Qingyang sachet
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Qingyang sachet, also known as "chu chu" or "shua huo" (hidden stitch) is a folk custom of Qingyang, Gansu, China. Sachets are created from small pieces of silk, which are embroidered with colorful thread in a variety of patterns according to papercutting designs. The silk is then sewn into different shapes and filled with cotton and spices. Qingyang sachets symbolize blessing, auspiciousness, happiness, safety, peace, and avoidance of evil, disaster, illnesses, and misfortune.[1] Many sachets are also filled with cinnabar, calamus, wormwood, and chrysanthemum, and they are commonly used as air fresheners, insect repellent, and protection against evil spirits.[2]
Historically sachet has also gone by the names of purse, "xiangnang," "peiwei," and "rongchou". In Qingyang, however, it is commonly known as "chu chu" or "shua huo" "Chu" originally referred to the original method of using bone needles for sewing, but later referred to the sachet itself, which is made of cloth. In local Qingyang culture, it may also be called purse or “shua huo zi.”[1]
Historians differ on the exact origins of the sachet. One account dates it around 2300 BC. Another accredits the sachet to the mythological doctor Qibo and to a passage in the Huangdi Neijing, which has been dated between the late Warring States period (475–221 BCE) and the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE).[1][3] More rooted in tangible history, the sachet appeared in the Warring States period as distinctive decorations worn as a clothing accessory as well as mosquito repellent. The origins of the “fragrant sachet” has been assigned to rural Chinese women during the Han dynasty. During this time, an account appeared in the Book of Rites, compiled by Dai Sheng, which described the popularity of perfumed and embroidered brocade sachets, especially among young people who wore these sachets around their wrists, necks, and waists. They were also popular in the Tang (618–906) and Song (960–1279) dynasties, but were mainly luxuries for the wealthy and powerful. Qingyang’s male officials and women from elite families wore sachets filled with traditional Chinese medicine rather than perfume. Sachets would later be used as tokens of love and affection in the Qing dynasty (1644–1661).[4]
The oldest existing sachet is approximately 800 years old. In 2001 people excavated stone pagodas from the Song dynasty in Qingyang. They found a sachet embroidered with plums and lotus flowers, its pattern still clear despite the passage of time. Thus the sachet earned the name “Longevity Sachet.”[1][4]
In 2002, China Folklore Society named Qingyang City "the Hometown of Embroidery Sachets." In 2006, China's State Council included Qingyang sachets in the first official batch of "National Intangible Cultural Heritage," promoting the sachets as the cultural brand of foreign exchange of Qingyang City.[5]
Today the sachet is seen most commonly at the Dragon Boat Festival, in which the making and wearing of "chu chu" is a local custom. Festival goers and locals use sachets filled with herbal medicine to pray for their health while many children wear them in hopes of increasing their intelligence, peace, and health. Many popular mainstream sachets are created by Qingyang Lingyun Clothing Co., Ltd., with Zhang Zhifeng as chairperson, who is an inheritor of sachet-making. The company employs 200 people and creates 40 million yuan worth of clothing and sachets annually. The company purchases sachets from rural women, processes them, and then resells the sachets to the public.[4][6]