Miao batik has a long history. The Yi people in Southwest China (post-Han Dynasty) have records of "knowing dyeing, color and embroidery", which shows that the ethnic minorities in southwest China have mastered the skills of dyeing, weaving and embroidery at least in the Han Dynasty. There are two legends about the origin of Miao batik. One is the story of the Miao ancestor Chi You who fought with the Yellow Emperor and was captured and sentenced to death. This gave rise to the dyeing method of "wind leaves as a dye repellent".
It is said that batik "was originally used to imitate the patterns on bronze drums". The method is to cover the cloth on the bronze drum, rub it back and forth with wax, and then dye it. The pattern on the drum is transferred to the cloth, a bit like a rubbing. Later, we used wood carvings to imitate the patterns of the bronze drums, then placed the wood carvings on white cloth, poured wax liquid into the hollow patterns, and then dyed them with indigo. This method is similar to printing on clothing.
This phenomenon is related to the Miao people's admiration for batik. They regard having many exquisite batik products as a virtue. Many branches not only use batik as decorations on important occasions such as ancestor worship, weddings, funerals, and festivals, but they are also inseparable from small and exquisite batik products. The batik of the Miao people in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan uses a special wax knife to light the wax, and uses beeswax melt to draw flowers on the white cloth. After dyeing, take out the boiling water, and after dewaxing, the flowers will appear. To make it, lay a white cloth on the table and then put the beeswax into a small pot.
The most representative of the Miao batik is Danzhai in Guizhou. During the Guzang Festival, the 13th ancestor worship festival, the Li family had to pick up several pieces of Zhanglong's offerings, decorated with Batik patterns, mostly dragon patterns, show the dragon totem worship of the Miao people. The Miao dragon patterns are different from those of the Han people. Miao dragons do not have sharp claws and teeth.
The patterns are mostly simple and solemn bronze drum patterns and swirl patterns. In addition, the Miao batik in Nayong and Shuicheng areas in northwest Guizhou also has its own characteristics. Its patterns are dense and full, including flowers, butterflies, grass and some geometric patterns. Since batik evolved from imitating bronze drum patterns, many bronze drum patterns are retained in batik, such as Ganoderma lucidum patterns, cloud patterns, etc.