Guanling Anshun Xixiu Tongzi

Nayong, Jianhe, Taijiang and Rongjiang

Liuzhi, Danzhai and Miao costumes (5)

An important feature of Miao costumes

Is a culture that records migration,

Record your hometown and scenery along the way on your clothes.

This is another way for them to memorize without words.

This is also a wandering life after the defeat.

Add some joy.

"Let's take it one step at a time/look at this vast place in Jiangpu/

What a pity! /

Be sure to leave a souvenir/make a dress to wear/

Embroider Jiangpu's tile house on clothes/

My lovely hometown Jiangpuya/

Embroidered dresses will always be remembered by future generations. "

("Miao Ancient Songs")

The first time I saw Miao costumes,

You will be surprised at the colorful patterns.

What kind of cultural background is it?

Imagine such a rich pattern,

There is an eternal matrix in these patterns,

Is the "mother flower" of the main pattern,

All from that "Zhuolu War".

The war forced them to leave the Central Plains,

Migrate to the Yangtze river basin and southwest China,

But it's hard for them to give up their homes,

I am homesick. What should I do?

I don't know who had a brainwave,

Embroider the "heaven and earth" and "mountains and rivers" of my hometown on my clothes.

And some clothes are modeled after Chiyou's uniform.

Become a holiday costume.

In this way, Songtao and Xiangxi area

"Flying Horse" and "Jiang Lang" patterns,

"Mountains and rivers" and "villages" in Bijie and Yiliang,

"River" and "city" models,

Guiyang's "Chiyou Seal" pattern,

The Yellow River is located in Kaili and Ping Huang in southeastern Guizhou.

"Yangtze River" pattern, etc.

Become the mother of all kinds of Miao costumes,

Many other models are derived from these female parents.

Weaving Miao brocade myth.

Let's see what these patterns mean.

See how the Miao people put their experiences

Abstraction becomes patterning.

The design of "Flying Horse" consists of big rivers.

Patterns of mountains and horses,

It means "a good horse flies across the river",

It means brave and tenacious,

This is a scene to commemorate the ancestors on horseback of the Yellow River.

I can't help but imagine that thousands of years ago,

Thousands of troops along the Yellow River.

Jin Ge, like an iron horse, is magnificent and distant.

Regarding the pattern of "Jiang Lang" of "Yellow River",

Yangtze River, Dongting Lake, etc.

In the process of migration, the description of scenery is more abundant.

There are also colorful trees, people, boats and boating.

And after migrating to the southwest mountainous area.

The shape of mountain roads and forests,

It has the magical effect of looking at pictures and talking.

About Jiang Lang,

The "blue-rolled clothes" worn by Miao women in northeast Guizhou are more story-telling.

"Lanjuan Clothes" is a collarless women's dress.

At that time, a female leader named "Juan Lan",

Take everyone south, through thick and thin,

I don't know the name of the place I passed,

But everyone knows in their hearts,

Moving south is only a temporary strategic shift.

They still have to go back to their hometown,

In order to remember every corner of the south,

Mark every place you go,

Lan Juan wants to simply remember things with colored lines.

So when I left the Yellow River,

She sewed a yellow thread on the sleeve of her left hand and crossed the Yangtze River.

Embroider a blue thread on the right sleeve and walk through Dongting Lake.

Embroider the pattern of the lake on the chest of the clothes.

Every time I cross the mountains,

Just sew some small marks,

Moving south while sewing, the mountains and rivers in the south are densely covered,

Soon after, when they settled in Wuling Mountain,

The stain on Juan Lan's clothes extends from the neckline to the trouser legs.

Arranged in dense rows,

For the sake of beauty and commemoration,

She used different colors of lines,

Embroidered a beautiful dress,

This kind of women's dress has become the most beloved wedding dress of Miao girls.

The settled Miao people have also adapted.

The dreamy life of Taoyuan Mountain,

Gradually, no one talked much about going back to their hometown in the north.

When suffering and pain go with the wind,

Grasping the beauty of reality has become everyone's knowledge.

So a new life,

A new era is being rebuilt before our eyes,

They began an animist agricultural life,

Worship of the gods and the consciousness of the birth of all things

A more colorful Miao costume culture has been constructed.

to be continued