Information about Cowherd and Weaver Girl

Cowherd and Weaver Girl is one of the most famous folklore in China, and it is also the most famous story about stars in our country. Who told the story first and when it began to spread among the people-these two questions have not been verified. There is a passage in the Chronicle of Jingchu written in the Northern and Southern Dynasties: "To the east of the Tianhe River, there is a weaver girl, the son of the Emperor of Heaven. Weave the war every year and weave it into a brocade skirt. God pitied him for being alone and promised to marry a cowherd in Hexi. After getting married, I gave up knitting. The Emperor of Heaven was furious and ordered to return to Hedong. Only on the night of July 7 every year, cross the river for a while. "

About the Weaver Girl, there are several references to her in ancient books. "History of the Later Han Dynasty": "Weaver girl, the son of heaven is a real girl." Historical Records: "Samsung, at the eastern end of the cat, is also a goddess." Jiao said, "In the east of Tianhe, there is a little star called Weaver Girl." Tianhe is a band of light that we see across the sky at night; The ancients in China also called it Han Yin, Xinghe, Tianhang, Yinhuang, He Ming and Gaoshan. Now astronomers call it the Milky Way. Vega is in the east of the Milky Way, and its western name is Vega. In the past, China people divided the sky into twenty-eight places and three places. Now astronomers all over the world have decided to divide the sky into 88 "constellations". Vega is the brightest star in Lyra. There are five stars in the nearby galaxy that are almost as bright as a cross. These five stars belong to cygnus. There are three stars in the west of the Milky Way. The brighter star in the middle is Altair, also called Altair. In ancient China, they were called Hegu, Hegu and Huanggu, while in the west they were called Altair. Cowherd is the brightest star in Aquila. It and the two stars with smaller brightness on both sides are sometimes called "shoulder pole stars". According to the myth, the two stars next to them are Cowherd and his children. Swan is floating in the Milky Way, a girl is weaving by the river, and a shepherd with two children is herding cattle on the other side. What a beautiful picture this is.

Qin Guan, a poet in the Song Dynasty, was also excited by the story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, with joy in sadness and joy and sadness in joy. He skillfully expressed the artistic conception of this touching story with long and short sentences. Que Qiao Xian is a beautiful poem in Ci.

The thin clouds in the sky are changing, the meteors in the sky convey the sadness of acacia, and the endless galaxy I quietly crossed tonight.

On the seventh day of autumn dew and autumn, it is time to meet, mostly those who are together in the world, but the appearance of husband and wife.

Common complaint against acacia, tender feelings like water, meet each other as if it were a dream, when it is hard to see the bridge.

As long as two people love us to the end, why covet my Heron?

Once upon a time, many people in our country believed that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl really met on the Qixi River. That night, women begged the wise with needles and worshipped the Weaver Girl with melons and fruits. This story is also often used as the material of drama. The play Cowherd and Weaver Girl is often seen in Peking Opera, drama and local operas all over the country.

In the play, Cowherd is a child herding cattle in the countryside. He refused to help his brother farm, his sister-in-law drew water and his mother did housework. Cowherd is just playful and loves to have strange fantasies. His best friend is the old cow he guards. One night, he saw the fairyland in the sky in his dream. He took the old cow and set off for the sky. At the same time, there is a weaver girl in the sky who wants to come down and enjoy the warmth of the world. The Queen Mother pitied the loneliness of the Weaver Girl, and sent a couple of gold and magpies to take the Weaver Girl to the ends of the earth to see the Cowherd. "Meet in the Golden Wind and Jade Dew" is really "winning countless people". A couple was sent to the cloud nine for their honeymoon.

Cowherd has traveled all over heaven for a long time and feels bland. Weaver girl will continue to brocade clothes and can't stay with him all the time. Cowherd became more and more bored. Knowing from Golden Boy's mouth that his family was looking forward to his return day and night, he told Weaver the idea of going home. Weaver Girl is determined to go underground with him to enjoy the lovely spring. Unfortunately, the secret was kept secret, and the Queen Mother of the West knew about it. She came to draw a milky way with a hairpin to separate the cowherd and the weaver girl, and only promised to send magpies to form a flyover on Tanabata every year to let them cross the river once. Cowherd returned to the world and was glad to see his mother, brother and sister-in-law again. From then on, he stopped being lazy and having meaningless fantasies, and worked hard every day. He realized that beauty can also be created in real life. He smelled the dirt and understood the meaning of life. His only regret is that the weaver girl he loves can't come to work with him and enjoy the warmth of the world together. But you can meet once a year on Tanabata, which is much better than farewell.

There are several songs in a play, one of which is Peng Yu's Meet the Magpie:

Who knows when it will last forever?

Who knows how many years to hate?

I spent a long year, so it is rare to have this wonderful night on Tanabata.

But meeting at Magpie Bridge is infinite sorrow.

Dreams are long and nights are short.

Seeing that the morning star in Dongshan has appeared, it will be dawn soon.

What can be done is that the magpies are noisy and urge everyone to go their separate ways.

I will wait until next year's Tanabata is coming.

To this day, there are still many people in our country who really believe that Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet once a year to cross the river on Tanabata, and many women still ask Weaver Girl for help that night. Unfortunately, science tells us that the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is not true, it is just a poetic myth. In recent years, the progress of astronomy has made our understanding of this star, other stars and the Milky Way much clearer than before. The Milky Way is not a river. There is not a drop of water or a bridge in the galaxy. It is a collection of many stars and nebulae, which can be seen with large telescopes. Although the two stars, Cowherd and Weaver Girl, are not absolutely "unchanged", they can't be seen moving each other at all on Tanabata, let alone "crossing the river". On Tanabata every year, one is in the east of the river and the other is in the west of the river, sighing at each other. The progress of science has broken their dreams, which reminds the author of Cao Xueqin's couplets for the dreamland archway:

Thick soil and high sky, I can sigh the endless feelings of ancient and modern times;

Find a partner to get married, poor situation, debt is difficult to pay back.

The word "constant" of a star is only relative to the word "line" of a planet. In fact, no star in the sky is absolutely "unchanged"; Every star is moving, moving more and moving less. Altair moves 0.658 angular seconds on the celestial sphere every year; In addition, it left us and ran out at a speed of 26 kilometers per second (93,600 kilometers per hour). So the speed of Altair in space is dozens of times faster than the fastest passenger plane on the ground. Weaver is slow, but she can still win the women's 100 meter race. She moves on the celestial sphere for 0.345 seconds every year, leaves us and runs out at the speed of 14 km per second.

Cowherd and Weaver Girl are much bigger and brighter than the sun. Why do we just look like two small lights? That's because these two stars are much farther away than the sun. The brightness of the cowherd is 10.5 times that of the sun, its diameter is 70% larger, and its mass is almost 70% larger. Weaver Girl's luminosity is 60 times that of the sun, its diameter is 2.76 times that of the sun, and its mass is almost 3 times that of the sun. So the weaver girl is bigger, brighter and heavier than the cowherd, and she is also the elder sister of the cowherd. The cowherd is 154 trillion kilometers away from us, which is 1 10,000 times farther than the sun. The distance of the Weaver Girl from us is 250 trillion kilometers, which is 1.7 million times farther than the sun. The weaver girl is not only bigger and brighter than the cowherd, but also far away, so we look almost as bright as the two stars. It takes 16 4 months for light to reach our eyes from Altair. It takes 26 years and 5 months for light to shine from Vega. Cowherd and Weaver Girl are not in the same direction, and the distance between them is 16.4 light years. Radio waves travel at the same speed as light. If the Cowherd wants to make a wireless call to the Weaver Girl, it will take 32 years to receive a call back.

Stars vary greatly in size, luminosity, temperature and color, but there is little difference in mass. Since the 20th century, astronomers have classified many stars, just as biologists have classified animals and plants.

Scientists have proved that sunlight and starlight come from atomic energy. So the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can also be said to be two very big atomic bombs. They convert the atomic energy in the stomach into light and emit it. When people appreciate their brilliant talents, they fantasize about a sad and touching story.

Fairy tales and fairy tales will not be destroyed because of the progress of material civilization. They can improve the imagination of teenagers, can be used as an amateur pastime for adults, and can also be used as raw materials for various arts. China's Cowherd and Weaver Girl can be juxtaposed with the Greek Odyssey, golden fleece and the French Ring of Nibelum. On Tanabata every year, we might as well continue to tell the story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl: on the one hand, we can appreciate this poetic myth, on the other hand, we can also take the opportunity to publicize science and let ordinary people notice many new knowledge about stars discovered by scientists for us.