversee production, hence the city’s nicknames “Brocade Official City” and “Brocade City.” After over two thousand years of development, Shu Brocade has developed hundreds of different patterns. It is a pure silk fabric, soft in texture, rich in color, and durable.

　　　　The patterns include various craftsmanship styles such as Square Brocade, Moonlight Brocade, Rain Silk Brocade, Wanhua Brocade, Floor-Spreading Brocade, and Scattered Flower Brocade. There are also ethnic satin patterns designed for minority clothing and religious decorations. (Chengdu)

　　Shu Brocade is a long-standing and representative artistic treasure within Sichuan’s folk cultural heritage. Ancient texts contain many anecdotes about it, often reflecting the former glory of this historic fabric. When discussing Sichuan’s folk crafts, it’s only natural to start with these “casual tales.”

　　 “At dawn I see the wet red places, flowers weigh heavy on Brocade Official City”; “Where is the Prime Minister’s temple to be found? Outside its gate dark cypresses grow thick.” The Brocade Official City mentioned in Du Fu’s poems—Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu—was already famous across the world for its brocade production over two thousand years ago during the Han and Tang Dynasties. The region has long enjoyed a warm climate, abundant rainfall, lush forests and wild mulberry trees, as well as dye plants such as safflower and madder. As a result, mulberry cultivation and silkworm breeding were widespread, naturally leading to the emergence of silk fabrics. According to the Book of Documents, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, ancient brocades defined as “woven patterns on dyed silk are called brocade, woven patterns on plain silk are called damask” had already taken initial shape. By the Han Dynasty, Shu Brocade had reached a considerable level of artistry. Two stories from that era’s great literary figures help attest to this. One is about Sima Xiangru. Legend has it that when he was down on his luck, he once pawned a “sù robe” made of Shu brocade to buy wine. This celebrity act immediately prompted officials and nobles to follow suit, adorning their Shu brocade garments with bird motifs, dubbing them “Xiangru Brocade.” Additionally, the Book of Han: Miscellaneous Records notes how he used brocade weaving techniques to vividly explain the essence of writing rhapsodies: “Sima Xiangru’s friend Sheng Lan, courtesy name Changtong, a notable from Zangke, once asked him about the method of composing rhapsodies. Sima replied: ‘Combine warp and weft to form patterns, arrange brocades as the substance, with each line and each warp and weft, each note and each pitch—this is the structure of a rhapsody.’ Lan went on to write the ‘Rhapsody on Arranged Brocades and Combined Songs.’” Another great Chengdu rhapsodist, Yang Xiong, directly described the thriving production of Shu Brocade in his “Rhapsody on Shu Capital”: “Then there were the people, creating marvelous brocades, intricately woven, adorned with patterns, passed down through generations without end.”

　　 In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, amid the chaos of the Three Kingdoms, relatively stable Chengdu saw Shu brocade weaving reach unprecedented heights. The most interesting account comes from the Book of Wu: Biography of Gan Ning, which claims the famed Eastern Wu general Gan Xingba (originally from Zhong County, Sichuan, or Linjiang in Ba Commandery) started as a river pirate in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze. His pirate boats were all marked with Shu brocade sails, earning him the nickname “Brocade Sail Pirate.” Using a local specialty to flaunt his unique identity was certainly creative, but it also demonstrated the prosperity of Shu brocade production and consumption at the time. The Book of Wei: Account of the Wa People states: “Emperor Ming of Wei bestowed upon the Queen of Wa five bolts of crimson-ground dragon brocade and three bolts of dark blue-ground coiled-pattern brocade.” This not only tells us that Wei once purchased Shu brocade from Shu as diplomatic gifts, but also provides insight into the weaving patterns of Shu brocade. This “embellished-on-brocade” technique—where patterns are woven atop a dyed base—is a key distinction between Shu brocade and other regional ancient brocades. The Book of Shu records that in 211 AD, when Liu Bei entered Chengdu, he took brocades from the state treasury and awarded 1,000 bolts each to Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Fa Zheng. During Zhuge Liang’s governance of Shu, he treated sericulture, brocade weaving, and the state monopolies on salt and iron as two key economic policies for strengthening the nation, stating, “Now the people are poor and the state is weak. To defeat the enemy, we must rely on brocade.” Jian Yong, in implementing Zhuge’s policy, introduced centralized management and specialized weaving initiatives for Shu brocade. Mulberry cocoons were purchased uniformly, and bonded laborers were employed in brocade weaving. To the south of the city, an earthen wall was built to create the specialized “Brocade Official City.” Within the city, female workers and bonded laborers handled all brocade processes: cocoon boiling, silk reeling, thread winding, loom operation, weaving, rinsing, dyeing, and spinning. The resulting precious brocades—such as Crimson-Ground Dragon Brocade, Auspicious Grass Crane Brocade, Wish-Fulfilling Peony Brocade, and Dark-Ground Coiled-Pattern Brocade—featured elegant patterns, vivid colors, and stunning splendor.

　　 From the historical texts cited above, it’s clear that the name “Brocade Official City” has a long history, dating back at least to the Eastern Han Dynasty. But where exactly was the ancient Brocade Official City? According to the Western Jin Dynasty’s Chang Qu in his Huayang Guo Zhi: “Going straight from Yili Bridge, on the west side of the main road lies a city—that is the Han Dynasty’s Brocade Official City.” The Eastern Jin Dynasty’s Li Ying in his Yizhou Ji also wrote: “Brocade City is located south of Yizhou, east of Zuo Bridge, on the southern bank of the Liu River. It was the former site of the Shu-era Brocade Official Office, known as Brocade Lane. Parts of the city wall still remain.” It can be inferred that the location is roughly around today’s Baihua Pond area along the South River.

　　 The Tang Dynasty marked another golden age for Shu Brocade. The poet Liu Yuxi wrote: “By the Dyeing-Brocade River, flowers bloom on both banks, spring winds blow waves that wash the sand. Maidens cut out mandarin duck brocades, to set against the evening glow in midstream.” There are many historical accounts of the Dyeing-Brocade River. The Western Jin’s Zuo Si, in his Rhapsody on the Shu Capital, described Chengdu as: “In the bustling streets, among the homes of skilled artisans, hundreds of workshops hum with looms. Brilliant brocades shimmer, dyed in river waves.” Yuan Dynasty’s Fei Zhu, in his Shu Brocade Manual, wrote: “Shu is famed worldwide for its brocades, hence the city is named Brocade Official, and the river is named Dyeing-Brocade.” The Three Kingdoms-era Shu scholar Qiao Zhou, in his Yizhou Zhi, stated: “Once brocades are woven, they are washed in river water—their patterns become clearer than when first completed.” Chang Qu’s Huayang Guo Zhi noted: “The western part of the road is the former site of the Brocade Official City. Washing brocades in the Brocade River makes them brighter, whereas washing them in other rivers does not have the same effect.” During the dyeing and refining process, ancient brocades needed to be washed in the waters of Chengdu’s southern river, especially in the upstream area of Huanhua Creek, which became known as the Dyeing-Brocade River due to its superior water quality and ability to enhance fabric vibrancy.

　　 Tang Dynasty Shu Brocades featured even richer patterns and designs. The “Shu River Brocade” produced at the time not only had lively and harmonious patterns and colors, but some also employed a six-color “shading” technique, resulting in dignified, rich, and luxurious designs, similar in brilliance to the period’s famous “Tang Tri-Color” pottery. The richness of Tang Dynasty Shu Brocade patterns owed much to the designers. For example, Zhang Yanyuan’s Famous Paintings Through History mentions Dou Shilun, an official of the Shu Provincial Administration Commission. He “initially served as a consultant to Emperor Taizong’s Prince of Qin’s Mansion and as a clerk in the Chancellor’s Office, later being ennobled as the Marquis of Lingyang. He was extraordinarily ingenious, and all the auspicious brocades and court silks he created were uniquely colorful.” The designs he created—including paired pheasants, fighting rams, soaring phoenixes, and swimming dragons—greatly enriched Shu Brocade themes, and their patterns came to be known as “Lingyang Marquis Patterns.”

　　 Of course, it’s now very difficult to see genuine Han and Tang Dynasty Shu Brocades, but some unearthed artifacts across China offer insights. Examples include the earlier-excavated “Changle Mingguang” Brocade and the more recently discovered “Five Stars Emerge in the East” Brocade from Xinjiang. Though excavated in different locations, these ancient brocades have retained their luster and vibrant colors for a thousand years. Their patterns include motifs such as dragons, tigers, horses, birds, beasts, spirits, and humans, as well as seal script inscriptions like “Changle Mingguang” and “Five Stars Emerge in the East, Benefiting China.” Experts have confirmed these as precious physical examples of Han Dynasty Shu Brocade. As for Tang Dynasty Shu Brocade, historically praised for its dazzling colors, though few physical examples survive, we can still get a sense of its grandeur from the late Tang poet Lu Guimeng’s “Record of a Brocade Robe.” He wrote: “Censor Li of Zhao Commandery showed me a piece of Shu brocade skirt, four feet long, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, six inches wide. At the front, on the left, there were twenty cranes, seemingly ready to fly, with bent legs holding a flower carriage. On the right were parrots, with raised shoulders and spread tails, equal in number to the cranes. The two birds, differing in size, were separated by floral motifs, leaving no empty space, bordered on all sides with interwoven five colors. Fine embellishments were densely scattered across the patterns, subtly interlocked and interwoven, resembling startled rosy clouds, lingering moons, drifting smoke, falling mist, spring grass along pathways, and distant mountains slicing through the sky…” The craftsmanship was nothing short of miraculous.