silk, satin, and other textiles decorated using soft, coloured silk threads and produced at or near the city of Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, China. The Suzhou school is one of the four most famous schools of embroidery in China (the others being centred in Hunan, Guangdong, and Sichuan provinces). Embroidered book covers unearthed at Suzhou date back to the Five Dynasties period (10th century AD), though the school probably extends back to Han dynasty times. The Suzhou tradition uses many different types of stitching and variable types of threads to depict realistically the forms and textures of forms such as flowers, goldfish, cats, and dragons.