Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty wrote in Historical Records? The Biography of Southwest China mentioned concisely and prominently that the people of ancient Yunnan lived a life of "cultivating fields and gathering cities". For the first time, Sima Qian listed national costume and production and lifestyle as one of the important standards to distinguish Nanyi from Yi Xi.
Records of Huayang Country, a regular canal in Han Dynasty? Nanzhongzhi also records in detail that the ethnic groups living in Ailao Mountain "always live in the city, but live in the valley" and have the custom of "wearing clothes at the back" and "lettering on the back". In the same article, it is recorded that the "Ailao Nation" has the textile technology of "weaving the details of poles into a brocade".
Four volumes of Shuman in the Tang Dynasty have described in detail the customs of tooth dyeing, hair styles and costumes of Dai ancestors: "Heichi people, Jin people and silver people ... (that is, Dai ancestors) Hei Chi people used dark teeth as their bun, blue cloth as their pants (tube pants), and blue cloth stripes were oblique"; "The Maman tribe (the ancestor of the Dai people) is not a Kennan hybrid. ..... Mang people, mangshi is the same. Living in a building without walls, painting teeth or gold teeth are all short-span exposures. Red cloth is wrapped in a bun and the rest are hung for decoration. Women wear five-color salons (barrel skirts). It can be seen that the juxtaposition of the traditional national costumes of Dai ancestors and the way of life and production has always been one of the symbols for ancient historians to distinguish national types. From the discovery of Dai national costumes in ancient Yunnan around the second century BC to the historical records of various historical periods around the eighth century A.D., we can know that Dai national costumes with barrel skirts have basically taken shape after more than a thousand years of development.
As an important symbol of distinguishing nations, ancient national costumes are also related to the origin of nations. It can be said that national costume is a national totem worn on the body. According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty? "Biography of Southwest China" said: "The first person who loved foreigners was a woman named Hu Sha, who lived in Ailao Mountain and tasted fishing water. If he feels when he touches the heavy wood, he will give birth to ten men in October because of pregnancy, and then the heavy wood will become a dragon and come out of the water. The casserole suddenly heard the dragon say, if you gave birth to a child for me, what do you know now? Nine sons saw the dragon take it away, but the only boy couldn't walk, so he sat with his back to the dragon. The dragon licked it. Mother Bird said that his back was nine. He said that he was sitting on a dragon because his name was nine dragons. When they grow up, both brothers are ashamed that Kowloon can be licked by their father, thinking that this is the king's right. After Ailao Mountain, a man and a woman gave birth to ten women, and the Kowloon brothers all got married and grew up. All kinds of people describe their bodies, like dragons, with clothes at the end. Nine dragons died one after another. Divided into Xiao Wang, often living in the city; Scattered in the valley. " This myth and legend not only explains the origin of the dragon totem worship of Ailao people, but also links the costumes of Ailao people with the dragon totem worship, that is, the tattoo custom and tail decoration on the costumes, making the costumes a totem symbol of the origin of the nation. The author thinks that the tattoo custom of Huayao Dai at the foot of Ailao Mountain and the tail ornaments in Huayao Dai costumes are the totem reappearance of the tattoo and tail ornaments of Yi people in ancient Ailao Mountain. The costumes of the Yi and Hani nationalities in the alpine region of Ailao Mountain also have beautiful tails, but the Yi and Hani nationalities have no tattoo custom. At the same time, the Yi people mainly worship tigers, regard tigers as totems, and consider themselves as tiger families. Of course, Yi and Hani people also believe in dragons, but this is the result of their transition from nomadic hunting to farming, influenced by the dragon totem of the farming nation, rather than the original totem worship of their own nation.
What needs to be explained here is that some scholars in China, in order to refute the expansionist aims of some western scholars, have repeatedly stressed that mourning for their own nation is not the same as crossing mountains. This is very wrong. We don't deny that some western scholars have expansionist purposes when discussing ethnic issues in China, but they ignore the history of the vast territory and numerous ethnic groups in ancient Ailao countries, especially the separation of Dai people from Ailao people. What are the benefits of respecting history, strengthening national unity and enhancing friendship with Southeast Asian countries?
The discussion of "Kowloon Myth" and ethnic issues is an academic issue. If there is political intervention, political and academic issues should also be separated on the issue of ethnic origin. It cannot be generalized that the discussion of "Kowloon Myth" tends to the bourgeoisie. National history is a very complicated issue. If we study history as simply as labeling, history is not history.
Huayao Dai costumes at the foot of Ailao Mountain are also the product of certain social economy. After the Dai people in Ailao Mountain entered the feudal society, they lived in a society where men and women lived together. The economic and social status of Dai serfs was guaranteed to some extent, and they also had greater personal freedom and began to pursue personal economic wealth and personality development. This feudal consciousness is embodied in clothing, that is, wealth and personality are reflected as far as possible from clothing, and clothing has become a symbol of wealth and personality. In feudal society, silver was the most valuable metal. Although people's lives are not rich, they often lack the necessities of life, but they all spend their main income on buying clothes, and the silver ornaments on clothes have become a symbol of showing and pursuing wealth.
Huayao Dai costumes are also a reflection of Dai people's understanding of natural beauty. The natural conditions of Ailao Mountain are spring-like seasons, frequent streams, bright sunshine and unbeaten flowers. The flowered waistcoat is woven and dyed with navy blue fabric, decorated with silver ornaments and colorful brocade with unique insight. The combination of three opposing colors and the harmony with natural colors reflects the deep, warm and straightforward national character.
Huayao Dai costumes are also the moral standards for measuring women in Dai feudal agricultural society. Diligence, cleverness and dexterity are the virtues of Dai women. Women in Dai farming society spend a lot of leisure time on spinning, weaving, dyeing brocade, picking flowers and sewing clothes. Dai women use clothes to fully embody their virtues. National costume is the concrete embodiment of A Dai women's diligence, wisdom and dexterity.
The costumes of Huayao Dai at the foot of Ailao Mountain are more important means of marriage. In the past, there was an ancient custom of traditional national costume festival, commonly known as Flower Street, which was similar to the current fashion exhibitions and beauty contests. This festival is held on the first street day after the Lunar New Year. When rushing into the street, unmarried girls rushed into the street in holiday clothes. The girls in the street walk from street to street in small groups, showing their clothes back and forth. The young man watching will choose his partner by the girl's dress. After crossing the street, the girls took off their costumes and let the family carry them. They put on casual clothes and went to a quiet place to date the lovers selected by Flower Street. The girl took out a suit as a symbol of love. Therefore, the engagement is decided by the clothing exhibition. Because of the special role of clothing in the marriage relationship of Huayao Dai, the clothing of Huayao Dai in Ailao Mountain is more bright and dazzling.
The traditional daily clothes of Huayao Dai people at the foot of Ailao Mountain highlight the functions of adapting to the climate and facilitating life. They wear tight vests and bottoming skirts every day to adapt to the dry and hot climate here for half a year. In normal life and work, they wear tight underwear and skirts in hot weather. When it is cold or cold, it is very convenient to put on a short coat and cardigan without buttons or add some skirts, which will change with the climate. Dai women also pay great attention to personal hygiene. Especially in summer, they bathe in rivers and streams every day. When taking a bath, the bucket skirt is taken off from the bottom up and put on their heads. After taking a shower, they put them on from top to bottom and put on clean clothes after coming out of the water.
The Ailaoshan Valley in the inland of Yunnan Province has been closed for a long time due to inconvenient transportation, and the mode of production of small farmers with men plowing and women weaving has not changed much. Therefore, the ancient traditional national costumes have been almost completely preserved. Even if there is a slight change, it is mainly the result of the interaction of other ethnic costumes around. For example, silver ornaments or embroidery ornaments are widely used in Yi and Hani costumes. Another example is that the chicken vertical hat in Dai Ya is woven by the Yi people on the mountain, but the Yi people don't wear it. The changes brought about by these influences still belong to the same economic model and the same cultural circle, rather than qualitative changes.
The flower belt of Huayao Dai costumes in Ailao Mountain is like a beautiful rainbow, which embodies the yearning of ancient farming people for ample food and clothing, peace and harmony, and a better life.
The Dai people in the border areas of Yunnan, such as Rhoda in Xishuangbanna, Ruili in Dehong and Mengding in Gengma, are located in the throat of the Southwest International Passage, the Southern Silk Road, and are connected with Myanmar, India and other countries. As early as the 4th century BC, there were economic, cultural and personnel exchanges, which became the meeting point of China and India. /kloc-In the 9th century, after India and Myanmar were regarded as British colonies, the textiles produced by western capitalist industries passed through the ancient Silk Road in the southwest, destroying the cottage textile industry in the eastern feudal society. Dai women were forced to be liberated from the original loom, from the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy to the commodity economy, and began to buy cloth and sew clothes in the market. Under the influence of commodity economy and Indian culture, Dai women's clothing is a simplified long skirt, with no additional decoration except a silver belt or long silk at the waist. The jacket only retains the style of vest underwear. The buttonless narrow sleeve pullover has become a narrow sleeve tight double-breasted short coat. There are few beautiful decorations, tapestries and embroidery patterns on barrel skirts and coats. Although this kind of national costume has lost some features of Dai ancient costume, it still retains the basic structure of Dai ancient tubular skirt costume in appearance. From the aesthetic point of view, this kind of clothing has developed from the objective clothing beauty that directly shows the functions of wealth and moral utility to the modern humanistic beauty stage that pleases people's subjective feelings and human beauty. Especially at the time of modernization, with the implementation of the policy of rejuvenating the country and opening to the outside world, this ancient Silk Road in Southwest China, which has been silent for many years, has become active again. Contemporary Dai women's clothing, in addition to the traditional modern Dai casual clothes bought in the general market, also wears high-grade Thai clothing imported from Thailand and Japan.
The costumes of Dai girls in Xishuangbanna are typical Dai modern national costumes. A tight jacket with narrow sleeves and no collar. In addition to the bare neck, shoulders, chest, back and waist are clearly outlined in tight clothes. The bottom bucket skirt tightly wraps the hem seam of the waist, forming three beautiful S-shaped waves, and then naturally hangs on the foot surface. The whole set of clothing is simple and lively in structure, prominent in curve and elegant and simple in style, which is the essence of China national clothing, just like cheongsam.