On the shore of Erhai Lake in Cangshan Mountain, visit the Bai people’s tie-dying experience for thousands of years

After watching "Beauty Like a Picturesque" starring Dong Jie and Du Chun, what impressed me deeply was not the sadomasochistic love story between Jiang Jiayuan and Xu Hen, the so-called "half-mother" brothers and sisters, but the story about the relationship between Jiang Jiayuan and Xu Hen. In the plot related to dye, Hang Jingting pretended to be Jiang Xuewen, went to Yunnan to find blue dye, and gave birth to an illegitimate son Xu Fei with Xu Jin.

Many years later, in order to take revenge, Xu Hen's uncle Xu Lei secretly used blue dye to dye the five golden claws on the emperor's dragon robe sewn by Jiang Xuewen black, causing Jiang Xuewen to die.

This blue dye piqued my interest. I found some limited information and learned that it comes from Cangshan Mountain in Yunnan. It was originally wild isatis root excavated from the mountain, and its rhizomes were used to ferment several The moon is made into indigo mud, which is then made into blue dye.

Isatis root is not only a medicinal material, but also a natural dyer. It produces a kind of blue. The Bai people in Dali use it to make blue dye. It has been passed down from generation to generation. It is said that it has been passed down for more than a thousand years. .

Visiting Dali, tourists gathered in the ancient city. There were legends everywhere, such as the snow on Cangshan Mountain, the moon on Erhai Lake, the Eight Heavenly Dragons, and Pianpian Duan Gongzi. In order to explore the traditional tie-dye craftsmanship in the village, I went to Xizhou Town because of its fame. The Dyed Clothes Alley, but the old scene of dyeing clothes in ancient times is no longer there, which makes it feel inexplicably sad.

I rented a bicycle for ten yuan in Xizhou and headed straight to Zhoucheng, known as the town of tie-dye. The coordinates of Zhoucheng are at the northern end of Erhai Lake, at the foot of Nongyun Peak in Cangshan Mountain. The streets on both sides of the road are decorated with hanging pavements. Full of dyed cloth, this blue and white color tells the background of the leisurely life in the Bai village.

The first time I came to Zhoucheng, I went through a lot of circles. Tie-dying has become a disappearing skill. It is not easy to find the most traditional dyeing shop. Just when I was about to give up, I came across the corner. The beautiful woman who is tying flowers at the entrance of the tie-dye workshop is called Xiao An.

She stood up tall and graceful, greeted her cordially, and after chatting, I felt that she was a girl with a story. Alas, she was from Anhui, majoring in home decoration. She used to work in Xiamen, in order to learn tie-dying. , came to Zhoucheng alone, and Xiao An introduced them while showing them around their workshop.

Walking into the backyard, there was a Bai grandmother sitting on the second floor who was tying flowers. She introduced us to the local customs and pointed at the tie-dye cloth. When a child is born, he will be given something with this gossip pattern. Come and swaddle the newborn baby.

Most of the patterns of white flowers on a blue background are bees and butterflies. The bee is the mascot of the Bai people. It is called "Fu Dou" in the dialect and is a symbol of affluent life. Plucking a small bee is called "Zha" in the Bai people's dialect. "Fuzi"; and butterflies in various shapes and forms symbolize love and loyalty.

The Butterfly Spring near Zhoucheng is famous for its butterfly scenes. I heard a local driver say that he saw a butterfly hanging upside down once when he was a child. When the albizia trees on the Butterfly Spring bloomed, they attracted many butterflies. , as recorded in the book, "With beards and legs hanging upside down from the top of the tree, reaching the surface of the spring, it is colorful and full of five colors."

Today's Zhoucheng no longer has the glory of the past. Mainly small-scale family dyeing workshops, Xiao An said that they accept formal apprentices, and they need to have art skills, which can be put to use after learning. The tie-dying process is complicated and the production cost is high. The expensive handicrafts cannot be sold at a high price. Many The works are given to the villagers on a temporary employment basis, and they are paid by the piece or by the hour, while the dyeing process is left to the factory.

The tie-dying process is very complicated. It involves sixteen processes, one week to tie the flowers, one week to ferment the dye, and more than twenty times of dyeing. After dyeing, oxidation, and rinsing processes, it is impossible to make it. It's going to take a month.

My grandma said that stitching is the key. Tie-up is a stitch made one by one. How many millimeters of needle and thread are there? It hurts the eyes. This kind of stitching can only be done by young people. Old people have bad eyesight.

The art of tie-dye is between the ten fingers. The stitches used when tie-dying are different in tightness and the degree of repeated dyeing is different. Each work is unique.

Tie-dyed fabrics repeatedly dipped and dyed with the plant Isatis root have anti-inflammatory and health-care effects on the skin. Tie-dying with chemical dyes has low cost and gorgeous colors. It can be dyed once and has good sales. However, this dye The pollution to the environment is quite serious.

I once lingered on the "green jade valerian dress" in Tang poetry, and was fascinated by the Nanzhao dance team's "skirt with birds, beasts and vegetation, and the text was decorated with eight-color mixed leather", but now I am most amazed and appreciative What is more important is the thousand-year-old beauty of Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, the harmony with nature, the flowing fingertips, and the living art.