"We do not know exactly how embroidery started, but judging from the bone needles of the Neolithic age and the cocoons preserved from the earliest Hsia Dynasty, we can guess that it originated at the dawn of Chinese history.
不過，從新石器時代出土的骨針，以及夏的遺址發現的半個蠶繭，都證明瞭刺繡源起三代之前。刺繡是中國傳統藝術的一個要項漢朝之後，開始有專業化的繡工，政府設專司督造，所用的「鎖針繡」，利用套花、扣花、拉花等技法。