The Historical Origin of the Phoenix-patterned Clothing of She Nationality

Before entering Guizhou, the She people mostly lived in the Ganjiang River Basin in Jiangxi and the eastern part of Jiangxi, and mostly moved to Guizhou in the Hongwu period in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties for the order of conquest, migration or disaster avoidance. Due to the cruel repression of the ruling class, some She ethnic groups were forced to integrate with other ethnic groups, and the rest lived in Majiang County and surrounding counties and cities. She people live in harsh geographical conditions such as high mountains, mid-levels, valleys and river valleys. Social productivity is low and commodity economy is underdeveloped. They spin and dye their clothes mainly by planting cotton. Before the early years of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, there was no textual research on the clothing of She nationality in Majiang County. Although there are many records about She costumes in the historical books of Ming and Qing Dynasties, they are sporadic and unknown. Ming Hongzhi's "New Records of Guizhou Illustrations" says: "Take a red coat and put a white feather on your head." "A woman is wearing a bun with a long hairpin on her head. Her clothes are made of brocade without lapels. One towel is used as a hole, she will take it for the first time, and the other two sleeves are used. She will go there for everything and will be decorated with seashells, two bells and green, white and green beads. " "Vertebra bun barefoot, women wear brocade". This is a detailed description of women's clothing of She nationality in history books. Qing Qianlong's "Guizhou Tongzhi" contains: "Women wear flowered clothes without sleeves, only two short skirts that cover the front and the back." Lu Ciyun wrote "Ancient Fiber Record" and said: "The clothes are short and blue, and the women wear flowered skirts, sleeveless, covering the front and back, and the pleated skirts are turned over." The "Majiang County Records" of the Republic of China contains: "Women wear cloth to cover their heads, silver rings around their necks, green belts and blue pants."

As for the origin of the phoenix costume, the path of the She nationality is described as follows: after the creation, dragons, tigers and Leigong fought fiercely for the world: the dragon is low, the lightning flashes, the fire is lit, the hills are burned, the wind is raging, the water waves are surging, everything escapes, and everything is in a desperate situation. At this critical juncture, the phoenix bird roared with a loud voice and flapped its wings to the sky, highlighting the encirclement of the fire, and then forcing Long Qianjue, Yuyuan and Raizo to die, just to bring back everything and start a happy and peaceful life again. Phoenix is the king of birds, a symbol of women, with great wisdom and courage. It is the protector of the She nationality, and has the virtue of regeneration and the grace of wing protection for the She nationality. Phoenix patterns are mostly used as female ornaments, so they are called "phoenix clothes" and "phoenix clothes".

The phoenix dress of the She nationality in Majiang County is the dress worn by the She nationality women in Majiang County at weddings, festivals, major occasions and death. Because the She people regard the Phoenix as a mascot that brings happiness to the She people, they often use it as silver ornaments and embroidery patterns in their clothes, so they call it "Phoenix Clothes". Phoenix clothes are divided into: coat, bottom dress, head dress and silver ornaments. Coat: Also known as "flower sleeve coat", it has no collar and right slit. It covers the arm and the sleeves are about 8 inches long. It includes batik and embroidery. The batik part is blue flowers on a white background, and the pattern is divided into three parts: upper, middle and lower. Most of the upper and lower sides are "longevity" and plum blossom patterns, which are symmetrically distributed; The middle part is the main pattern, mostly peony and rose. The embroidery part is mainly based on red background, and flowers and birds are embroidered with blue, green, purple, yellow and brown silk threads. The material texture is navy home textiles. The hem and corners of each dress are decorated with red and white embroidered lace. The flower sleeves should be tied with silk and indigo tape, two feet long and five-inch tassels at both ends. There is a wallet tied around the waist to hold money and toiletries. Undercoat: Pants with big trouser legs and big crotch, navy blue, one foot long, one foot and two inches big, and inlaid with a lace about two inches wide, with colorful patterns. The calf is wrapped in batik leggings with a white background, and the feet are embroidered boat-shaped shoes. Head type: Married women put their hair behind their heads and wear silver hairpin. Unmarried women put their braids behind their heads, tied them with silk thread at both ends, and put on batik headscarves with white background and blue flowers. The headscarf is six feet long and one foot wide, with red tassels at both ends and green tassels hanging down. There are green beads about a foot in the middle of the headscarf, and the headscarf is placed on their heads in the middle. She women pay more attention to the head dress, and the whole head dress has 10 styles. There are dozens of silver ornaments on the head. Silver ornaments: She silver ornaments mainly include big silver flowers, small silver flowers, silver earrings, silver necklaces, silver bracelets and silver rings. Hang a silver medal in the shape of a moon around your neck on your chest; There is a silver butterfly between the chain and the silver medal, and the silver medal is a semi-convex phoenix pattern.

Phoenix costumes in most She villages in Majiang County have been lost. Only Liubao Village in Xingshan Town can be passed down now, and only a few people can make it. The main representative inheritors are: Wang Zhengshu, Wang Tianfen, Pan,, Wang, Wu Wanzhen, Wang Li, Zhao Tonghai.

"Phoenix skirt" has a unique production process, and only "embroidery" can be divided into "flower arrangement" and "flower picking". "Flower arrangement" is to draw colored lines on patterned substrate cloth with embroidery needles, interspersed with various semi-convex solid images. "Flower picking" is to weave colorful patterns with silk threads according to the colors of the patterns. These patterns have the characteristics of compact composition, harmonious color matching and exquisite workmanship. Another example is the production of "flip-flops", in which the shoe samples are cut out from bamboo shoot shells, and then the cloth is cut according to the samples, and the paste boiled with konjac sticks together with the shoe samples of bamboo shoot shells to reach more than ten layers of cloth, and then the nails are connected by rubbing hemp thread by hand. Pay attention to the numbers when wearing. Fengyi is not only a wedding dress, but also a shroud. Wear a pair instead of a single one when you get married, that is, two, four, six, and eight for rich people; If you don't wear a shroud, you can wear three, five, seven or nine. Usually, you can wear it for travel, festivals, major events and banquets, and the number is not limited. Collars should be covered with one, three, five, seven and nine, with small inside and large outside, so that they can be exposed and nested. Phoenix silver ornaments are divided into four categories: headdress, necklace, costume and jewelry. Among them, the headdress is the most exquisite. There are three kinds of headdresses: melon and rice hanging on forehead, plum blossom hanging, silver bell hanging, whitebait hanging and silver rice hanging. Hair accessories include pins, pins, large flowers, small flowers, round flowers, flower arrangements, heart-shaped flowers, big bags of flowers and Liuer Festival flowers. Earrings include melon and rice hanging, ear blocks, large, medium and small hanging ears, etc. As far as color is concerned, the embroidery of Phoenix cuffs is mainly based on red background color, and the hem and corners of clothes are decorated with red embroidery lace; The head handkerchief is inlaid with red and green lace at both ends and hung with red tassels, and the center of the head handkerchief is decorated with green beads. The whole costume is bright red and green, which looks gorgeous, warm and grand.

Phoenix clothing embodies the totem worship of the ancient She nationality, carries a lot of historical and cultural information and the original memory of the She nationality, and integrates the spiritual belief and value orientation of the She nationality. She nationality has a language but no writing. Besides oral teaching, Phoenix costumes have also become an important carrier for inheriting the history and culture of She nationality. At the same time, the costumes of She women are unique, bright but not tacky, and the embroidery and silver ornaments are ingenious and extremely exaggerated, which fully embodies the artistic aesthetics, exquisite craftsmanship and creative genius of She people, records the history of the formation and development of She costumes, and reflects the profound cultural connotation of She people.

Later, especially in the late 1970s, with the influx of other textiles and various popular styles, the young people of She nationality pursued fashionable and colorful fashions, and were unwilling to spend time and energy on hand-made complex phoenix-patterned clothes, so the number of inheritors decreased sharply. With the process of global economic integration, various popular cultures that have flourished with urbanization and industrialization have had a strong impact on the traditional culture of She nationality. Young people are even more disdainful of the Phoenix costume, and its inheritors are even rarer. If it is not rescued in time, the phoenix costumes that the She people used to be proud of will be submerged in the long river of history.