The batik of various ethnic minorities in Guizhou has its own characteristics, for example, some of the batik patterns of the Miao people still follow the patterns of ancient copper drums and the themes in folklore, and some are the flowers, birds, insects and fish that they come into contact with in daily life; The Buyi people, on the other hand, prefer to use geometric patterns.

Each geometric pattern has a different meaning, such as the circle represents the granary, the dots represent the stars in the sky, and so on. Each ethnic group has a unique style of batik.

Batik making is more complicated. First, the white base cloth is spread on the wooden board, then the yellow wax is melted in a metal container over low heat, and the wax is dipped in wax juice with a wax knife to draw a pattern on the base cloth.

The wax knife used in batik is special, and its structure is a bit like a dipping pen. The barrel is made of bamboo sticks, called "knife handles", and the nib is three pieces of copper in the shape of ploughshares, called "blades".

There are gaps between the copper sheets to store the wax juice. The way we hold a wax knife is very different from how we usually hold a pen and write. When we hold the pen to write, the barrel is always almost vertical, with the tip tilted back slightly and the tip downward; In the case of a wax knife, the handle is tilted forward sharply until it is more than 45 degrees, and the blade is tilted back almost under the wrist.

When painting, the wax knife can only move longitudinally with the wrist for long straight lines, while horizontal and other movements can only be used to embellish small short horizontal lines and draw circles. If the horizontal straight line is long, you need to turn the arms up to the whole body, or turn the base cloth in the opposite direction.

The wax must be kept at the right temperature throughout the painting process. If the temperature is too low, the wax juice will solidify, and if the temperature is too high, the wax juice will easily turn black or even catch fire.

The patterns of Miao batik are generally regular geometric figures, such as straight lines, squares, prismatic shapes, T-shapes, zigzags, circles, etc., and there are also a few works with patterns of flowers, birds, sun, moon, landscapes, and figures.

After the pattern is painted, the cloth is soaked in a dye vat for a few hours, then removed and washed in clean water to remove excess dye, then put it in a pot of water to boil the wax, and then rinse it in clean water. In this way, the waxed area of the painting becomes white because the dye cannot adhere, and the blank area is dyed and impregnated with color.

The dye is usually black or blue, so the finished dye is a black and white pattern. Some of them are decorated with red and yellow colors on a white background to make their patterns more exquisite.

Traditional batik cloth of the Miao people is mainly used to sew pleated skirts worn by women every day, and occasionally used to make blouses and satchels. Freehand works such as flowers, birds, sun, moon, landscapes, and figures are mainly used as works of art to give to relatives and friends or be sold, and are very popular with people.

The Miao and Tujia people in Hunan are good at the production and application of batik. They mainly live in counties and cities in Xiangxi Ten Family Autonomous Prefecture, as well as Huang County and Mayang County.

The batik of the Miao people in the western Hunan dialect has a long history, and although there are very few batiks in the written records, the history has always left more or less traces of it.

For example, the place name "Indigo" in Longshan County indicates that in the past, indigo, an important raw material for batik, was abundant here, and many dyeing mills were also gathered, forming a large industry.

In the 50s and 70s of the 20th century, there were hundreds of dyeing workshops in Xiangxi. In history, in addition to the "Indigo Fang" in Longshan County, a large number of indigo is planted, and the cultivation of blue indigo in various township Miao villages in Xiangxi is very common, and its yield is also considerable.

Every March, as with sugarcane, cuttings are planted, and from June to October, the stems and leaves are harvested, soaked in a pond filled with clean water, and then the branches and leaves are removed. Pour lime water, and in just one day and night, the bottom of the pool will produce a blue-black paste - indigo.

In Xiangxi, in addition to dyeing various colored cloths from local materials, batik is a unique and traditional anti-dyeing technique. Xiangxi batik mostly uses home-woven cotton cloth, and less uses linen and silk cloth.

The thin wooden board is hollowed out as the pattern, that is, the figure is carved into a hollow flower hole, which is used to make a batik flower mold. Then, press it on a white cloth and pour wax into the pattern. Wait for cooling, and then untie the flower board, take the waxed cloth and put it into the dye vat to soak the color.

The dyeing solution is impregnated with a local indigo dyeing solution, and the cloth that is not covered by the wax solution is colored as soon as it is dyed, and the flower pattern covered by the wax solution is safe. After dyeing, the cloth is boiled so that the wax is removed and the pattern is revealed. This dyeing method has good efficacy, and the people of Miao Township mostly carve their own molds.

The patterns are mainly flowers, birds, insects, butterflies and geometric figures, which are used to print and dye bed sheets, quilts, pillows, tent edges, and door curtains, which are suitable for beauty. Method 2: Melt a metal basin containing beeswax on a charcoal fire, and then paint the wax when a faint green smoke rises on the surface of the wax.

Wax painting is a special copper wax knife dipped in molten wax to draw patterns on cloth. Once the wax is painted, it is ready to be stained. When dyeing, it is necessary to "hair the cylinder" first, and add a certain amount of water, stone water, sake lees, and old cylinder liquid to the cylinder water.

After a few days, the dye can be dyed when the dye changes from blue-black to greenish-yellow. If you want to get a darker blue, it will take you nearly ten times to get it. If you want a small amount of red and yellow, you can use the bark of Tsubaki and yellow gardenia to crush and dye the sap of it.

In the dyeing process, where there is beeswax painted, the cloth fiber is sealed, and the dye liquid cannot seep in, but in the dyeing and turning process, due to the wrinkles of the cloth surface, the beeswax forms cracks, these cracks are rich in variety, there are thick and fine, there are curved and straight, there are sparse and dense, after the dye liquid is immersed, it is dyed into the ice crack known as the "batik soul", this ice crack changes naturally, can not be imitated artificially, and has a high aesthetic value.

After the dyeing is completed, the wax is removed in boiling water, and the place where the beeswax was originally painted shows a white pattern, and finally rinsed to remove the alkalinity and floating color, and the batik is dried, and the batik is completed. The Xiangxi batik pattern inherits and integrates the national spirit, national aesthetic consciousness and traditional modeling that have been passed down from generation to generation, forming a unique style of Xiangxi batik.

In Hunan, the Phoenix region is known as the hometown of batik. Phoenix batik art has a long history, and the batik cloth is pure and elegant, primitive and simple, and it is the essence of Phoenix folk handicrafts. Phoenix batik is divided into two categories; One is Tujia batik; The second is Miao batik.

Tujia batik often uses the "auspicious beast" pattern. This is an artistic image composed of a tiger head, a fish spine and a fish tail, a beast body, and a pangolin foot. Like the "dragon and phoenix turtle" of the Miao people in Xiangxi, it also adopts the modeling technique of image compounding.

This pattern is mostly seen on door curtains, tablecloth curtains, curtains and other items. Tujia batik pays attention to the purity of color matching, pays attention to the concept of composition, and has a peculiar artistic style. Xiangxi Miao batik often uses the "dragon and phoenix turtle" pattern, which is mostly used on tablecloths, aprons, and scarves.

It is composed of three different images: dragon, wind, and turtle. Just as the "dragon" of the Han people is composed of nine different animals, it is composed of a dragon head, a turtle body, and a phoenix tail, and has a profound meaning.

"Dragon" means that Miao men are as powerful and majestic as dragons, "Phoenix" means that Miao women are as beautiful as phoenixes, and "Turtle" means that Miao people are as healthy and long as turtles. Miao batik uses homespun cloth, does not pay attention to gorgeous carvings, gives people a natural and pure artistic beauty, and the color is mainly cold tones.

Phoenix batik is usually designed according to the needs of life, such as wall hangings, screens, quilts, table covers, door curtains, pillows, clothes, etc., and the finished product has a distinct national style and strong national charm.

Miao men, women and children in Heku, Fenghuang County like to use blue and white batik, and the raw materials are mainly beeswax or maple cavity, white cloth, indigo, etc. When drawing, use a copper wax knife to dip in liquid, dot the pattern on the white cloth, and then dip it in the blue indigo jar, boil it in boiling water to remove the wax, that is, it presents a blue and white distinct, pattern like painting.

The themes of Guizhou batik patterns mainly come from the imitation of objects in the natural environment and the profound recording and expression of national culture. From the classification of Guizhou batik ornament themes, it is mainly divided into two categories: natural patterns and geometric patterns, and natural patterns can be divided into plant patterns and animal patterns.

The plant patterns in the natural patterns include chrysanthemums, lotus, peach blossoms, orchids, peonies, pomegranates, gourds, sunflowers, cockscombs, duckweeds, aquatic plants, bracken flowers, pepper flowers and nameless flowers in the mountains, and animal patterns include cows, dragons, birds, tigers, lions, elephants, deer, dogs, rabbits, chickens, rats, phoenixes, pheasants,, owls, bats, butterflies, bees, frogs, snails, turtles, shrimps and other patterns.

These themes are all from the nature that the ethnic minorities in Guizhou are very familiar with, but they are not constrained by the details of the natural image in terms of modeling, but have made bold changes and exaggerated artistic treatments. This kind of variation and exaggeration not only accurately conveys the characteristics of the object, but also has a fairly high artistic generalization ability.

The ethnic minorities in Guizhou have lived between the green mountains and green waters for a long time, and the beauty of nature has brought them inspiration for artistic creation. The grass and wild flowers in the mountain streams, the trees and fruits in the jungle are the objects of their expression, so they can create a variety of plant and flower patterns with different themes and styles.

In some areas of batik, plant patterns are used in conjunction with animal patterns, while in some regions plant patterns are dominant. For example, the batik national handicrafts around the house are mostly small flower and leaf deformation patterns, and the leather batik national handicrafts also have a combination of bracken patterns and chrysanthemum patterns.

The batik patterns of the Miao people in Liuzhi, Nayong and other places are almost all smooth and beautiful pictures composed of flowers and vines. The extensive use of various plants and flowers in Guizhou batik not only because these are often seen in daily life, but also contain good wishes and hopes.

In Danzhai and Sandu batik, there are always many lotus flowers representing love, pomegranates metaphorically many seeds, and peaches implying longevity around fish and birds; The fruit tree expresses abundant vitality, the gourd contains new life, the bean rice pattern symbolizes the five grains, and the flower pattern symbolizes youth.

On the ancestral flag of the Rongjiang River, there is often a big tree at the head of the flag, which is a symbol of ancestor worship. Many Miao villages have several large maple trees, which are regarded as sacred trees by the Miao people, and become the "mother tree" or "baozhai tree", which is the protector of the whole village.

"The Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Great Wilderness South Classic" contains: "Chiyou abandoned its shackles and regarded it as maple", therefore, the Miao people believe that the maple tree is the embodiment of Chiyou and is the place where the ancestral spirit is. The maple sap is red, and the Miao people believe that the maple tree is the embodiment of Chiyou and the place where the ancestral spirit is located.

The maple sap is red, and the Miao people believe that it is the blood of Chiyou. The ancient songs of the Miao nationality use a lot of space to describe the origin and function of maple: it "grows in heaven", "branches all over the world", can "bear a thousand kinds of seeds, bloom a hundred kinds of flowers", it also incarnates all things, sawn wood becomes fish roe, sawdust becomes bees, tree buds become moths, leaves become swallows, and the heart of the tree gives birth to human mothers ---- butterfly mothers.

In some Miao areas, when building houses, it is customary to use maple as the central pillar, because the people there believe that maple wood gives birth to people and can be used as a central pillar to ensure the prosperity of their descendants. The animal patterns of Guizhou batik mainly appear in the Miao and Gejia batik ethnic handicrafts, especially the Miao people in southeast and south Guizhou, who created mythical animal shapes according to the animal prototypes in nature.

But these classic graphics are not fixed images like the dragon and phoenix patterns of the Han people, but are ever-changing according to the imagination of Miao women.

Birds are the most common theme in Miao batik handicrafts, especially in Rongjiang, Sandu, Danzhai and other regions in southern Guizhou, almost every batik ethnic handicraft is inseparable from birds, and the shapes are varied.

In the Danzhai batik ethnic handicrafts, the bird body is often combined with butterfly flowers and plants, which is vivid and lively; In the Rongjiang batik national handicrafts, the bird's head and the dragon body are combined to form a bird dragon pattern, which is mysterious and peculiar. The prevalence of bird culture is related to the natural conditions of many birds in the mountains and forests in the life of the Miao people.

Although the Han people also like birds, they mostly appreciate the beauty of their form or take their auspicious meaning, and do not give them the status of idols. The "Xuanniao" of totem worship of the ancient Shang people has evolved into a phoenix after continuous development and evolution in the Han culture, and gradually lost the worship of the Xuanniao, but in the Miao culture, there is still a totem worship concept and behavior similar to the Xuanniao.

The Miao people "don't cry when they die, laugh and dance and sing about the corpse, and when they hear the sound of the cuckoo next year, they will close their doors and cry and say: 'The bird disturbs the year, and the death of the family will not return'", which is the scene of the Miao family singing the praise of the undead with laughter and dancing and singing; If you hear the cuckoo cry in the second year, it is a sign that the spirit of the dead has not yet taken the form of a bird, so you should close your door and weep.

The dragon pattern is the most common pattern in the Miao batik ethnic handicrafts, and its expression is divided into figurative and abstract. The dragon pattern of Anshun batik is an abstract shape composed of curves, while the dragon of Rongjiang is mostly a figurative pattern of a bird's head and a snake's body.

At the drum and Tibetan festival in Gaopai Village, Rongxinghua Township, every household has to use a long bamboo pole to hold a batik long flag to stand solemnly, and there are patterns such as bird dragon, ichthyosaurus, centipede dragon and so on on the flag, expressing their hope that their ancestors have become dragons and bless their descendants with peace and happiness.

The dragon is the symbol of the Chinese nation, is the ancient totem, after the gradual evolution of the dynasties, the dragon has formed a solemn and majestic standard image fixed, and has become a symbol of imperial power.

However, ethnic minority women in Guizhou, who live in an equal rights society, still depict imaginary dragons according to their own understanding of life and aesthetic concepts. They believed that dragons were snakes, eels, fish, and buffaloes, which could make the earth smooth and lively.

The dragon patterns on the batik handicrafts in Guizhou are diverse, simple and natural, and there is no specific form, which is very different from the dragon of the powerful society of the Han nationality, showing a strong sense of civilianism.

Fish patterns can be seen in batik all over Guizhou, and the form is different. The fish pattern of the leather family is full of shape, neat and fine; The fish patterns of Danzhai are mostly symbiotic with bird patterns and flower patterns, which are lively and vivid; The fish pattern of the gold-woven batik ethnic handicraft has evolved into an abstract and complex curved shape.

In the Rongjiang batik, the fish is given a mysterious color and becomes an ichthyosaur. Fish is a creature with the strongest reproductive ability, and has always been regarded as a symbol of fertility, and it is also a sacred object of reproduction worshiped by the Central Plains people in ancient times.

Fish are closely related to the life of the Miao people. The ancestors of the Miao nationality once lived in Dongting Water Town, and still maintain the living habits of raising fish in rice fields, and there are still fish sacrifices in traditional customs. Take a look at the latest chapters of "Dream Claw Book House in the Great Era" and read it for free for the first time.