Why do the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl only meet once a year?

The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is a famous Han folk love story in ancient China, derived from the star names of Altair and Vega. It mainly tells that Niulang is an orphan in Niujiazhuang, living with his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law was mean and often abused him, so he was forced to separate the family and rely on an old cow to farm and support himself. This old cow was very spiritual. One day, the Weaver Girl and the fairies came down to play and bathe in the river. The old cow persuaded the Cowherd to get the Weaver Girl's clothes, and the Weaver Girl became the Cowherd's wife. After they got married, the man farmed and the woman weaved, and they gave birth to a son and a daughter. Their life was very happy. Unexpectedly, the Emperor of Heaven found out about the matter and sent the Queen Mother to escort Zhinu back to heaven for trial. The old cow couldn't bear the separation of their wives, so he broke off the horns on his head and turned into a small boat, allowing the cowherd to pick up his children and catch them in the boat. Just as she was about to catch up with the Weaver Girl, the Queen Mother suddenly pulled out the golden hairpin on her head and drew a rolling Milky Way in the sky. The Cowherd could not cross the river, so he could only watch and cry with the Weaver Girl by the river. Their faithful love moved the magpies. Countless magpies flew over and used their bodies to build a colorful bridge across the Tianhe River, so that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl could meet on the Tianhe River. The Queen Mother had no choice but to allow the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to meet once a year on the Magpie Bridge on July 7th.

According to legend, there is a Vega star and an Altair star in the sky. The Weaver Girl and the Morning Glory are in love with each other and are in love with each other. However, the laws of heaven do not allow men to have sex with women or fall in love privately, so the Queen Mother demoted the morning glory to the mortal world and ordered the Weaver Girl to keep weaving brocade as punishment.

The job of the Weaver Girl is to use a magical silk to weave layers of beautiful clouds on the loom, and their colors change with time and seasons. This is " "Heavenly Clothes". Since the morning glory was demoted, the Weaver Girl often shed tears and missed the morning glory with a gloomy look. She sat by the loom and kept weaving beautiful brocades, hoping to win the Queen Mother's compassion and allow the morning glory to return to heaven as soon as possible.

One day, several fairies begged the Queen Mother to visit the green lotus pond on earth. The Queen Mother was in a good mood today, so she agreed to them. Seeing that Weaver Girl was depressed all day long, they begged the Queen Mother to let Weaver Girl go with them. The Queen Mother also felt sorry for her granddaughter after being punished, so she ordered them to leave as soon as possible.

It is said that after Cowherd was demoted, he was born in a farmer's family and was named Cowherd. Later, his parents died, and he lived with his brother and sister-in-law. The elder brother and sister-in-law were very mean to the Cowherd and wanted to separate the family from him. They only gave him an old cow and a broken car, and the rest were kept exclusively by the elder brother and sister-in-law. Then, he and Cowherd separated.

From then on, the Cowherd and the Old Cow depended on each other. They cut through thorns, cultivated fields, and built houses on the wasteland. After a year or two, they built a small home and could barely make ends meet. However, except for the dumb old cow, the Cowherd was the only one in the deserted home, and his life was quite lonely. The Cowherd didn't know that the old cow was actually the Taurus star in the sky.

On this day, the old cow suddenly spoke. He said to the Cowherd: "Cowherd, today you go to the Bilian Pond. There are some fairies taking a bath there. You put that red fairy clothes on." Hidden, the fairy in red fairy clothes will become your wife." The Cowherd was surprised and happy to see the old cow talking, so he asked: "Brother Niu, are you really good at talking? "Yes?" The old cow nodded, and the cowherd quietly hid in the reeds beside the green lotus pond, waiting for the fairies to arrive. After a while, the fairies arrived gracefully, took off their light clothes, and jumped into the clear stream. The Cowherd ran out of the reeds and took away the red fairy clothes. When the fairies saw someone coming, they hurriedly put on their clothes and flew away like birds. Only the fairy who could not escape without clothes was left. She was the Weaver Girl. When the Weaver Girl saw her fairy clothes being snatched away by a young man, she felt ashamed and anxious, but she had no choice but to do anything. At this time, the Cowherd came up to her and told her that he could only give her back her clothes if she agreed to be his wife. The Weaver Girl took a closer look and realized that the Cowherd was the morning glory she had been thinking about day and night, so she shyly agreed to him. In this way, the Weaver Girl became the Cowherd's wife.

After they got married, the man farmed and the woman weaved, loving each other and living a very happy life. Soon, they gave birth to a son and a daughter, who were very cute. The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl thought they could stay together forever and grow old together. However, when the Queen Mother found out about this, she became furious and immediately sent the gods to capture Weaver Girl and bring her back to heaven for questioning. On this day, the Weaver Girl was cooking. The Cowherd who had gone to the fields hurried back and told the Weaver Girl with red and swollen eyes: "Brother Cow is dead. Before he died, he said that he wanted me to peel off his cowhide and put it away after he died. One day, if you put it on, you can fly to the sky.

"When the Weaver Girl heard this, she was puzzled. She understood that the old cow was the Taurus star in the sky. She was demoted to heaven just because she said a few words of justice to the Altair that was demoted to the earth. How could it die suddenly? The Weaver Girl let it go. The Cowherd peeled off the cowhide and buried the old cow properly.

At this moment, a strong wind blew up in the sky, and the heavenly soldiers descended from the sky. Without any explanation, they escorted the Weaver Girl and flew into the sky. I heard the Cowherd’s voice: “Weaver Girl, wait for me! "The Weaver Girl looked back and saw the Cowherd carrying his two sons and daughters with a pair of baskets and wearing cowhide. Slowly, the distance between them got closer and closer, and the Weaver Girl could clearly see how cute their sons and daughters were. The children all opened their arms and shouted "Mom". Just then, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were about to meet. But at this moment, the Queen Mother came with auspicious clouds and pulled off the hair on her head. The golden hairpin was drawn between them. In an instant, the waves of the Milky Way rolled across the gap between Weaver Girl and Cowherd.

Weaver Girl looked at Cowherd and his children on the other side of the Milky Way and cried. The Cowherd and the children were crying hoarsely. Their cries and the children's shouts of "Mom" were so heart-wrenching and tear-jerking that even the fairies and gods who were watching felt sad. Seeing this, the Queen Mother was slightly moved by the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl's steadfast love, so she agreed to let the Cowherd and the children stay in the sky and let them meet once every July 7th. He and his children lived in the sky, separated by the Milky Way, and looked at the Weaver Girl from a distance. Among the stars in the autumn night sky, we can still see two larger stars on both sides of the Milky Way, shining brightly. They are Vega and Altair. Together with Altair are two little stars, which are the son and daughter of Cowherd and Weaver Girl.

On July 7th, the Cowherd and Weaver Girl met. A group of magpies flew to build a bridge for them. On the magpie bridge, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl reunited! The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl hugged their children, and they had countless words to say and endless affection to express! > Later, every July 7th of the lunar calendar, the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet on the Magpie Bridge, the girls would come to the flowers in front of the moon and look up at the stars, looking for Altair and Vega on both sides of the Milky Way, hoping to see their annual meeting. , praying to God to make you as clever as the Weaver Girl, praying that you can have a happy marriage and beautiful love, thus forming the Qixi Festival (the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet once a year, one day in the sky and one year in the earth). The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet every day).

Follow-up legend editor

There are many vivid details about the life of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in Lushan, Henan.

He was captured and taken back to the Heavenly Palace to weave colorful clouds and brocades. He was unhappy all day long, missing the Cowherd and his children. The Cowherd and his children lived in the mortal world, and they lived only 5 miles away from the Nantian Gate on the top of Lushan Mountain. I miss my mother at home, and from time to time I go to Nantianmen to ask for my "mother". The gatekeeper of Nantianmen sympathizes with their plight and makes it easier for them to come and go. The Jade Emperor likes his grandchildren very much and allows them to come and go. The Queen Mother also relaxed her supervision of the Weaver Girl, and the relationship between the two families gradually became harmonious. After the Cowherd's death, he was buried in the Cowherd Tomb at the south foot of the Lushan Mountain. The descendants of the Cowherd in Sunyi Village called themselves "Cowherd Sun". ".

Later, the descendants of Cowherd inherited the family property in Lushanshan Mountain and adhered to their filial piety. They arranged more than ten festivals every year, such as Laba Festival, Spring Festival, February 8th, Cauliflower Festival, March 3rd, Chinese Valentine's Day and so on. Please The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl returned to the village to celebrate the festival. Lufeng Mountain next to Sunyi Village, the "Cowherd Cave" on Lufeng Mountain, the "Nine Girls Pond" on the west side, and the "Ruiyun Temple" on the top of the mountain... all seem to tell the touching story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

The natural environment in the Lufeng Mountain area is superior, and local people have been raising cattle since ancient times. But unlike raising cattle elsewhere, not only every household in Sunyi Village, Xinji Township, raises cattle, but the custom of raising cattle without killing them and burying them after they die has been going on for a long time. In addition, Lushan has been rich in silk since ancient times. Lushan silk is also known as "Weaver's Weaving" and "Fairy's Weaving".

Xinji Township is a well-known grape planting base. This is also related to the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Legend has it that when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet every year on Chinese Valentine's Day, a human woman can hear the two whispering under the grape trellis. As for the folk custom of Lushan, begging for skills on the Chinese Valentine's Day means asking the Weaver Girl for skills on this day, so that you can get a good husband.

In Xinji Township, large-scale temple fairs are held continuously on the seventh day of July every year.

According to research, the Qixi Festival temple fair in Xinji Township has a history of at least hundreds of years. On this day, operas are sung, gongs and drums are played, and firecrackers are set off. People call it "welcoming the fairies" or "bringing the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl home."

In Sunyi Village, Xinji Township, there is another very interesting custom, that is, holding temple fairs and singing operas, but never watching "The Story of Tianhe". Because some of the descriptions about their ancestors in "Tianhe Ji" are disrespectful. In order to show respect for their ancestors, they have not read "The Story of Tianhe" for generations. This custom has been maintained to this day. [

Origin

The words "Weaver Girl" and "Morning Glory" appear in writing, and they first appeared in the "Dadong" chapter of "The Book of Songs". The Weaver Girl and Petunia in the poem are just the names of two constellations in the sky, and there is no relationship between them.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, among the "Nineteen Ancient Poems" written by Anonymous, there was one "Altair", from which it can be seen that Altair and Weaver were already a pair of lovers who admired each other. The poem does not yet identify them as husband and wife. In written records, the first person to call the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl a couple should be the "Selected Works" compiled by Xiao Tong of the Liang Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. There is an annotation to "Luo Shen Fu" that says: "The Cowherd is the husband, and the Weaver Girl is the husband." Women, the Weaver Girl and the Altair star are everywhere beside the river drum, and they will be together on July 7th." At this time, the story of the "Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" and the plot of the Qixi Festival have begun to take shape, represented by the two stars in the sky. , developed into a couple. But in the imagination of the ancients, the couple in heaven and the couple on earth are basically the same, so there is no tragedy in the story. As for why the Morning Glory and the Weaver Girl have to "get together for a while" on July 7th? The original text is not explained. According to later speculations, on the one hand, the stars are the brightest in the sky at night in July every year, and the two stars Altair and Vega are relatively close to each other; on the other hand, July 7 was a day for "begging for cleverness" in folk customs at that time, and the working people were He regarded the Weaver Girl as a skilled laborer and could "weave a hundred pieces of silk in ten days", so he "begged for skills" from her. As a result, people combined the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl with folk customs. The story continues to enrich and develop over time.

There is a record in "The Chronicles of Jingchu Years": "To the east of the Tianhe River there is a Weaver Girl, the son of the Emperor of Heaven, who works hard every year to weave clouds and brocade and heavenly clothes. The Emperor of Heaven mourned her being alone and made a betrothal. The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in the west of Hexi stopped weaving the garment after getting married. The Emperor of Heaven was angry and ordered him to return to the east of Hedong. The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has changed a lot since then. Because the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were greedy for pleasure after marriage and "wasted the weaving quilt", which angered the Emperor of Heaven and was punished. This brings a tragic atmosphere to the story.

The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl and the "Qixi Festival" originated from the theory of celestial phenomena and stars. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, there are records of "Cowherd" and "Weaver Girl" in "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Dadong". Here, the Weaver Girl and Altair are only used as natural star images to elicit a metaphorical association, without any storyline. At this time, they only serve as a cultural factor and begin to enter the larger system of literature. It is this "factor" that prepares the potential cultural conditions for the generation of this legend. Wang Yi's "Shou Zhi", Volume 17 of "Chu Ci Chapters and Sentences": "The sky is held up to conceal evil spirits, and the sky arc is used to shoot out rapes." It expresses the theory of the marriage of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. [4]

In "Customs and Customs" compiled by Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is a record: The Weaver Girl should cross the river on the Chinese Valentine's Day, using magpies as a bridge. It shows that at that time, not only was the theory that the Morning Ox and the Weaver Girl were husband and wife, but also the plot of them meeting each other every year using magpies as bridges on Chinese Valentine's Day was also widely circulated among the people and integrated into customs.

The "Four People's Monthly Order" written by Cui Yan of the Eastern Han Dynasty "On July 7, Hegu (the astronomical name of Altair), the two stars of the Weaver Girl will meet." From the above materials, it can be seen that people gradually became the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. These two stars who are far apart form a love story. The first choice of "Nineteen Ancient Poems" reveals this information. The two stars here, Morning Glory and Weaver Girl, have already taken on human form. Weaver Girl misses Morning Glory all day long and longs to see each other, but she is "full of water, and her pulse is speechless". From then on, it was woven into a love tragedy of a loving couple suffering from isolation. [4]

Dispute over the place of origin

The origin of the story of the "Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" that has been passed down for thousands of years has been disputed in Xi'an, Shaanxi, Heshun, Shanxi, Yiyuan, Shandong and other places. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference has successively named Heshun County in Shanxi Province and Lushan County in Henan Province as China's "Hometown of Cowherd and Weaver Girl Culture".

Other legends

In addition, there are two legends.

One is: The Weaver Girl is the seventh (some say ninth) granddaughter of the Emperor of Heaven. She weaves brocade and heavenly clothes on the east side of the Tianhe River, and the Cowherd looks after the cows on the west side of the Tianhe River. Both of them are very diligent. The Emperor of Heaven took pity on them and allowed them to get married. After marriage, the two were greedy for pleasure and neglected work. The Emperor of Heaven became angry and separated them across the Tianhe River. He ordered a crow to tell them that they would meet once every seven days. But the crow conveyed the wrong message, saying that they would meet once a year on July 7th. The second is: The Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Queen Mother and weaves clouds in the sky. Cowherd is a cowherd in the human world who is abused by his brother and sister-in-law. One day, Niu told him that Weaver Girl was going to the Milky Way to take a bath with other fairies, and asked Niu to get a piece of fairy clothing. When Weaver Girl looked for clothes, he would return it to her, and asked to marry her, and she would definitely agree. The Cowherd did the same thing. After Weaver Girl and Cowherd got married, they gave birth to a boy and a girl. When the Queen Mother found out, she took Weaver Girl back. The cow then told the Cowherd that he could put its skin on his body and chase it to the sky. When the Cowherd picked two children and chased them into the sky, the Queen Mother pulled out the hairpin from her head and drew a line behind the Weaver Girl to form a Milky Way, separating the loving couple. They looked across the river and cried every day, which moved the Queen Mother and allowed them to meet once a year on July 7th. When they meet, magpies build a bridge for them.

The basic plot in the former legend is similar to that in "The Chronicles of Jingchu", except that the plot of "crow spreading the message" is added. The latter legend greatly enriches and develops the original story. It has transformed from the love between gods among the stars into a love story between humans and gods. As for other legends, most of them are based on this and extended. So, why was the character of Lao Niu added to the latter legend and made to play a huge role in the story? Because cattle are farm treasures, farmers love farming cattle and even entrust their life ideals to farming cattle. When their ideals in life are hindered, farmers tend to have the illusion of being saved by cows, hoping that cows will exert their magical power to help them overcome difficulties. At the same time, personifying animals is also one of the artistic techniques often used in various Han legends and stories.

Relevant records

First appeared in "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Dadong": "There are Han people in Weitian, and there is light in the prison. The Weaver Girl has seven arms all day long, even though there are seven Xiang, not a newspaper. He is a cowherd, not a box." In the poem, the cowherd was called a cowherd, but at that time the cowherd and the weaver girl only referred to the stars in the sky and there was no description of love. In the Western Han Dynasty, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were described as two gods. Ban Gu's Xidu Fu once described "Near the Kunming Pool, with the Cowherd on the left and the Weaver Girl on the right, like the boundless clouds and Han Dynasties." Refers to the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl on both sides of the Kunming Pool. Statue of Weaver Girl.

As for the Weaver Girl, there are several mentions of her in ancient books. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Astronomical Chronicles": "Weaver Girl, the true daughter of the Son of Heaven." "Historical Records": "Three stars, at the east end of the Tianji, are also the goddess of heaven." "Jiao Lin's Great Fight": "To the east of the Tianhe, there is a faint star, in Di "The Tianhe is the strip of light that we see across the sky at night; the ancient Chinese also called it "Yinhan", "Xinghe", "Tianhang", "Yinhuang", and "Minghe". ”, “High Cold” and so on. Astronomers call it "the Milky Way." Vega is on the east side of the Milky Way, and its western name is Vega. In the past, the Chinese divided the sky into the Twenty-Eight Constellations and the Three Huans. Astronomers around the world have officially divided the sky into 88 "constellations." Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. In the nearby Milky Way, there are five almost equally bright stars arranged in the shape of a cross. Those five stars belong to the constellation Cygnus. There are three stars arranged very close to the west and slightly south of the Milky Way. The brighter star in the middle is Altair, also called Altair. In ancient China, it was called "Hegu", "Hegu", and "Huanggu". Altair. Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. It and the two smaller stars on both sides are sometimes collectively called the "Biard Star". According to mythology, the two stars next to it are the Cowherd and his children. Swans were floating in the Milky Way. There was a girl weaving on the river bank, and on the other side there was a shepherd with two children herding cattle. What a beautiful picture.

In the past, many people in China believed that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl really crossed the river to meet each other once on the Chinese Valentine's Day. That night, the women all sewed needles to beg clever people, and offered melons and fruits to the Vega. This story is also often used as a source of drama. The play "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" is often included in Peking opera, modern dramas and local operas from various places.

In the drama, the Cowherd is a child who herds cows in the countryside. He refused to help his brother farm, help his sister-in-law drive, or help his mother with housework. The Cowherd is just playful and only loves to make strange fantasies. His best friend is the old cow he guards.

One night, he saw a fairyland in the sky in his dream. Then he took the old cow and set off to the sky. At the same time, there is a Weaver Girl in the sky who wants to come down to earth to enjoy the warmth of the world. The Queen Mother pitied the Weaver Girl for her loneliness, so she sent the Golden Boy and the Magpie to take the Weaver Girl to the ends of the earth to meet the Cowherd. "The golden wind and jade dew meet each other", which is really "a blessing in the world". A pair of lovers were sent to the heavens for their honeymoon.

The Cowherd traveled to all the wonderful places in the sky, but as time went by, he began to feel ordinary. Weaver Girl had to continue weaving cloud brocade celestial clothes and could not stay with him all the time. The Cowherd became increasingly bored, and learned from the Golden Boy that his family was looking forward to his return day and night, so he told the Weaver Girl that he wanted to go home. Weaver Girl decided to go to the ground with him to enjoy the lovely spring. It's a pity that the matter was not kept secret and the Queen Mother of the West found out. She came and used hostas to draw a line across the Milky Way to separate the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. She only promised to send magpies to form a bridge every year on Chinese Valentine's Day so that they could cross the river and meet each other once. The Cowherd returned to the world and was very happy to see his mother, brother and sister-in-law again. From then on, he stopped being lazy, stopped making unnecessary fantasies, and worked hard every day. He realized that beauty can also be created in real life. He smelled the fragrance of earth, and he understood the meaning of life. His only regret was that his beloved Weaver Girl could not come to the ground to work with him and enjoy the warmth of the world together. But we can still meet once every Chinese Valentine's Day, which is much better than saying goodbye forever.

The origin of the character's name

Feng Yingjing of the Ming Dynasty quoted "Yue Ling Guangyi" from "Novel" as saying: "There is a Weaver Girl in the east of the Tianhe River, the son of the Emperor of Heaven. She works hard every year to weave square brocade clothes. The emperor felt pity for her to be left alone, and promised to marry the Cowherd and Weaver Girl. After the marriage, the Emperor was angry and ordered him to return to Hedong. He promised to have a chance to meet once a year. Or the name of a man and woman in love.

The tenth cloud in "Nineteen Ancient Poems": "The far-off Altair star, the bright river, the girl, pushing the slender hands, playing with the machine. The whole day is unfinished, and the tears are as cold as rain. The river is clear and shallow. , Facing each other a few times, the water is full of water, and the pulse is speechless. "This poem describes the sorrow and sorrow of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl who are unable to see each other, and it is truly an intimate and realistic portrait of a couple living in two places.