What kind of "life" is embroidery in A Dream of Red Mansions?

Looking at the lives of ancient girls from A Dream of Red Mansions, the girls naturally finished their work. Washing your face, feeding the birds and watering the flowers are just some daily chores. Except for the poetry club meeting every morning and evening, all the ladies will do one thing in the rest of the time, and that is embroidery. Embroidery is a very important part of their lives. They use needles and threads to perform their lives.

First, why do they want to learn embroidery? Because there are three requirements for watching many embroidery scenes in A Dream of Red Mansions. For example, Xiangling once went home to find Daiyu, and they just played chess for a while and then discussed how to embroider. Yuanyang has nothing to do with xiren and is watching her do embroidery; Baochai specially asked her mother for some needle and thread to take to the Grand View Garden.

Everyone went to visit Daiyu in Xiaoxiang Pavilion, and Zijuan was embroidering in the warm pavilion outside. Xiren often complains that Qingwen doesn't listen to her and helps her embroider. At that time, the most important thing for girls was embroidery, and they liked to judge other people's embroidery if they had nothing to do. Since embroidery can be so common in girls' lives, it is necessary to understand why they want to learn embroidery. Is embroidery a compulsory course for them, a survival skill, or just an interesting thing in the boudoir?

Learning embroidery is one of the requirements of "four virtues of women" in women's commandments. Embroidery has become a compulsory course. In ancient times, girls were about ten years old, and the family would hire special female teachers to teach them according to the requirements of women's four virtues. In addition to learning character, they should also learn to spin and rub hemp thread, then learn cocoon, weave cloth and make clothes, and learn a series of work to prepare sacrifices and help them. Embroidery plays an important role in learning. In Jiafu, Li Wan was allowed to take unmarried girls to school.

At that time, it was generally believed that "a woman without talent is virtue", so the quality of embroidery skills became the standard to measure whether a girl is virtuous or not. The textile industry in ancient times was not very developed, and the cloth needed to be sewn by hand. The clothes, shoes and socks needed at home are handmade by girls. When they got married, the Jia family had a lot of needlework, and the hostess didn't have to do it herself, but many people, including Shi Xiangyun, needed to do needlework at home until very late.

Girls will be rejected by their mother-in-law if they can't learn or do well. In order to get a pair of skillful hands, girls will also hold a "Begging for Skillfulness Festival" on Tanabata. In Peacock Flying Southeast, Liu Lanzhi can make five pieces of cloth in three days according to her mother-in-law's request, but her mother-in-law still doesn't like her slow work. It is also true that it is really necessary for girls to master needlework and embroidery. Xiren once joked that Daiyu didn't embroider for half a year, meaning that Daiyu was lazy, and embroidery became a compulsory course in the life of ancient girls.

Learning needlework is another skill to settle down. In ancient times, girls were not allowed to go out to work in public, and embroidered mothers were the jobs they could do.

There are many ink and wash paintings in A Dream of Red Mansions that describe the customs of Suzhou in the heyday of "Three Weaves in the South of the Yangtze River". At that time, in its heyday, "every family had embroidery and every household had embroidered mothers", and the number of embroidered mothers exceeded 65,438+10,000.

At that time, Suzhou embroidery was famous all over the world. There was a great demand for Suzhou embroidery, and there were many embroidered mothers. Girls could find jobs in Xiuzhuang and Xiufang. There are also men who do embroidery and tailoring, because Wang Xifeng once asked Zhang Cai's family to pay for embroidery workers.

There are people in Jiafu who specialize in handicrafts. They are the embroidered mothers of Jia's family. They specialize in making clothes for Jia people, but pay more attention to their masters, like Jia Mu and Baoyu. Their clothes are handmade by their own maids. The twelve little girls in Jiafu didn't learn to be actors because they learned to sing as children. After the dissolution of the troupe, some people began to learn to be actors for their future.

Learning embroidery is also an elegant taste in boudoir, and using needles instead of pens to depict vivid colors. Girls in ancient times were basically not allowed to go out, so if they didn't study or draw, they would have a lot of spare time, and sewing together would be regarded as killing time. Moreover, embroidery is not as difficult as painting, and it needs to pay attention to many techniques and skills. Embroidery is something that everyone can do. In ancient times, girls made their own clothes. If they want to dress differently, they need to be able to embroider beautiful patterns themselves, so in order to put on beautiful clothes, they should also learn to embroider.

Second, whose embroidery worker in Jia's family is high, Qingwen, Daiyu and Yingying have their own merits. Since embroidery is something that everyone should do, there are about three or four hundred girls in the Jia family, and each girl's embroidery skills are different. So which girl in Jia's family has better embroidery skills?

Qingwen showed superb embroidery skills when mending Baoyu's Queqiujin. Baoyu's Queqiujin was a treasure given to him by his grandmother. Baoyu made a big hole after wearing it for one day, and will wear it tomorrow. There was no way to mend it that night, but I asked all the embroiderers and embroiderers at home. Only Qingwen knew that it was woven with peacock gold thread, and if it was to be mended, it would be bounded by peacock gold thread. But only Qingwen knows the craft of "Jie", and Jia was like this at the beginning. Qingwen's embroidery skills are also first-class in Jiafu.

The second master of embroidery hidden in Jiafu is Daiyu. Although Daiyu doesn't usually do embroidery, she is skilled. Jia Mu's embroidery works and some works of Wang Xifeng were given to her. Grandmother Jia never wears other people's clothes, but Daiyu once helped Grandmother Jia cut clothes in the house, which shows that Daiyu's craftsmanship can win the love of Grandmother Jia. Grandmother Jia felt sorry for Daiyu and wouldn't let her do more manual work, but that didn't mean Daiyu had a bad life. Wang Xifeng also took off Daiyu's help privately. She could ask Daiyu to do one thing, that is, embroidery. Both of them are very picky about the embroidery they need, and Daiyu can help them with it, which shows Daiyu's embroidery skill. Daiyu came from Jiangnan and was born in Lin family. Since embroidery is a necessary skill for a prostitute, Daiyu is excellent in everything and her embroidery skills are not bad.

Yinger is an embroiderer beside Baochai. Yinger is famous for her originality. In spring, Yinger can weave a basket of flowers with wicker. Her skill of winding collaterals is well known in Jiafu. Baoyu had specially asked Yinger to make some contacts for her. Yinger showed enough professionalism, from the color matching of red with black, turquoise, pine with pink and so on, to the style of beard, such as fragrance and stepping on the sky. Anyway, Yinger knows all about these aesthetic knowledge.