In the Miao village in southeastern Guizhou, women wear a silver crown to idolize the sun and ox totem. The decorative silvery brightIy glitters from the center of sun between the ox horns. A matching pleated skirt is from waist down, symbolizing sun rays. Miao embroidery boasts a variety of categories, besides flat embroidery; there are also tied embroidery, plated embroidery, crape embroidery, and others. Flat embroidery is often used for sleeves; double layer embroidery for collar flower; and weaving embroidery on waist bands. It is worth mentioning that each branch of Miao ethnic group has its own costume as national identity which can not be changed. Even the direction of the needle goes when embroidering is set in certain ways. On the lower part of the pleated skirt are three horizontal thread lines which tell another story. In remote antiquity, a large scale war was waged between the army from the emperor and Chiyou,ancestor of Miao ethnic group, which ended in Chiyou's defeat. To have later generations always remembe
r the hardship that their ancestors went through, they embroider three lines on the skirt to exhibit the route that their ancestor took to migrate south after the war. From the top down, the first line was to cross the Yellow River; then the Yangtze River; finally the Yuan River before settling down at the Miao villages in Guizhou. Another unique costume is the "hundred birds" blouse, an embroidery dragon with a bird head against the green bottom to tell a Miao ethnic group fairy tale. Without any crop seeds at first, the Miao family had been eating tree leaves for food until bird Ji Yu carried their ancestor up to heaven to be granted crop seeds by god. Using a variety of styles in embroidery and drawing from resourceful art images based on legends and fairy tales recorded in the "Ancient songs of Miao ethnic group," women in the Miao village have created exquisite embroidery art on their costumes and clothes with ultimate delicacy. It is a master piece of Chinese embroidery art.
