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CHINA boasts a five millennia history of mulberry cultivation, sericulture and silk industry. The earliest piece of silk fabric discovered in the country dates back to 3630 BC. Over the decades, China also developed a great variety of silk products, among which silk embroidery is the finest.
The earliest example of Chinese silk embroidery was unearthed in 1958 from a tomb belonging to the State of Chu, a kingdom that existed more than 2,000 years ago in eastern China. This embroidered piece of silk features the design of a pair of dragon and phoenix, both mythological creatures in Chinese culture.
The art of embroidery was already widespread across the country during the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. It had developed into four major distinctive styles, namely, Xiang embroidery in central China's Hunan Province, Shu embroidery in western China's Sichuan Province, Yue embroidery in southern China's Guangdong Province and Su embroidery in east China's Jiangsu Province.
Of the four styles, Su embroidery is deemed by many scholars, specialists as well as ordinary people as the most representative of the Chinese embroidery art.
Historical records indicate that Su Embroidery began to appear in the ancient city of Suzhou and its surrounding areas during the Three Kingdoms...