In Jinling in the third year of Xuantong, the autumn rain soaked the white flags of Zhiyunfang. Kesi master Shen Henian passed away suddenly, leaving behind the unfinished "Hundred Birds Paying Attention to the Phoenix", a 500-tael usury IOU, and a son - Shen Yuanxi - who was tired of traditional skills.
When the British businessman Dawson came to the door with a painting in the "Art Nouveau" style and offered a high price that could cover the debt, Shen Yuanxi saw a glimmer of hope. But these unrestrained lines and strong colors are incompatible with the landscapes, flowers and birds that have been inherited for thousands of years. Should we just sit back and wait for death based on our ancestors' patterns, or should we break the shackles and inject new soul into the ancient skills?
He chose the latter. Faced with the doubts of the craftsmen, the cutoff of materials, and the conspiracy of his opponents, he took his sister Wan Qing and his old housekeeper Uncle Zhong and plunged into the mountains. Indigo is used to dye blue, madder is used to make red, tussah silk and lake silk are used to twist the colorful threads, and the light and shadow of Western paintings are woven into the muscles and bones of "open warp and broken weft".
Those silk threads that were regarded as "waste" bloomed with unprecedented vitality in his hands; those innovations that were ridiculed as "nondescript" will eventually prove that true craftsmanship is never a specimen trapped in time. When the first tapestry tapestry that combined Eastern and Western aesthetics was formed on the loom, Shen Yuanxi finally understood that the "integrity" mentioned by his father was never about staying the same, but about being able to weave a way out for himself and his skills in the face of ups and downs.
