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Mother & Child – A Crime Scene in Silk
Clearly this is a part of a larger legend that I am not familiar with yet.
And so the cultural crime story intrigues me as much as the art and the craft of the double sided embroidery.
These certainly do not look like pleasant incidents.
What is happening? Who is the woman? Who is the infant? Who are the men with swords? What is their motive?
Some kind of crime is in progress …
A quick search showed that infant related crimes are not uncommon in royal families all over the world! Stories of successors to thrones meeting unhappy endings are seen from Europe to Asia.
Are these such stories?
A few afternoons need to be earmarked for researching this!
What a pretty way to learn cultural history!
Dec 2017
jaina mishra | wovensouls
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The women do not look disturbed but are smiling. The man holding the child is dressed as a high ranking – noble spirited – warrior, and this suggests a man deeply loyal. So I would look – as my first option, anyway – for a story where an infant and its royal mother were brought back from across the sea. Although the guard’s face isn’t red, I would suggest the scene might be part of the history of Guan Yu. There is a famous story that after a battle, Guan Yu asked to marry the wife of an enemy, Qin Yilu. She was known as the Lady Du (杜氏) and already had a son named Qin Liang. After several reminders, the the ruler (Cao Cao) became extremely curious about why this fierce warrior should show such eagerness, and had the lady and her son brought to his presence. It is a famous story about retainers’ loyalty and rulers’ perfidy because Cao Cao then “took Lady Du as his concubine” – though he did adopt her son.
– sorry, the water is depicted as river-water, not sea-water, and the craft is a river craft.
Thank you so much for your insight!!
Will write more soon….