Hainan Island Li folk brocade, has a long history. In 2009, "Li Jin Technique" was included in UNESCO's first list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding.
Cover news reporters Hao Ying, Li Jiayu, Liang Jiaqi, Tian Xuejiao, and Liu Qiufeng
The Village of Mauna, inhabited by the Li ethnic group, is a village at the foot of the main peak of Hainan Wuzhi Mountain, surrounded by Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park. Walk into the village and just ask, "Who will weave brocade?" The villagers would point to the farmhouse at the end of the village.
It was Wang Yezhen's home, she was 40 years old, and she was one of the few in the village who knew a full set of Li Jin weaving skills. When Wang Yezhen was 10 years old, he watched his grandmother weaving Li brocade, and he was quite interested, so he stood next to the loom and watched his grandmother weave brocade. After marrying into Mauna Village, she also went out to work, but later chose to return to the village, set up a stall in front of her home to weave Li Brocade, and continue to "guard" her grandmother's skills.
Now there are women in the village who learn to weave brocade with her, and some people in the village marry their daughters-in-law, and they will also ask Wang Yechen to help make the wedding dress worn by the Li girls. Every year on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, Wang Yechen wears his own Li costume to dance the bamboo pole dance.
On May 27, Wang Yezhen caressed the pattern on his clothes that had not faded and deformed for more than ten years, and told the cover news: "Our Li Jin is very beautiful, it is not easy to weave well, after all, it is our culture, or we want to pass it on." ”
Learn the art with grandma
Wang Yezhen moved the loom out of the house and placed it on the stall. The stalls hung her own Li costumes, hanging bags, and tourists often rented her clothes to take pictures.
Wang Yechen uses a foot loom to weave brocade
Wang Yezhen remembers that when she was young, her grandmother always sat on the grass mat in front of her house, with a wooden stick across her waist and a foot on it, and the colorful cloth was propped open by two wooden sticks, and then spread on her legs, and the wooden stick and wooden knife in her hand went back and forth between the colored threads, and she could "change" a new set of clothes. As a young child, she would sometimes mess with her grandmother's threads, slightly older and more curious about what she was doing, always quietly leaning around to watch her busy.
After she grew up and understood things, she understood that her grandmother was weaving brocade, and those wooden sticks were the instruments of the loom at the waist, the waist force stick in front of the waist, the pull stick that the foot stepped on, and the jacquard was the round rod, like a large knife used to beat the weft. The warp and weft weave together, and the bright pattern falls on the cloth, and finally becomes her small tube skirt.
When Wang Yezhen was 10 years old, her grandmother began to teach her to tapestry, "At the beginning, it was very simple, a small piece of cloth, and there was no pattern. "Grandma tied the thread-wrapped loom to her waist, and taught her little granddaughter where to step on her feet and where to insert the weft knife." She is very patient, if Li Jin wants to knit a pattern, she will tell me to mention here, step by step, I see that she weaves more, and learns quickly. ”
She also remembers that when she was a child, she always heard her grandmother say that she would not have clothes to wear without brocade, and her generation lived in poverty, and even the thread of the brocade had to be spun by herself. "She'll loosen the cotton and rub it on her legs, one by one." Watching Grandma rub the spindle, the cotton strips were twisted into thin and long threads. "I'll take the wooden frame and help her wind the line, but it's still more troublesome." Wang Yezhen talked about his grandmother with a smile, and when he mentioned Li Jin, he always remembered his grandmother's gentle and patient teachings. From being attracted by the beautiful Li Jin in her hand to today's fine pattern, more than 20 years later, even if he can buy more styles of clothes when he grows up, Wang Yechen is still the same as when he was a child, thinking that Li Jin has made the most beautiful clothes.
Make a wedding dress for the bride
For the Li people, traditional costumes are required on important occasions in life, especially for marriage events.
"When we marry a daughter-in-law here, the mother-in-law must prepare a dress made of Li Jin, which must be worn for a lifetime, and everyone must have a set." Wang Yezhen took out his wedding dress introduction, the shoulder line, the hem of the dress are woven stripes, the tube skirt is made of a piece of Li brocade, and the headdress is woven with beads to weave the word "happiness". She is 40 years old and has worn clothes for more than a decade that are still bright as new. "This is not a li brocade that I have preserved well and woven well, it is already very strong, very durable, and it will not fade."
This bright color also comes from nature, and Wang Yezhen can no longer remember how grandma dyed the thread. Wang Xiuli, the non-hereditary heir of Li Jin in the next village, showed this process, pointing to the plants in the backyard and introducing, "This is blue indigo, you can dye blue, this is su mu, dye red, usually when you want to dye it, pick some at your own home." Wang Xiuli's family still has plants such as turmeric and chestnut tree bark, and clumps of dried colorful cotton threads hang on the wall, waiting to become the pattern in her hand.
Non-hereditary heir Wang Xiuli uses a loom loom to weave brocade
The walls of Wang Xiuli's studio are covered with tapestries woven by Li Jin, and in the room are the clothes she has made, "a set like this, the pattern is very complicated, and it takes half a year to weave it." "She pointed to a gorgeous Li wedding dress." Weddings, everyone likes to celebrate, made into red more, embroidered patterns are generally crabs, frogs, human patterns, implying that people are prosperous, children and grandchildren are full of halls. ”
Wang Yezhen is one of the few people in the village who can complete the weaving process, and the young man in the village marries his daughter-in-law and often asks her to help make wedding dresses, and he can earn 1,000 yuan for making a set. She makes wedding dresses quickly, and when she is not busy, she can finish the production in half a month. Li Jin's weaving skills are very complex, the two layers of warp threads are interspersed back and forth between the weft, if you want to weave a beautiful pattern, you must lift the colored thread in the right position, the strength should be uniform, and the woven cloth is neat and dense. Guests choose their favorite colors and patterns, and she can weave them. "I myself see a beautiful pattern to learn, delve into it myself, draw it on paper, and slowly look at it to weave it, which is very difficult because I like it to learn." 」 She said proudly.
The village of Mauna at the foot of Five Finger Mountain
Guard ancient skills
After setting up stalls at the market, the income from selling specialties was already good, and it took too much time and energy to weave a large piece of Li Jin, and she gradually stopped taking orders for wedding dresses. "Can't remember when the last time I picked up, doing this is very tiring, to be patient, focused, but also need to bow your head and bend over, causing a lot of burden to the body." So today's young people don't study, they are tired and difficult, and they can't make money. She sighed and said, "I have always insisted that it is because I like it, Li Jin is very beautiful, and it is our culture, and I want to pass it on." ”
"Li Jin's brilliance is like a cloud." Because of the bright colors and complex craftsmanship, the ancients once expressed such admiration for Li Jin. The patterns and patterns on the Li brocade have rich artistic connotations and cultural connotations, which are of great significance to the traditional cultural beliefs of the Li people. However, with more and more choices in clothing and fabrics, Li Jin gradually lost its competitiveness, and her skills were already endangered. In 2005, Hainan Province declared Li Jin a national intangible cultural heritage, and Li Jin was finally protected.
The village of Mauna surrounded by rainforest
As a non-hereditary heir, Wang Xiuli also assumed part of the responsibility of protecting the inheritance.
With the support of the Wuzhishan government, students in ShuimanXiang have an interest class called "Li Jin" to choose from. When Wang Xiuli hurried to the Shuimanxiang Central School after school, more than a dozen children were already sitting on the grass mat waiting for her, and they tied up the loom at the waist and continued to weave the patterns they had learned in the previous lesson. Each child held a dense piece of checkered paper in his hand, and after painting his favorite pattern on it, Wang Xiuli taught them to weave the pattern.
Wang Yuan, a 10-year-old fourth-grader at Shuimanxiang Central School, drew green candy on paper and half-woven the fabric. Wang Xiuli watched her press the line next to her, reminding her from time to time that she was wrong here. Not far away, there were students playing football and dancing on the playground, but Wang Yuan was not attracted at all, she said, "I think this is interesting, this is good-looking." Wang Xiuli smiled and said, "They are all very smart and learn fast, and there is a boy over there who is also learning." Now there are Li Jin classes in the schools here, this is our skill, we have to pass it on. ”
Wang Yezhen also thinks so, although her daughter Bei Bei is only 3 years old, she always likes to make trouble around her loom, and she is happy to wear clothes made by Li Jin. "When she grows up, I want to teach her brocade weaving, and teach her what my grandmother taught me." Of course, it still depends on whether she is willing to learn, she should also like it. ”