The Inheritance And Innovation Of The Nanjing Brocade

Through the ages, there are numerous relations between Chinese traditional patterns and folk decorative crafts. In terms of ancient decorative crafts, individuals tend to organize decorative patterns by different color and patterns, in the meantime, entitle them special meanings.However, modern decorative crafts not only adopt traditional elements but also integrate into the new spirit of the times, thereby achieving the goal of "make the past serve the present".In this article, the author took an example of Nanjing brocade with rich geographicalcultural characteristics. As a type of royal silk handicrafts supplied in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties of ancient China, historic Nanjing brocade represents outstanding skills of Chinese ancient tapestry arts. Through research and analyzing patterns of Nanjing brocade from the perspectives of traditional culture, folklore and contemporary design, the author explored the aesthetics and the cultural significanceof the pattern. From style of patterns,standardsuitable patterns and continuous patterns were the most commonly used for Nanjing brocade, but irregular geometric patterns appeared occasionally. From content of patterns, themes tend to focus on unit of human and nature, joy, social class and so on, such as dragon patterns which stand for emperors, patterns of hibiscus, Osman thus and peony that represent wealth.As far as writing style of this article is concerned, firstly the author summarized the concept, types, artistic value, and the historical&cultural background for Nanjing brocade. Secondly, through combining research methods of contemporarydesign theoryand other related disciplines, she classified types of Nanjing brocade patterns by compositions and color matching as well as some unique featuresprevailed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In addition, the author analyzed cultural connotation for Nanjing brocade patterns and discussed the brocade development from themes, forms and other aspects. Finally, this article emphasized the complexity of innovation for Nanjing brocade, the importance of brocade branding and a relaxed social atmosphere for Nanjing brocade future development. From patterns analysis and brocade market development to the needs of the relaxed social atmosphere for innovation, all factors can be help to promote a balanced ecosystem. In other words, taking Nanjing brocade as anexample of traditional decorative crafts, the aim of this article is to propose some constructive ideas for Nanjing brocade future development andthe protection of brocade cultural heritage.