Does Luzhi's Water Village Dress Really Originate From Rice Culture?

Triangle Baotou, big plaid shirt, 100 pleat skirt, short crotch cloth pants...... In the water village area centered on Luzhi, this dress is a beautiful scenery. For the origin of women's clothing in water towns, the most common view is that this is the product of rice culture, which is suitable for women in water villages to engage in productive labor and has high practical value. However, the rice culture area in Suzhou is not confined to this small area. It is also located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Early rice remains were found at the Hemudu Site ruins in Yuyao, Tongxiang, Luojia, Tongxiang, Jiangxi, Wan Nen fairy cave, bucket ring and Hunan Yu Chan rock site, Hunan Lixian eighty ruins. Why is the dress of water village women originated from the rice culture only in the vicinity of Luzhi, but it has no trace in other rice culture areas? Apart from "women's dress in Luzhi water village", why is there a difference between "women's clothing in Wu Dong water village"? Apart from the explanation of rice culture, is there any other reason for the origin of women's dress in Luzhi's water village?

　 The similarity with Huian women's clothing is very high. Does it originate from ethnic migration?

Women standing in the water village dress often stand out in the crowd. Some people call them "ethnic minorities in Suzhou". Zhou Minsen, director of the Luzhi style sports center, has been paying close attention to women's clothing in Luzhi for decades. His heart has always had an idea: is this dress really related to ethnic migration and cultural exchanges? Zhou Minsen told reporters that in the 80s of last century, a group of experts from Nanjing Museum came to investigate this dress in Luzhi area. The result of the study is that Wu is typical and representative of the working people's clothing, but some experts said at the time: this dress is very similar to some folk costumes.

Since then, Zhou Min Shen has never forgotten this. Until 2006, the women's clothing in Luzhi's Watertown was selected as the first batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage. He saw the same group of selected Fujian Quanzhou Huian women's costumes. Reporters opened the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, Luzhi waterfront women's costumes and Hui Annv costumes from the photos there are many similarities: the same is the main color of Tibetan blue, with broken flowers as a common pattern, with splicing as the main process, the same head ornaments are highly concerned. In recent years, Zhou Minsen has been trying to find opportunities to dialogue with Huian local cultural people. In June this year, the first national dance Invitation Competition was held in Luzhi. contact Go to Huian and ask if the other party has the custom of playing Lian box: "I hope to take this opportunity to talk about the topic of dress." However, to his regret, the Huian area did not have the tradition of Lian Xiang.

But this phenomenon can not help but think of the phenomenon of the prevalence of Henan dialect in Wujiang's Wanping town. Although it is in the Wu dialect area, the local people use Henan dialect as the main communication language, forming a unique "dialect island". According to expert investigation, this is because Wanping used to be a reed in East Taihu. Until the late Qing Dynasty, some people began to settle here. The first pioneers were refugees from Henan. Will there be a similar history behind the women's clothing in Luzhi's Watertown? Reporters have investigated more than 70 years old people in the locale, but it seems that apart from the differences in clothing, the residents in the Luzhi area are not very different from other Wu culture districts in terms of language, habits and customs, and diet customs. Besides, in the local town records, reporters have not found clues related to ethnic migration.

If the "national migration theory" can be established, it must also explain another phenomenon: why is the traditional costumes of men in this area similar to the Han Han costumes of some areas in Zhejiang? Nowadays, the dress of women in the water country is familiar to the world, but few people know that before the 70s of the last century, most men in the Luzhi area were accustomed to wearing special costumes. The clothes of men in the water village include big skirts, skirts, felt hat and so on. Woman The style of dress is the same, but the color is deep and partial. The most typical image of a man in the water village is Ye Shengtao's "overcharging 35 Dou": "the morning sun shone down from the broken bright tile ceiling, and the light pillar fell on the old felt hat that was shaking outside the counter." In Northern Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang, especially in Shaoxing, there are many similarities between the styles of the older generation and the men's dress in Luzhi, but as we all know, they are all Han costume.

　　 Is the element of "ethnic minorities" coincidental, originates from the aesthetic and occlusion traffic of the local people?

It seems that only using the "national migration theory" to explain the unique style of women's clothing in watertowns is still lacking a certain factual basis as a support. While the reporters interviewed in the local area, some locals did not agree with the saying "Suzhou's ethnic minorities". They thought it was a concept imposed by the outside world. The dress of women in Luzhi's water village was the result of the collective creation of one hundred percent local Han people. Yan Huanwen, a 70 year old straight man, studied the local culture for more than 30 years, especially for the women's clothing in Luzhi's water village. The family has collected over 100 sets of various styles of water village clothing. In Yan Huanwen's view, this kind of water village dress is a pure Han culture. It originates from the local people's unique aesthetics. If it is so different from the style of the surrounding dress, this is probably related to the local traffic.

Wuzhong District used to be a part of Wuxian. At that time, the western part of Wuxian was dominated by hilly landforms, while the eastern part of Wuxian was dominated by the Central Plains grain fields. However, there are very few grain fields in Eastern Wu. Most of them are rotten fields. They are not suitable for planting rice. Local people begin to grow cash crops, which is the "Eight Immortals" that we are familiar with now. This area is located on the banks of the Wusong River in the Chenghu Lake Basin, surrounded by waterways, which is relatively closed. Along with this block area extending outward, the closer to the outside world, the lighter traces of women's clothing in water towns are still different from the common styles of clothing in other regions. Therefore, in the past, the locals, apart from "women's clothing in the water village of Luzhi", were more accustomed to using the concept of "women's clothing in Wu Dong Shui township".

The more closed the geographical position and the brighter the dress style, is this really the reason for the unique dress of women in the water village? Zhu Yok and his son were the first drivers and conductors on the bus to the outside world in Luzhi. Before that, they wanted to go to other places to do the work. They needed rocking boats. At that time, it would take more than three hours to shake the door. In 1982, the first bus number was 18, and the time for the train to go to the goal gate was shortened to 2 hours. "If we say that the distinctive features of the clothing of the water village are related to the occlusion environment, I will believe it." Zhu Youzhi told reporters.

Because the traffic is not smooth, the history has been isolated from the outside world, resulting in the unique temperament of the water village clothing. temperament Some local people believe that this is closely related to their ingenuity and pursuit of beauty. Miya Aji, a 72 year old woman, learned from her elders to dress in the water town and wore this dress for life. In her memory, this is a necessity for every family. When a girl is 13 years old, she can learn to dress in the water town after she can climb a small family. This is the most important thing, because this is actually a stage for women's families to compete with each other in skills and beauty. "We all like beautiful and bright colors. Like many old people in Luzhi, the palace lady still needs to dress carefully in order to make her eyebrow and moisten her lips.

In July 2000, women's clothing in Luzhi's water village took part in the first China national costumes fair in Kunming, China, and won the best design award, best performance award, outstanding Exhibition Award and excellent organization award. Yan Huanwen told reporters that the organizers of the Expo must be pure ethnic costumes. The relevant departments in Jiangsu province screened the pure Han style in the whole province, and finally determined the dress of women in Luzhi Watertown. "Experts believe that this is the purest Han costume." Yan Huanwen knows that this is the affirmation of the pure lineage of water village clothing.

"Golden Triangle district" basically coincides with the site of rocking City, and the rocking city.

Old customs?

If we open up the map of Suzhou, we will mark the distribution of women's clothing in water towns one by one. It is easy to find that with Luzhi as the center, there are Sheng Pu, Wei Ting, Zhengyi, and car shops in the south. Among these three places, Luzhi, Katsuura and Che Fang are very similar. These clothes are very similar, with the most outstanding style and the most meticulous workmanship. They are called the "Golden Triangle district" of women's clothing in the water village.

Zhou Minsen has made a deep comparison and study of the women's clothing in the "Golden Triangle district" and the surrounding areas. It will vary according to the age of the wearer, and the top of the surrounding area will be covered with cotton cloth. The corners on both sides will widen to 60 degrees, and then extend outward to Zhouzhuang and Wei Ting area. It is only a piece of cloth, which is called "Baotou towel" instead of "Baotou". From the overall color of the dress, the color of the "Golden Triangle area" is the most colourful and splicing element. From the point of view of the decoration of Baotou, the outer area only uses one belt to tie the Baotou, while the "Golden Triangle area" has a tassel with exquisite collocation in addition to the belt. From the most typical Baotou, the top of Baotou in Golden Triangle district is all black, with 30 corners on both sides, like the tail of a swallow, and the color of the corner.

What's more, the geographical location of the "Golden Triangle district" basically coincides with the site of the rocking city. The roccheng site, also known as the Chenghu site, is located on the West Bank of Chenghu lake, at the junction of Che Fang, Luzhi, Wujiang and Kunshan. In 1974, a large number of ancient cultural sites were found at the bottom of the lake when the lake was built. In 2009, a large number of monuments were found in the northeast of Chenghu lake. The culture of rocking city ruins is a typical rice culture, which coincides with the commonly accepted "water village women's dress originated from rice culture". Zhou Minsen told reporters that it is very likely that women's clothing in Watertown is related to some old customs of shaking City 5500 years ago, and this custom is not elsewhere, which can explain why clothes like women's clothing style in Luzhi's water village are not budding in other rice culture regions.