Quick Answer: What Is the Chinese Forbidden Stitch?
The English name “forbidden stitch” often refers to a small raised knot in Chinese embroidery, also called the Chinese knot or Peking knot. Each knot makes one dot. The story that the stitch was officially banned lacks documentary evidence in the stitch reference.[1]
- Look: A knot may form a small rounded dot or keep a small loop.[1]
- Use: Qing textiles list seed knots among stitches used for embroidered clothing and screens.[2][3]
- Name: “Pekinese stitch” can also refer to a different stitch made by lacing through backstitches.[4]
Read the structure of the stitches before relying on an English name.
A patch of silk embroidery can look like a single shaded color from a distance. Up close, it may resolve into many tiny knots, each with its own rounded surface.
Find the Raised Knot
The Chinese term dazi zhen (打籽针, dǎzǐ zhēn), or seed-knot stitch, describes a stitch that leaves a small seed-shaped knot on the fabric. A loop of thread is formed around the needle and drawn into a small raised stitch. In a flower center or fill, the raised dots can add a pebbled texture.[2][3]
Look at the edge of a filled area. At the edge, a few isolated dots may be easier to separate visually than the crowded stitches in the middle. Closely spaced knots can build up color. A band of Chinese satin stitch instead shows parallel lengths of thread filling a smooth area.[1][6]
Read the Knots on Qing Embroidery
A women’s gauze robe from the Qianlong period has eight embroidered roundels with dragon motifs. The catalog names seed knots among its techniques, alongside gold couching and other stitches. This identifies the technique on the garment without locating every stitch within a particular roundel.[2]
A Qing dynasty eight-panel screen depicts a birthday celebration with figures embroidered in colored silk. The catalog lists seed knots among techniques used on the figures. It gives no one-to-one map of stitch types to individual details. Compare the decorative scale with clothing and the range of methods in Beijing embroidery.[3]
Separate the Knot From a Laced Stitch
One reference uses “Pekinese stitch” for a technique that begins with a line of backstitches. A second thread is laced through that line, producing a connected series of small loops. A seed-knot area instead consists of separate raised stitches. The terms overlap in English even when the structures differ.[4]
Check for a continuous strand before interpreting a series of bumps as a line of individual knots. In Chinese couching stitch, small stitches also appear at intervals, but they hold a decorative strand to the surface.
What the Name Can Tell Us
A 1934 textile handbook repeats a story that an official ban followed concerns about embroiderers’ eyesight. It gives no named regulation in that account. The Royal School of Needlework also records the story and says there is no evidence for the ban. Read “forbidden” as a name used by some English stitch references.[1][5]
For a historical piece, the name of the stitch describes how a surface was made. Date and place require separate evidence from the textile’s record.
FAQs About The Chinese Forbidden Stitch
Was the forbidden stitch actually banned?
The nickname carries a story about a ban. The available stitch references give no documented regulation establishing one.[1][5]
Is it the same as Pekinese stitch?
Some English names overlap. Check whether the reference means individual raised knots or a continuous line of laced backstitches.[1][4]
What is the Chinese term for a seed-knot stitch?
Qing textile catalogs use dazi zhen for the small, seed-like knotted stitch.[2][3]
Источники
[1] Royal School of Needlework. Chinese Knot
[2] The Palace Museum. Qianlong Women’s Gauze Robe With Eight Roundels
[3] The Palace Museum. Embroidered Birthday Celebration Screen
[4] Textile Research Centre, Leiden. Pekinese Stitch
[5] Alan Priest and Pauline Simmons, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Chinese Textiles: An Introduction
[6] Royal School of Needlework. Satin Stitch