Looking For Fashion Elements In National Costumes: Zhuang Frog Pattern Ornaments And Costume Language

The so-called color language refers to the symbol system that combines color and meaning as a means of information transmission in human society. Compared with general language, they have something in common: both are social phenomena; Are means of transmitting information; It is a symbol system. The color language of ethnic minorities is equivalent to dialect, which has its special derivation, existing national cultural background and evolution process. The following will take the color of Zhuang costumes as a cultural symbol and a language to explore the laws, intentions, and social and cultural connotations of the color of Zhuang costumes, so as to enhance people's understanding and understanding of the color of Zhuang costumes, which is conducive to the absorption, inheritance and development of Zhuang costume culture.

1、 Zhuang Clothes & Accessories characteristic

Zhuang is the most populous ethnic minority in China, mainly distributed in Guangxi, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Shinan Province, Lianshan in Guangdong, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture and Qujing Prefecture, as well as Congjiang in Guizhou and Jianghua in Hunan. Due to the decisive influence of geographical climate, environment, economic culture and other factors, the clothing of ethnic minorities in southern China has created its specific base wood pattern, that is, the clothing of men and women are mostly short clothes, shorts, skirts, leggings, long shirts, trousers and other shapes. Zhuang costumes, as an important part of them, combined with different opening ways of neckline, skirt type (tube skirt, pleated skirt), color, clothing accessories, hairstyle and other variable elements, formed Zhuang costumes that not only have the commonness of ethnic costumes in southern China, but also have national characteristics.

The men's and women's clothing styles of the Zhuang nationality are mainly blue and black dresses and pants style shorts. According to Gu Yanwu in the Qing Dynasty's "The Book of Long Xiajun's Beneficial Diseases", "Zhuang people wear short skirts with flowered clothes. Men wear short shirts, named Litong. The front and back of the waist can not cover the knee, and women wear Litong with flowered steamed buns."

The Zhuang men usually wear a round neck jacket with a pair of front or right lapel, wide pants, a belt, some leggings, and blue, black, blue or white turbans. Women's clothing has different characteristics everywhere, which is more complex and vivid than men's, and can better reflect the national style and local characteristics of Zhuang's clothing. Zhuang women usually dress in blue and black, wear wide leg pants, tube skirts or batik pleated skirts, wear delicate aprons or short aprons at the waist, wrap black or flowered headscarves, and wear embroidered shoes, which makes them look dignified, decent, simple and generous. Women's blouses can be divided into two types: opposite front and partial front (some have colorful flower patterns embroidered on the neck, cuffs and bottom of the front). 1 Guangnan Zhuang women wearing silver ornaments are different from collars and collars. There are also two schools: most areas are waist length, such as Longlin, Pingguo, Wuming, Funing and other areas. In Lingshi, Leye, Longzhou and other counties, women's blouses are knee length. Zhuang women generally like to wear silver ornaments such as earrings, bracelets and collars. The dress colors and small ornaments are slightly different from place to place.

2. Analysis of Zhuang's dress color The Zhuang's dress color is mainly blue and black, and women's dress color is matched with a small amount of five colors on this basis, which is a typical dress color and color matching method of the Zhuang people. According to the characteristics of Zhuang people's clothing colors, the clothing colors are divided into two different color groups to explain the semantics and functions of different color groups and their coordination.

（1） Exorcism and blessing

The Zhuang people's clothing is still green and black, which originated from the totem worship of the ancestors of the Zhuang people. Zhuang people own the worship of snake totem, bird totem and frog totem. The note in Shuowen Insect Department reads: "Southern Barbarians, snake species." The Zhuang people call themselves the descendants of snakes and worship snakes as totems, which shows their reverence and worship for snakes. Zhuang ancestors respected birds as ancestors and gods. The Zhuang people in Wenshan area said that the crow was a sister-in-law and respected as the sister-in-law goddess. The "Wu Jing" named the crow sister-in-law, which showed the traces of its bird totem worship. In the history of the Zhuang nationality, the frog totem is the most striking thing. The Zhuang nationality in Donglan and Fengshan of Guangxi still have the "Frog Mother Festival", and a grand frog sacrifice ceremony is held every year. In addition, the Zhuang people in Shinan still dance bronze drums and carve frogs on drums, which are also the remains of frog totem rituals.

Green snakes, crows and frog bells are blue and black, which is the color of Zhuang totem. Color wood is embedded in totem objects. People use color when they use totem objects to protect them. As the color of the intangible combination part that cannot be separated from the totem object, the function of harnessing evil spirits and praying for the totem endowed with it is also the inevitable choice for the expansion and evolution of the totem worship concept. The color of the totem object is as sacred as the wooden body of the totem object, which is believed by the ancestors of the Zhuang nationality. Therefore, for them, cyan and black have the value of beauty because of the totem concept they carry.

The ancestors of Zhuang nationality had the custom of tattoo, which was also closely related to totem worship. It has been recorded in the Huai Nan Zi Tai Zu Xun by Liu An of the Han Dynasty that Yue people (including ancestors of Zhuang and Dai nationalities) "have few things to do on the road and many things to do on the water", so they use indigo tattoos to avoid harm. Gao Yinzhu said: "Tattoos are carved into the body, and if you touch them, they will look like dragons, and they will not hurt you." "Tattoos" are a way of body decoration for Zhuang ancestors. In the primitive society, which lives by fishing and hunting, they have the function of protecting human ancestors from external damage and are also an artistic expression of totem ideas. Tattooing is an extreme behavior taken by Zhuang ancestors in a passive living environment, at the cost of hurting their own bodies. With the improvement of production capacity, the production mode of collecting ripples and hunting for a living has gradually been replaced by the farming civilization of building houses, settling down and domesticating poultry. Clothes that also have protective function in daily life become the extension and disguised existence of tattoos of Zhuang ancestors. It is an ideal choice to combine the physiological protection function of clothing with the spiritual and psychological peace seeking function of black and blue color, which is also a profound reflection of the national psychology of Zhuang ancestors to pray for a better life.

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（2） Aesthetic intention

The color selection of Zhuang costumes is the overall choice of the society, which is practical and utilitarian. The aesthetic function of color cannot be exempt from the pressure of this "rationality", and can only express itself quietly in the gap. However, as a form of color language, color, after all, has its own unique aesthetic function. No matter what social stage human development is in, the aesthetic needs derived from human nature cannot be ignored and erased. Although Zhuang women's clothing colors are mostly blue, black and blue, the contrast of other decorative colors in key parts is based on aesthetic needs. Perhaps the patterns in these parts are derived from some totems or imitations of general natural shapes, but this does not affect that the appearance of decorative colors is due to the non utilitarian intention of Zhuang ancestors.

As we all know, the Zhuang brocade hand woven by Zhuang women is colorful and dazzling. There is a legend that long ago, when the sun rose when the Zhuang girl Dani Mei was weaving, there was a spider web of dew hanging under the eaves. It was very beautiful. Dani sister weaves the spider web into a magnificent brocade. As other Zhuang girls competed to imitate, Zhuang brocade became popular. Bai people prefer white, while Bai girls wear red, green, white and yellow colored phoenix hats. It is said that it was given by Phoenix and imitated by later generations. Such myths and legends are found in almost all ethnic groups. It can be seen from the mountain that people of all ethnic groups, in order to add some color and beauty to their clothes, create some legends, and describe the adjustment and matching of clothing colors as the will of some gods or gods. In other words, the choice of color in the primary society is not determined by individuals, but a unified behavior under the control of the collectivism concept of the whole nation. To gain the recognition of the whole society through the power of God is to deny the tradition through the tradition, and to achieve the improvement of color combination and collocation with a circuitous compromise attitude, and to move towards a realm where history is reasonable and conforms to the aesthetic law.

（3） Marked the social belonging of individuals

Zhuang costumes color language is used as a social belonging symbol of social members. It can indicate individual social roles, such as branch, gender, age and marital status, and can be used for social identification, identity and relationship determination.

The local chronicles of the Ming and Qing dynasties recorded that the Zhuang people in the Yunnan Guangxi junction area had branches such as Sha people and Shangliao. However, Sha people "prefer color to clothing", including Baisha people, Heisha people and others "Tannan Tongzhi". Shangliao can be divided into Huashang Liao, White Shangliao and Black Shangliao. The color of the two clothing bells is still blue and black. Only Huashang Liao women "embroider short brown flowers" ("Pu'er Prefecture Annals"). The white Shangliao women's skirts are inlaid with white cloth on the left and right, and the skirt feet are tied around the waist, which is a white herringbone ("Maguan County Annals"). Different clothing colors are used to mark the branch to which an individual belongs, making it clear at a glance.

The color language of Zhuang costumes has the function of identifying different genders, ages and marriage groups. The clothing colors of Zhuang men are mostly black, white and colorless, and dark series such as blue and blue, which show the rough, brave and energetic spirit of men. There is a clear difference between the colors of women's clothes and those of women who are dignified and generous. Women of Shangliao branch of the Zhuang nationality in Yuanyang, southern Yunnan, wrapped their heads with embroidered blue cloth before marriage, and after marriage, they used black headed handkerchiefs inlaid with silver bubbles. The Zhuang women in Shaozhao, Guangxi, wrapped their heads with white printed towels before marriage, and their collars were trimmed with red and green velvet threads. After marriage, they also added red and green trimmings to their sleeves. When they were old, they wore black clothes. In addition, Longsheng Zhuang women wore silver hats given by their grandmother when they were young, removed their hats and tied their heads with white cloth when they became adults, and changed their heads to black when they were old. The Zhuang women of different branches change the color of their clothes with the change of their roles, which shows the strict social convention of color language. At the same time, it can be seen that they have a subconscious attitude to the color language of clothing.

The choice and collocation of Zhuang costumes are strictly regulated by the intangible rules established by the mountain society. For individual members in the primary society, the beauty of their own clothing color is still a kind of beauty regulated by specific social culture. With the progress of society and the frequent and deepening exchanges with the outside world, LS has changed the original social and cultural environment and loosened the traditional social norms, so that the Zhuang people's dress concept has undergone a fundamental change. The Zhuang people of today have begun to determine their own clothing colors according to their own aesthetic standards, so the choice and matching of clothing colors has become unprecedented and diversified, and the original meaning of clothing colors has become increasingly diluted.