The Miao wax printing has a long history. It was all the rage in Wuxi region in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). During the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), the Miaos resided in central Guizhou Province wore wax-printing clothes. An ancient “Wax-Printing Ode” has been sung in many areas of the Miao regions. And the following legend has been passed down from generation to generation.
  It is said that a clever and beautiful Miao girl does not content with her single-color clothes, hoping to have flowery patterns in her skirt. However, she thinks the hand painting is too much work. One day, watching attentively flowers and still having the idea in her mind, she falls asleep. In her dream, a beautifully dressed flower fairy maiden ushers her to a flower garden growing with countless exotic flowers and rare herbs. Birds are singing, butterflies dancing and bees gathering honey. The girl is so fascinated by the scene and even fails to notice that many bees stay on her skirt. When she finally wakes up she realized it is a dream. However, when she looks at her skirt it seems to her that the bees have really stayed leaving some honey and beewax dotted here and there. She has to take her skirt and throws it into the indigo dyeing barrel to dye it again to cover the dirt. After dyeing it she put it in boiling water to rinse it. When she finally takes her skirt out from water a miracle turns up. On the newly dyed skirt the places where dotted with beewax appear with pretty white flowers. She is touched. Immediately she fetches some beewax, heats it and draws flowers with wax liquid on a piece of white cloth. Then, she puts the cloth into the indigo dyeing vat and after melting the wax she sees white flowers of various kinds. It is simply amazing! Ever since, wax-dyeing skill has been spread in Buyi and Yao ethnic groups.