The Miao batik with Anshun batik technique reflects the nature worship and totem worship consciousness of the ancestors.
As follows:
The Miao nationality is one of the only ethnic minorities in my country with a population of more than 5 million. It is also one of the oldest ethnic groups in my country. Its history can be traced back to ancient times with Chiyou. The Miaoman group represented by them, and even the earlier Jiuli and Sanmiao.
The Miao people have their own rich and colorful national culture and folk arts and crafts skills. Among them, their batik art works and batik tourist crafts have long been famous and unique in the entire dyeing and weaving art world.
The Miao batik has a long history. (Book of the Later Han Dynasty) records that the Southwest Yi "know how to dye colorful patterns and embroider", which shows that at least in the Han Dynasty, the Southwest ethnic minorities had mastered dyeing, weaving, and embroidery. skills.
Among the Miao people, there are two legends about the origin of batik. The first is the story of Chi You, the ancestor of the Miao ethnic group who fought with the Yellow Emperor and was captured and sentenced to death. This gave rise to the dyeing method of "maple liquid as a dye preventive agent". Second, batik is popular among the Miao people. "It was originally copied from the patterns on the bronze drum.
The method is to cover the cloth on the bronze drum, rub the cloth back and forth with wax, and then dye it. The patterns on the bronze drum are then dyed. The pattern was transferred to the cloth, which is a bit like making rubbings. Later, the wooden board was hollowed out to imitate the copper drum pattern, and then the wooden board was placed on the white cloth, and wax liquid was poured into the hollowed pattern before indigo dyeing. This method is similar to printing on clothes.
Batik later became the use of a wax knife made of copper sheets dipped in melted wax to draw directly on the cloth. This method changed batik from copying. It became a creation that gave full play to the advantages of batik tools and reflected the beauty of batik material. Therefore, this production method has been used to this day."
Among the Miao batiks, the most representative ones are those of the Danzhai, Huangping, Anshun and Rongjiang Miao people in Guizhou. The Danzhai Miao batik style is simple, rough and unrestrained, with more large areas. The patterns are generally deformations of animals and plants, mostly with colorful flowers, birds, fish and insects as the main body, making them both abstract and concrete.
In addition to being widely used in clothing, Danzhai batik is also used as quilt tops, sheets, tent edges, baggage cloth, etc., as well as in folk activities. When the Miao people in Danzhai worship their ancestors, they wear special batik clothing, called "ancestral worship clothing."
At the Guzang Festival, an ancestor worship festival held every 13 years, the Li family would lift a several-foot-long bamboo basket decorated with batik patterns, mostly dragon patterns. It shows the dragon totem worship of the Miao people. The dragon patterns of the Miao people are different from those of the Han flag. The Miao dragons have no sharp claws and teeth, and are graceful in form and friendly to the eye.
Huangping Miao batik is neat, dense and exquisite, with rigorous composition and generally small area. The pattern is made up of highly stylized patterns of animals, plants and geometric patterns interspersed with each other. In addition to being used for clothing, people also use it to make school bags, pillow covers, basket cloths and hand towels.
Anshun Miao batik often uses geometric figures and is exquisitely crafted. The Rongjiang Miao Drum Festival Society draws ten flags with colored wax and flutters them in front of the honor guard.