Taijiang County is located at the northern foot of Leigong Mountain, the main peak of Miaoling Mountain in the central part of Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and on the south bank of Qingshui River. It borders Jianhe County in the southeast, Leishan in the southwest, Kaili in the west, and Huangping and Shibing in the north. The overall terrain drops steeply from southwest to northeast. The Qingshui River surrounds the northern end of the county. The Bala River, Wengni River, and Wengmi River flow from south to north and east and flow into the Qingshui River. Along the way, there are cascading waterfalls and rapids, and the landscape is very magnificent. There are nearly a hundred streams and rivers that cut the land of the county very deeply and fragmented, forming medium mountains, low-medium mountains, medium-low mountains, and low mountains. The mountains are lush and the forests are verdant. The territory belongs to the northern subtropical monsoon climate zone. The climate is mild, the rainfall is abundant, there is no severe cold in winter and no scorching heat in summer, the soil is fertile, and the products are rich. Due to the role of the natural barrier formed by Taijiang's unique geographical environment and natural conditions, the Miao culture in Taijiang is relatively well preserved. The Miao population in Taijiang County accounts for more than 98% of the total population of the county, and it is known as the "No. 1 Miao County in the World". For thousands of years, the Miao people have created a brilliant and colorful Miao folk culture on this land. Miao costumes are a brilliant pearl in the Miao culture of Taijiang. Due to the lack of written records, the origin of Miao costumes is unknown, but the "bird chapter flower clothing" in the Tang Dynasty should be the earliest Chinese document record of Miao costumes, which has a history of more than 1,000 years. According to the "Miao Ancient Songs" circulated in Taijiang, the Yang surnamed Miao people in Fanpai Village, Fangzhao Township, Taijiang County have settled here for 45 generations, which is more than 1,100 years based on 25 years per generation. Taijiang Miao costumes can be roughly divided into nine types, including Fangni type, Fangjiu type, Fangnan type, Fangweng type, Fangli type, Fangbai type, Fangxiu type, Wengmang type, and Houshao type, with more than 100 styles, distributed in more than 180 Miao villages in eight towns in Taijiang County and Miao villages in neighboring counties and cities. Miao clothing in Taijiang includes most of the sub-series of the three major series of Miao long skirts, medium skirts and short skirts. Among all types of clothing, women's clothing has the most cultural connotations. Among them, embroidered patterns such as butterflies and golden pheasants are the clan emblems, and the ox horn shape of silver jewelry is the symbol of the totem. Among them, the Fangni type is a typical representative. Fangni type women's accessories are divided into children's clothing, youth clothing and elderly clothing. The youth clothing has the most cultural heritage. After the age of sixteen, Fangni Miao women will roll up a bun, which is rolled counterclockwise into a spiral cone bun on the top of the head, and a yellow half-moon-shaped wooden comb is inserted horizontally at the root of the bun. When wearing casual clothes, they wrap a rectangular headscarf made of light blue checkered cloth, tied under the comb, rarely showing their hair, and wearing round bull nose or plum blossom-shaped earrings. When dressed up, they wrap a harder - color rectangular headscarf on their heads, paying attention to the corners and straight lines. The two corners of the scarf are crossed above the comb and pinned with a needle to form a swallowtail shape, which is called "Fudaiji". When wearing silver ornaments, they do not wrap their headscarves, but wear a silver crown, with silver hairpins and silver horns (in the shape of ox horns) inserted in front, a silver hairpin on the right, and a silver comb in the back. Their hair is filled with silver flowers and pearl chains of various shapes such as phoenixes, flowers and fruits; they wear two or three collars and necklaces around their necks, which are as high as their chins, and even cover their mouths. They wear a waist-shaped lock-type "pressed collar" on their chests, with embossed dragon and phoenix patterns. Their tops are large-collared half-body clothes, with short and large sleeves, rolled up sleeves, and the back hem is slightly longer than the collar. There are floral decorations on the sleeves, shoulders, collars, etc., and the collar is tilted backwards, which is called "Ouba" in Miao language. Old women like to use flat embroidery for casual clothes, that is, using green silk thread to embroider leaves or small flowers on blue or green cloth to form a regular continuous pattern for sleeves and other floral decorations. Old women like to wear formal clothes, and they like to wear new clothes with small coarse flowers and geometric patterns made of yarn flat embroidery. Young women wear large flowers, large patterns, densely packed flowered clothes, silver clothes and "collars". The colors of flower decoration are mainly red and green. They like red clothes with green flowers, light blue clothes with cauliflower and dog-tooth petals inlaid with bright copper pieces. They combine the techniques of braiding, braiding, crepe, lock, pile, brocade, winding, weaving, flat, cross, and applique. Silver clothes are made of dozens of square, rectangular, and round silver shoulder pieces, silver back corner pieces, silver bubbles, and small silver bells, which are crisscrossed and inlaid on the corresponding parts of the clothes. The silver decoration patterns include figures, flowers, birds and animals, and geometric figures. The waist is tied with a silver flower belt. The skirt is a barrel-shaped pleated skirt; it is longer than other places, covering the ankles, and has no flower decoration. When dressed up, some people wear a piece of embroidered belt skirt over the pleated skirt, which is called "Gu Luo skirt", which is called "Kuda" in Miao language. The skirt is surrounded by an apron scarf, about 48 cm wide, with various patterns on the scarf, mostly geometric woven patterns or thick embroidery. The elderly use plain scarves without patterns, and wear hollow openwork bracelets, solid carved bracelets and plow rope bracelets, etc. They usually wear two or three pairs. For the Fangjiu type, the way women tie their hair is the same as the Fangni type. The hair in front of the head is turned out to form a wide surface, which is convenient for inserting silver corners or covering the headscarf to form a flat surface. Usually the head is bare, and in ancient times, it is wrapped with a diagonally folded rectangular green scarf, which is not much different from the Fangni type. The women's clothing of the Fangnan type is complex and diverse, and they pay attention to hairstyles. They often use several bundles of wigs to tie their real hair into a bun, and the bun is tied into two circles on both sides, which is called "Eagle Eye Bun". A silver hairpin in the shape of a dragon head is inserted horizontally on the right side, a silver chisel or silver flower is inserted in the bun, and a large silver comb is inserted behind the bun. For casual wear, a rectangular patterned scarf is woven with red, green, blue, white, and blue cotton yarn and silk thread to wrap the head (when wrapping, it is folded three or four times along the edge, about two inches wide. It is wrapped around the head from the forehead to the counterclockwise direction, and after the two ends are crossed, the scarf is folded and inserted into the forehead to tie it tightly). The bun and comb are exposed after the bun. For formal wear, there is no headscarf, but a silver flower belt. The silver flower belt is very exquisite, with silver made into patterns such as mantis, butterfly or horse, and then it is woven and nailed to a piece of white cloth, with silver phoenix inserted, and decorated with large earrings of about two taels. The top is a short dress with a large collar and right lapel, similar in appearance to the square-shaped one, but the sleeves and lapels are shorter than the square-shaped one, and there are two colors: red and blue. Casual clothes are mostly blue, and dark blue is the main color. Dark colors such as brown, purple and black are appropriately used to intersect with the branches and sections of the patterns, or used on the small corners of some patterns. Clothes with blue floral decorations are called "Ou Sha", which means dark clothes. For formal clothes, red is preferred as floral decorations, that is, vermilion is the main color, and some light yellow, white, purple or rose red are used on some small corners or edges of the patterns. It is called "Ou Tao", which means bright clothes. Embroidery prefers to use broken thread embroidery, flat flower picking, brocade, piled flowers and other methods. The patterns include geometric figures and various animals, flowers, etc. Dragons, phoenixes, elephants and lions occupy an important position in the patterns. Among the floral and silver ornaments, there are patterns such as "Danfeng Chaoyang", "Lion Rolling Embroidered Ball", "Two Dragons Playing with Pearls", "Pine and Crane Twins", "Butterfly Mother", "Jiang Yang Shooting the Sun" and "Wu Mao Xi". The female headdress of the Fangweng type is basically the same as the Fangnan type. After folding a rectangular checkered cloth handkerchief along the edge, wrap it around the head in a clockwise direction (the opposite of the Fangni type), leaving most of the hair bun exposed. However, the hair bun is larger than the Fangnan type, and the bottom of the bun is slightly dragged back and down. The top is a large collar (without a small collar), a left-fronted half-skirt, long, covering the hips, and the collar is slightly tilted. The sleeves are narrow, and the sleeves of winter clothes are longer, covering the wrists. There are three water patterns at the junction of the skirt and the corners of the clothes. There is a flowered handkerchief in front of the skirt, which is the same length as the skirt. The skirt belt has tassels, and the leg wrapping cloth has striped patterns, mostly vermilion, with yellow woven edges, wrapped from the ankle to the knee, leaving colorful silk exposed in front of the calf. The shoes and socks are the same as those of the Fangnan type. Girls' clothing is the most distinctive. In summer, the sleeves are plain, and two strips of embroidered yarn about 2 to 3 cm wide are pinned horizontally on the shoulders. Some are pinned in a cross shape. In winter, the back of the jacket is attached with a piece of geometric pattern embroidered with yarn, which occupies about two-thirds of the back. It is called "Oujiang", which means wild cat clothes. It is not worn after the age of fifteen or sixteen. The casual clothes of the Fangweng type are not much different from those of the Fangnan type. The silver ornaments are not as gorgeous as those of the Fangnan type and the Fangni type. Generally, there are only two or three pairs of bracelets, two silver chains and two collars, a pair of earrings, a silver comb, and one or two silver sparrows. The head wrap of Fangli women is about 10 cm wide and 3 meters long. The cloth is folded into three overlapping edges on one side of the cloth. The whole scarf is folded into a width of about 6 cm. The hair is not tied into a bun. Some people use a net to cover it, coil it on the top of the head, and then wrap the scarf, wrap it from top to bottom and then upward. After wrapping, it is about 10 cm high. Some scarves are also covered with a net on the outside. The outer end of the scarf is usually embroidered with 3 cm wide floral decorations, and attached with 6 or 7 cm long silk tassels of various colors as plugs. Young women often wrap flower scarves bought from the market in casual clothes; they do not wrap scarves in formal clothes, but insert silver hairpins, silver hairpins, and silver crowns, and wear large wreaths or plum blossom-shaped earrings. The collar is tied with a round buckle, which is connected by a small collar. The round buckle has patterns on it, which is different from each type and unique. The necklaces and bracelets are the same as each type. Women's tops are long, with a wide collar and right lapel, half-length clothes. The front of the clothes is slightly longer than the back. The sleeves are about 21 cm wide and folded slightly when worn. The clothes are attached with a woven flower about 10 cm long and wide, extending from the front through the fork to the back. There is a small section in the middle of the back. The collar flower is generally about 12 cm wide, and the chest flower decoration is about 15 cm wide. The collar is slightly tilted backward. This type of embroidery is more common. Both formal and casual clothes have flower decorations. The difference lies in the number of flower decorations and the coarseness and fineness of the craftsmanship. The embroidery method is mainly embroidery, with piled flowers, cross-stitching and brocade. The patterns are mostly water cloud patterns, with flowers and plants as the main content, followed by birds and butterflies. The colors are green and red, with very little yellow. Wear a half-length skirt that covers the calf. Wear a plain skirt for daily wear, and a circle of woven flowers about 7 cm wide is attached to the hem of the formal skirt. The apron for casual wear is made of blue cloth without flower decorations; the formal wear is made of satin cloth with flower decorations. Male elders with square and white hair keep their hair in a small bun. Young people usually keep a circle of short hair about 0.2 meters above their heads. They like to wear a long scarf about 4.8 meters long and 0.5 meters wide. When they wear it, they wrap it neatly in circles, like a small bamboo hat. They like to use silver ornaments, such as thin silver chains and bracelets, and hang silver toothpicks around their waists. Their tops are short clothes with a collarless front and right lapel, covering their navels. They wear a self-woven blue and white checkered belt around their waists, about 2.7 meters long. The trouser legs of the elderly are very large, about 0.4 meters wide, while those of the young are slightly narrower, generally 0.27 meters to 0.4 meters. Women's tops are short clothes with a collarless front and right lapel, without collars or flowers, and are longer than their abdomens. The sleeves are narrow, as long as the cups of the hands, and the back hem is longer, covering the lower edge of the skirt, and is used as a back scarf, called "tail clothes". The skirt covers the knees and has no flowers. A plain apron with a red scarf is attached to the front. A flower belt is nailed to the two corners of the scarf to tie the waist and knot it at the back. Except in summer, the legs are usually wrapped. The leg wraps are made of narrow red cloth, about two feet long. The characteristics of Fangbai type clothing are that there is very little embroidery. The clothes and skirts are not decorated with flowers. They are relatively simple. Only the silk flower belt is used as the apron and head scarf to tie the waist. The colors of the flower belt are mainly rose red, green, golden yellow, blue, white, etc., and the patterns are all white. Most of the patterns belong to the three categories of "fern leaves", "hooks" and "window grids". Fangxiu type women wear a bun and a rectangular blue cloth scarf, which is a triangle with a sharp top and a wide bottom. A crescent-shaped wooden comb is inserted behind the bun. The earrings are the same as those of Fangnan type. They do not wear headscarves when they are dressed up. There are fewer silver ornaments. The "silver plate" on the head is the same as that of Fangbai type. The silver comb is the same as that of Fangni type. The bracelets, necklaces and silver chains are the same as those of other types. The top is a pure blue right-fronted garment with a large collar and a white cloth border. There is basically no embroidery on the garment, except for the fork and the two corners of the hem, where red, green and yellow silk threads are crossed to pick some "patterns". When wearing formal clothes, five or six woven flower belts are tied to show their skills. The blue hundred-fold skirt is tied to the calf. Some women have a piece of white cloth with blue silk thread embroidery on the cuffs, which is exposed when worn. Women of the Wengmang type wear a cloud bun and a rectangular-colored headscarf on the outside, leaving the bun and comb exposed. They wear round earrings with a diameter of four or five centimeters, and the links are hung with lantern-shaped or butterfly-shaped silver flowers as big as fingers. The top is a collarless right-fronted short garment that covers the abdomen, with narrow sleeves and long wrists. There are copper buttons on the lapel, and a thin hundred-fold short skirt. The skirt foot is about 30 cm long from the skirt foot to the waist. After wearing it, the clothes cover most of it, revealing the skirt foot of about 10 cm. There is a flowered skirt handkerchief in front, about 50 cm long and 40 cm wide. Wengmang-style floral decorations are mainly used on aprons, belts, leggings, suspenders and children's hats. The main method is to embroider the pattern on the back and see it from the front, with white silk or cotton silk thread on the colored cloth. Children's handkerchiefs are appliquéd, and flower belts, belts and leggings are woven with colorful silk thread patterns. The patterns are usually mainly stripes, with some small square patterns attached. Belts and flower belts are more red, and leggings are dark gray. There are winter and summer colors. The winter leggings are about 190 cm long and 35 cm wide. They are only wrapped once and tied with flower belts after wrapping. Old women of the rear sentry type wrap their heads with blue cloth, while young and middle-aged women wrap their heads with a dark-colored cloth or white cloth, then wrap them with bright purple cloth, and then tie them with a light-colored handkerchief from back to front. Their hair is exposed on the top of their heads, and a silver hairpin is inserted horizontally on the bun. Young girls wear flat-topped flower hats with wrinkles on the top of the hats. There is a thumb-sized hole in the center of the hats, and several inches of colored silk threads are left around the hole. The edges of the hats are embroidered with multiple colored laces, mainly red. Formal dresses wear silver hats and silver flowers, small earrings, several silver necklaces on the chest, silver belts around the waist, and silver bracelets on the hands. For elderly women, the collars of their tops are connected, and they wear pleated skirts that reach the calves. They have two blue cloth aprons around the front and back, and wrap their legs with blue cloth in winter. The casual clothes of young and middle-aged women and girls are not much different from formal dresses. The collars of their tops are connected, the chests are crossed, and two blue cloth aprons are tied around the waist. Four colored ribbons hang behind them, about a foot long. They wear a hundred-fold skirt with many narrow red, yellow and purple laces at the bottom. The biggest feature of Taijiang Miao costumes is that they are based on skirts. The most common accessories are embroidery pieces, which are in the shape of butterflies, buffaloes, pheasants and fish. Among these shapes and patterns, the butterfly is a "hazy memory" of the "butterfly mother", the ancestor of mankind; the buffalo is the totem symbol of the "Ga Nao" branch of the Miao people; the pheasant is the clan emblem of the "Ga Nao" branch; and the fish is the Miao people's hope for a prosperous population. Among the embroidery arts of various ethnic groups in Guizhou, the embroidery art of Taijiang Miao costumes is the richest and most distinctive. Art master Mr. Liu Haisu highly praised the embroidery art of Miao costumes. He said: "The Miao women are ingenious in cutting clouds and moons: Suzhou embroidery and Hunan embroidery are comparable to them." Taijiang Miao costumes are a region in Guizhou where embroidery, silver jewelry and paper-cutting of ethnic minorities are relatively rich and concentrated. Embroidery on clothing is second to none in terms of its gorgeous shapes and exquisite craftsmanship. Among ethnic groups without written language, the various animals, plants, insects, gods and witches, buildings, abstract lines and geometric figures, and various patterns of clothing materials that commonly appear in the embroidery patterns of Miao clothing are all related to the Miao people's primitive beliefs and ancestor worship, and are often corroborated by other forms of Miao oral literature and art. The embroidery patterns on Taijiang Miao clothing are mostly centered on animals, mainly butterflies, mice, bats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, centipedes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, owls, magpies, pheasants, phoenixes, dogs, pigs, pangolins, rhinos, elephants, deer, lions, crabs, frogs, fish, shrimps, snails, etc., which almost completely inherit the themes and styles of the primitive art of ancient ancestors, reproduce the natural features of primitive people's lives, reflect the childish imagination and good wishes of human childhood, and shine with the attractive luster of primitive art. However, with the accelerated development of economic globalization, urbanization and modernization, Taijiang Miao clothing art is facing multiple impacts and is in an endangered state. It is mainly manifested in: the rapid development of modern industry and commodity economy has changed the stability and sustainable development of traditional Miao clothing art. The traditional Miao clothing art, which relies on agricultural civilization for survival, is facing the unprecedented misfortune of disappearing faster than ever in thousands of years; the impact of foreign culture has destroyed the development of the traditional inheritance concept of Miao clothing art; under the market economy, a large number of foreign personnel have purchased, and many valuable and precious Miao clothing art "single copies" have been lost overseas; with the continuous death of the older generation of Miao clothing art masters, the younger generation has lost a lot of practical skills in the traditional original Miao clothing art. According to the survey, Taijiang Miao women under the age of 50 have little knowledge of the color matching of embroidery thread in traditional Miao clothing art, and do not have a good grasp of traditional embroidery needlework. There are even fewer Miao women under the age of 40 who operate embroidery by hand, and most of the Miao women under the age of 30 do not understand the operating procedures of embroidery of Miao clothing art, nor do they want to learn embroidery techniques. In recent years, some Miao women have replaced traditional Miao hand embroidery with mechanical sewing machine embroidery. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)