Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 41 The Craftsman in the Palace (2)
The first time I went with the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother told me many things that I didn't know before, including the basic skills and processing methods of shoemaking technology.The queen mother said: "Don't think that making shoes is very simple. It takes at least a month for a pair of shoes to be finished from proofing. This is a very laborious project. Fortunately, those girls are relatively skilled in craftsmanship. Excellent workers cannot catch up with them... To make a good pair of shoes, you must first practice the proofing skills. Besides, other processes must not be sloppy at all, such as shoe materials, styles, patterns, etc., each of which All of them need to be handled properly. Among the many processes, the height of the heel should be given priority and decided first..."

Speaking of heels, I think it is necessary to introduce them in advance.The shoes worn by us Manchurians are not the same as those worn by middle-earth women. Generally speaking, the style is similar, but their heels are at the back, while ours are in the middle.When we wear Manchurian shoes, it is like walking on air, which will produce a special sense of comfort.Walking in these shoes is like stepping on a small stilt. Not only will your height increase, but your self-confidence will also increase.The height of the heel is generally between three inches and five inches, and it must match the thickness of the sole and the style of the shoe, otherwise you will feel uncomfortable.I don't know exactly how the heel fits with other things, but I can definitely feel comfortable or uncomfortable from the shoes I wear.If the heel is too high, the wearer will feel very painful, and the soles of the feet will hurt; if it is too low, it will cause the heel to drop.Ordinary people just need to put the heel on, but a lady like the queen mother needs to do some decoration on the heel.The most common decoration is to wrap the heels tightly with glass of various colors, so that when walking, if the sunlight can be reflected, various colors of light will flash, as if walking on gemstones.However, such opportunities are relatively rare. After all, the heel is under the shoe and is trampled under the soles of the feet. There is very little chance of being exposed to the sun, let alone shining.In addition, further decoration is required at the bottom of the heel, where several layers of cotton are often wrapped, nailed with very small nails, or a layer of leather is added to the outside to sew it together, the purpose is to effectively avoid wooden heels. The rattling sound of hitting the ground.To some extent, this treatment is similar to the practice of nailing a piece of rubber on the heel of leather shoes today.The conditions at that time were still too poor, and the shoes made in this way could not be worn for a long time, and the heels would wear out after a while.

Once the heel is done, the only thing to pay attention to is the shoe itself.The shoe itself is divided into two parts, the sole and the upper. In comparison, the manufacturing method of the sole part is simpler. It is basically the same as that of middle-earth cloth-soled shoes. Wrapped with layers of cloth, these need not be described too much, basically every Chinese is familiar with them.As for upper engineering, that was no simple matter.If you count carefully, there are hundreds of styles of shoe uppers, the most common ones are phoenix style and plum blossom style.As for the other styles I saw in the palace, there are too many to enumerate, many of which I don't know their names at all.Most of the upper fabrics are fine satin, with different colors and can be made into different styles according to different requirements.There are a lot of decorations on the upper, most of which are embroidered patterns with silk thread, which needs to use the silk thread reeled by the silk craftsman. Anyway, after all, it saves a lot of money for the imperial city.The pattern embroidered on the upper is very delicate, and those silk threads are extremely thin. Anyone who has seen it will understand that this is a very laborious job.

The core part of the shoe factory is in the central main hall, where there are many application tools, many of which I have never seen before, let alone used.It was these utensils that formed a great temptation for me, so that I had to find out.Later, I asked the two old ladies in charge one by one, gained a lot of knowledge, and my curiosity was greatly satisfied.There are many tools in there, even the two in charge can't remember the names clearly, but they are still very clear about their usage.Every time I go, I will beg the two managers to show me some new shoes. It is really a kind of enjoyment, just like looking at a painting, and it is a very delicate meticulous painting.Every time I see these shoe samples, I can't put it down. I am surprised where these girls learned this skill. Many shoe samples look like a pair of shoes, as if they can be worn as long as they are picked up.These ready-made shoe samples are not simple sketches, but very strict color paintings, and the pigments and silk threads to be used on the shoes will be reflected on them.To some extent, they are replicas of the shoes to be made. Only after this is done, the shoes will be exactly the same as the shoe samples. From this point of view, these shoe samples are the same as those in the company. samples are almost the same.

After a new pair of shoes is finished, it needs to be sent to the queen mother for acceptance immediately. If the queen mother happens to be free, she will look at the shoes over and over again, so it is absolutely impossible for technicians to cut corners and materials.It is impossible for every pair of shoes delivered to the Queen Mother to be satisfied. In many cases, the Queen Mother just took a look at the shoes and immediately sent someone to send the shoes to the "shoe store", and maybe she would never care about them again.If you happen to come across a pair of shoes you like very much, the queen mother will firmly remember the number of this pair of shoes, and will mention this pair of shoes from time to time.The queen mother had to wait until special occasions to wear some shoes that she liked very much. Whenever this happened, the queen mother would tell the little eunuchs around her in advance to have them take out the shoes the night before.

Among the many tools in that palace, the most conspicuous ones are the embroidery beds. Firstly, they are large in size, and secondly, they are often used, so they are placed in a more conspicuous position.The style and size of the embroidery bed is similar to that of a loom. When embroidery is needed, the girls sit in it upright and start working meticulously.The main body of the embroidery bed is a stretcher, which can stretch the satin tightly.Generally speaking, satin is about two feet high and five feet wide. If you want to embroider on satin, you must stretch the satin very tightly, preferably like the skin stretched on a drum.At that time, there were a total of ten embroidery beds in that palace, each of which was stretched with a piece of satin.The person in charge of the place told me that everyone here has to embroider a piece. As for when they want to embroider and when they don’t want to embroider, it’s entirely up to them.

When I went, not everyone was embroidering, some people were still doing proofing or other work.Standing next to the maids who are embroidering, you can easily see their every move. Under their fluttering hands, flowers burst out from time to time.A lot of flowers are usually embroidered on a piece of satin, because after all, such a large piece of satin cannot be used up by a pair of shoes. In many cases, flowers are embroidered on the top, bottom, left, right and corners of a piece of satin.

When embroidering, the eyes of those girls were lowered, almost sticking to the satin, because this kind of work really pays too much attention to fineness, otherwise it is very likely to make mistakes.When the work is relatively busy, the entire hall is silent, and everyone is bowing their heads and doing their own things.

Now I need to sort out the process of making shoes carefully. Only in this way can everyone understand the difficulty and complexity.The first step is of course the drawing sample we mentioned just now. After getting the drawing sample, it is necessary to outline the outline of the shoe upper with white powder on the satin according to the drawing. When drawing on the satin, leave a space between the two shoes. Clearance for future cutting.After the outline of the vamp is outlined, it is time to go to the second step, which needs to embroider the required pattern on the vamp bit by bit.Before doing this work, the girl in charge of this task has another thing to do. If a peony needs to be embroidered on the shoe, then she has to cut out several kinds of peonies with paper, and then cut them out The peonies are placed on the upper respectively, and which one to use is determined by comparison.After confirming, fix the peony on the upper with silk thread. The silk thread used at this time is all white, and only a few stitches are simply sewed on, which will not cause any damage to the upper.After these tasks are completed, the third step, which is the most complicated and difficult, is the embroidery.In order to embroider these peonies realistically, girls usually go to the garden to pick a few peonies, and decide what color silk thread to use in front of these peonies. Use light colors where they are light.In any case, the final result is to pursue the maximum similarity.When they embroider flowers, they often embroider two stitches and look back at the real flower. In this way, forty or fifty kinds of silk threads of various colors must be prepared beside the embroidery bed for use at any time.Among the many silk threads, green and red are the most frequently used.With such a cumbersome process and such high requirements for skills, ordinary people must not be able to do it. Those girls have all gone through long-term and arduous training.

Those paper flowers pre-placed on the upper are just for fixing the position and showing the outline, and when the embroidery starts, they have to be taken out slowly.Although it is cumbersome to do so, it is very necessary to ensure the appearance of the vamp and cannot be omitted casually.If you don't take out this piece of paper, the embroidered flowers will look much thicker, not only the visual effect is not good, but also the hand feel will not be good.When embroidering, some parts need to be highlighted, especially the petals, trying to make them look real, which is also the uniqueness of Chinese embroidery.

The life in the palace is very monotonous, especially for these female shoemakers, the life is so dull that nothing affects their mood at all.They get up in the morning, work and eat during the day, and go to bed at night, repeating the same thing every day.If this kind of life were added to me, I would definitely not be able to bear it, but judging from their expressions, they seemed to be quite satisfied with it.From their eyes, I can read that when they are working, they can find some fun in it.I once asked the two old girls in charge what made them so happy, and the answer they gave me was that they felt a kind of joy from it, because they really like embroidery, just watching the little flowers bloom in their hands , is enough to make them happy.Only now did I understand that in the seemingly boring work, those who are really interested can experience the fun that outsiders cannot understand.For those who like embroidery, here not only have the opportunity to display their talents, but also get appropriate subsidies.The two old ladies in charge of the place were quite right in saying that the first thing to judge a person's work is not the importance of the work itself, but whether the person is interested in the work.To some extent, whether a person likes a job has a lot to do with whether he can do it well.If you are engaged in a job you like, you can eventually achieve something, and you can often solve problems satisfactorily.Those shoe-making girls, I didn't ask them about their inner thoughts, they must be the same as those two spinsters, if they didn't like embroidery by nature, they would have taken sick leave to get married long ago.

I most admire the strong craftsmanship spirit of these girls.The so-called craftsmanship spirit is the spirit of art for art's sake and work for work's sake.It takes a month to make a pair of shoes, and it takes a lot of physical strength and energy. Without the spiritual support of the craftsmen, they must have complained a long time ago.Not only that, but often only the queen mother can see the shoes they made, not to mention most of them were thrown into limbo by the queen mother, and only two eunuchs who were full all day long went to see them every day.Even if the queen mother chooses a certain pair of shoes, few people will see this pair of shoes.These girls are definitely not here to show off their skills, they are here to have fun while working.They only think about how to do this craft well, how to achieve perfection, and they don't think about other things at all.With this kind of valuable spiritual support of craftsmen, even if they learn that the shoes they made have been left in the cold palace, they will never be discouraged, and they will still do their own work with all their heart.

A few years ago, a foreign reporter said that life in the Chinese imperial palace was abnormal, and everyone from the emperor to ordinary servants lived in an unorthodox way of life.This is a good point. These shoe-making girls grew up in this special environment, and their ideas are naturally different from those of girls outside.They are very indifferent to marrying and having children, some of them don't even have these concepts in their minds.The only things that accompany these girls every day are tributes and shoe samples. In their view, gorgeous tributes are their husbands and children, and they are satisfied as long as they can stay with these tributes.These girls will stay in the palace like this until they grow old and even die.It's so young and fashionable, and life after getting older is even more different from ordinary people.Long-term fatigue in youth will make them look very old when they are around 50 years old. This is a helpless fact.At that time, due to the decline of energy, they can no longer continue the work, and besides, new people will continue to be added.According to the practice in the palace, when these girls are old, the palace will provide them with a special place to live and support them until they die.During the period when they were unable to work, these people were also content to eat and drink. To them, this was a matter of course. When they were young, they exhausted all their energy in the palace. When they were old, they should naturally be taken care of by the palace.As to whether such a life is good for them, this is a question worth considering.It is difficult for others to understand the living habits of these people. Without experiencing that kind of life, it is impossible to have their feelings.I couldn't possibly understand their lives unless I was as skilled at shoemaking as they were, and could embroider beautiful flowers on satin with ease.

Embroidering on satin is very energy-intensive, not only because it requires long hours of intense concentration, but also because it requires little experience to draw on.As mentioned earlier, four or five shoe patterns must be sketched on each piece of satin. After one shoe pattern is embroidered, the next shoe pattern needs to be turned upside down to face the embroiderer, which saves a lot of effort.In addition, the flowers on each shoe sample are different, and when you embroider the next one, you can't imitate the previous one. In this way, those girls need to cut paper flowers again, and look for real flowers again. Reposition and pick a color again.It is for these reasons that when girls embroider each flower, it is as if they are embroidering for the first time.It's amazing how much energy they put into it.Every time I see their busy figures, I feel very frightened. I can't do this job no matter what.

(End of this chapter)