High-quality Suzhou embroidery

Suzhou was called the "market of embroidery", famous both at home and abroad. Mountains, rivers, lakes, pavilions, flowers and birds, characters were all embroidered. Suzhou embroidery was largely demanded in the palace. Therefore wonderful and magnificent embroidery sprang up.

At the end of Qin dynasty and the beginning of Ming dynasty, Songtao, an expert at Chinese embroidery, renovated the traditional way of knitting. Flowers and birds, characters embroidered in new ways were very characteristic. The image of Lina, the queen of Italy absorbed the theory of chiaroscuro. Close attention was paid to the vividness of the images. Such embroidery was called "art embroidery" or "emulation embroidery". Songtao combined the previous art with his own experience, classified the way of knitting into 18 varieties, as recorded by Zhangsui in a book. Thus the way of knitting was systematized.