What do the dragons in the Miao costumes in Guizhou represent?

The Miao believe that the dragon represents women's genitals and symbolizes the gate of human life; fertility is the result of the bird entering a woman's body.

The cultural connotation of Miao embroidery

Miao embroidery creation is full of Miao women's deep tunnel of thought connotation and simple emotional color, each piece of embroidery is from the depths of the heart of the Miao women's thoughts and feelings of the catharsis, "there is no tomb imitation of the painting of the luxury goods, there is no blowing the stick of the power of the pandering subject, and even more no pretense, twisting and turning, clamor of the There is no intention of whitewashing." ("The Origin and Development of Miao Embroidery and its Characteristics of Plastic Art" by Ding Rongquan Long Xiangping) Miao embroidery has been inherited by the Miao people for generations as a cultural carrier for interpreting all things in heaven and earth and recording history and life. The themes, shapes and colors of their creations are based on their own religious beliefs, ethical morals and folklore activities, but they also absorb the excellent cultures of other ethnic groups, forming a unique Miao embroidery culture.

1, the theme

Art comes from life. Whether Miao embroidery is for practical use in ancient times or as a work of art in later times, the theme of its creation comes from the Miao people's knowledge and feelings about their own living environment and the meaning of life. The Miao do not have words, so they attach the history of their people to their clothes through the unique form of "embroidery", "even if they migrate farther away from their ancestral home for a longer period of time, the children and grandchildren of the Miao people will be able to receive information about the history of their people through this mysterious and original way. information." As a written symbol of the Hmong people and as a vehicle for expressing emotions, the theme of the creation of Hmong embroidery is very deep and rich.

Historical Review Miao clothing is recognized as "the history book on the body", and people read the history of the Miao people from a piece of embroidery. For example, the horse flying over, the river waves, the seal of the King of Miao, the star flower, the spider flower, the tiger's claw flower and so on show the history of the origin of the Miao people, the history of war, the history of migration.

The Miao people of Zhenning, Guizhou Province, embroidered with the skirt of the river were called "migration skirt", "three mother river skirt" and "seven river skirt" migration skirt. "skirt surface has 81 horizontal lines, divided into 9 groups, each group has 9 small stripes. Legend has it that Chi You has 9 children, each son and 9 children, *** 81 children and grandchildren, composed of 81 brother clans, that is, the nine Li tribe. "Three mother river skirt" embroidered and dyed on the three major horizontal lines, said Chi You failed after the migration of the Miao people over the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Jialing River. "Seven river skirt" said the Miao migrated seven rivers. Northeast Qian Miao women wear "Lanjuan clothes" on the "river waves", legend has it that a Miao woman called "Shi Lanjuan", in order to remember the course of the southern migration, leaving the Yellow River in their own When she left the Yellow River, she sewed a yellow thread on her left sleeve; when she crossed the Yangtze River, she embroidered a blue thread on her right sleeve; and when she crossed the Dongting Lake, she embroidered a lake-shaped pattern on her chest. ...... Every time she crossed a mountain or a river, she sewed a mark on a certain part of her clothes. Finally, to the Wuling Mountains settled, Lanjuan in accordance with the symbols she remembered, with a variety of different colors of thread re-embroidered a set of exquisite women's clothing to send their daughters to get married. This folk custom has been passed down to this day. Miao women in Kaili, Shibing, Huangping and Taijiang in Southeast Guizhou have embroidered two colorful bordered horizontal lines on the shawl and along the skirt of each flowery garment, symbolizing the Yellow River and Yangtze River.

The "steed flying across" pattern is the most popular pattern on the lace of Miao clothes in Phoenix, Guzhang and Songtao. The lace is made up of countless horse-like patterns that span the river, indicating that ten thousand horses are flying across the Yellow River and galloping across the Central Plains. On both sides of the horse are countless triangles arranged in a mountainous pattern, signifying lofty mountains.

And "star flower" that Chi You and the Yellow Emperor fought at night marching by the stars to guide the direction; "spider flower" that was besieged by the ancestors of the spirit of tenacious fighting; "tiger claw flower The "Tiger's Claw Flower" recounts the story of the Hmong who fought a tiger when they migrated to the mountains.

Recalling history and honoring ancestors is an indispensable theme of embroidery for generations of Miao women.

Nature Worship The Miao believe that "everything has a spirit" and that people are one with nature, believing that people can also create natural phenomena and possess external power that only exists in nature, which is the most primitive consciousness of human beings. Up to now, the Miao people still worship the nature of heaven and earth as well as the mountains and rivers, the sun, the moon and the stars that make up heaven and earth, which are all present in the women's embroidery works. Only Qiandongnan dress animal embroidery patterns, there are dragons, chickens, ducks, geese, bulls, lions, dogs, pigs, horses, sheep, frogs and so on more than 50 kinds of. Some of these animals are shown alone, some with a combination of people, some in the flowers, plants, fruits and trees, there are also human heads and animal bodies, people as an animal and other animals in the Miao embroidery piece of work mixed into one. Their images are not the original animals in nature, but supernatural images that have been optimized and deified. Peonies, pomegranates, peach blossoms, plum blossoms, horseshoe blossoms and other plants and flowers abound in Miao embroidery. Especially the maple tree, which is the "mother tree" of the Miao people, is the mother of all things, the source of life, in the Miao embroidery is an essential pattern.

In the view of the Miao people, the dragon can protect the village and the people, give people good weather; Ji Yu bird beautiful and beautiful; butterfly is the originator of the community; fish and shrimp that food abundance; frogs and toads off the harvest; tiger mighty and courageous; lions lively and articulate; deer gentle and refined; elephant in the straight and steadfast; cattle strong and hard-working, and so on. The fruit and trees, flowers and plants show abundant life, symbolizing the power of life, the source, gourd implies new life; pomegranate means many children; maple leaves implies longevity; flowers symbolize the young girl, youth ......

People to flowers, flowers hide people, birds and animals in the bushes, people and animals, plants and live in harmony, which is the best wishes of the Hmong people, and express this good wish through embroidery and pass it on to their children and grandchildren.

The sense of life Into the civilized era, people are ashamed to talk about reproduction, and the Miao is a dare to worship good worship of the nation, the meaning of life from the understanding of the nation's unique. Through embroidery, they express their worship of reproduction through metaphor and metaphors, so that their children and grandchildren can recognize the origin of mankind and the meaning of life. The Miao believe that the dragon represents women's genitals and symbolizes the door of human life; fertility is the result of birds entering women's bodies; cows and deer are the symbols of life and yang, indicating the continuation of life; the maple leaves and butterflies, which are the progenitors of all living things, must be retained in Miao embroidery; the fish, as the gods of marriage, reproduction and reproduction worshipped by the ancient Central Plains people, is the most prominent, most frequent and richest motifs in Miao embroidery. The pattern of "Bird Occupying Peony" and "Bird Pecking Pomegranate" shows that Miao women worship the reproduction; the pattern of "Pan gourd" also appears more in Miao embroidery, which is the symbol of the in-laws of Miao. symbols. Of course, whether it is a dragon, cow, deer, gourd or maple leaves, butterflies and fish, the Miao people will also be regarded as a totem to worship, as a totem pattern in the Miao embroidery.

In Hmong embroidery, Hmong women openly publicize the idea of procreation and promote human reproduction, so that the life force can be sublimated in the women's red culture.

Deification Legends In oral literature, there are many myths and legends of the Miao people. At first, some myths and stories were embroidered by Miao women in their clothes, and later, the Miao people deified some of the classic myths and stories or characters and passed them on to their children and grandchildren. Such as Jiang Ying shoot the moon, dragon dog and six men and six women, butterfly mother, open up the sky, the dog steals food seeds, puppy plowing, rooster please sunrise as well as gourd, Chi You, human head and snake body of the Yan Wei, Jiang Ying was born and so on mythological stories or characters is the focus of the Miao embroidery production. Maple leaves, butterflies, fish, dragons, cows, accustomed to, dish gourd, snakes, fish and other totems in the Miao embroidery in the image is more colorful and varied, depending on the imagination of the embroiderer and the creation, or as the main or interspersed throughout the pattern. Embroidery patterns in the life of the wings riding dragons, lions, horses, cows and deer, either harnessed coiled dragons and phoenixes, or human head butterfly body, human head snake body, fish body bird wings; or not curled up in the stomach of the animal, the pistil of the flower ...... competition to show the divinity.

Emotional support As the creators and producers of embroidery, Miao women devote themselves to the understanding of life, the perception of life and maternal feelings in the embroidery creation, the embroidery of the emotions, aspirations and so on all presented on the embroidery works. For example, the swaddling clothes of babies are embroidered with the pattern of "Mother Butterfly", praying for the blessing of Mother Butterfly. Lotus and fish are matched to express "Year (Lotus) yearly surplus (fish)", magpies stand on the plum branches as a metaphor for "joy on the brow (plum)"; five bats around the character of longevity form the "Five Fortunes for Longevity" pattern, expressing the desire of Miao women to be rich in wealth and happiness. The five bats around the character for longevity form the "Five Blessings for Longevity" pattern, which expresses the desire of Miao women for wealth and longevity; a pair of mandarin ducks in the water or a pair of magpies on the flowers is the pursuit of the good wishes of Miao women for the love of husband and wife; the two Ruyi and the "ten thousand" character grid constitutes a pattern that implies all the best, and so on. Hmong women give their husbands or lovers shoe insoles, fanny packs and other small tokens will be embroidered to express their own wishes of success, smooth sailing, step by step, wishing for success patterns or words, in the children's hats, bibs, straps embroidered with centipedes, bees, geckos, snakes, toads, five poisonous patterns to express the evil, disaster, disease ideas ("Miao embroidery styling features" Long Xiangping). Embroidery has become the only stylized carrier for Miao women to send their emotions.

In short, every piece of embroidery created by Miao women, in addition to reflecting the level of embroidery, contains rich cultural connotations, reflecting the momentum of the maker, the level of aesthetics, as well as the maker's joys and sorrows, just like paintings by painters, calligraphers, writers, writers, novels, and poems by poets.

2, styling features

From the same structure of the Miao dress, it is not difficult to find out that, due to the different ornamentation, decorative parts of the formation of different clothing styles, which makes the Miao dress has both integrity and uniqueness, full of Miao women's rich imagination, creativity and skillful embroidery skills. From the Miao embroidery embroidery modeling perspective to explore the cultural connotation of Miao embroidery will have further gains.

The origin of patterns In the Miao embroidery, the patterns that appear the most and are most widely used in the region are dragon, fish, phoenix, bird, butterfly, whirlpool, flowers and geometric patterns. In the feudal era, the dragon pattern can only be the royal descendants are equipped with, but the Miao people are reckless dragon embroidered on their own clothes, regardless of class, nobility and poverty, Miao women can be based on their own imagination arbitrary embroidery of the image of the dragon.

The dragon is accompanied by a cow's head, a phoenix's head, a snake's body, a fish's body, a bird's body, an insect's foot, and even with flowers. Dragon pattern is mainly popular in Qiandongnan. The names are also various, buffalo dragon, silkworm dragon, centipede dragon, leaf dragon, fish dragon, snake dragon, flying dragon, human head dragon and so on. And every dragon festival folk activities to make the Miao people have a new understanding of the dragon feeling, after thousands of years of precipitation of the dragon image, the Miao women to create a strange dragon pattern.

Fish pattern is also the Miao embroidery in the higher frequency pattern. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas, it is said that the ancestors of the Miao people "ate fish in the sea", and the performance of the fish pattern is related to the culture of the ancestors of the Miao people in rice farming and fishing. In addition, the fish is a symbol of prolific birth, a symbol of life. Therefore, the fish pattern is interpreted by the Miao people of Qiandongnan in a variety of strange and colorful ways. The fish pattern in Qiandong region is more realistic, and the fish pattern in Qiandongnan region is both realistic and imaginative. The fish pattern in Qiandong is usually matched with flowers and plants, and the fish pattern in Qiandongnan is very rich, with human head and fish body, dragon-head and fish body, and some fish with wings, and of course, the Taiji-style cross-fish pattern has the most bird pattern, and the Miao people believe that birds are the souls of the human beings, and so the bird pattern is the pattern with more performance in the embroidery of the Miao people. The bird pattern in Qiandongnan area is the richest, with nearly a hundred kinds of patterns, such as insect body, bird foot, bird head and gourd body, double-headed bird, multi-headed bird, bird wing standing man, bird wing with flowers, dragon head and bird body, bird head and dragon body, etc. Especially the "Bird Clothes" in Moon Mountain of Rongjiang is famous. When embroidering bird patterns, the modeling is basically composed of bird patterns with different demeanors and forms, both realistic and imaginative. Legend has it that the Lei Gong and Jiang Ying had a conflict, the Lei Gong sent water to flood the earth, only a pair of Jiang Ying's children to hide in the gourd was washed to the high mountain wall by the flood, is the rock eagle (i.e., the bird) will be the siblings back on the flat ground, siblings married to reproduce human beings. "Drum Tibetan Festival" is the Hmong ancestor of the ancestral spirit of the bird god worship activities. Therefore, the Miao people and the bird as a totem to worship.