Where did the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl originate?

Cowherd and Weaver Girl is one of the most famous folklore in China, and it is also the earliest story about stars in our country. There is a passage in Shuo Wen Jie Zi written by Fang in the Northern and Southern Dynasties: "There are beautiful women in Hedong, the sons of the Emperor of Heaven, and sewing workers who work hard year after year to weave clothes of clouds and silks. Hard work is extremely unhappy, and the appearance is too messy to tidy up. God pitied him for being alone and married the morning glory in Hexi. Since then, the work of weaving has been abolished and greed has been achieved. When the emperor was angry, he was responsible for Hedong and held a meeting once a year. " The origin and development of words such as "Weaver Girl" and "Petunia" can be found in the text, which first appeared in Dadong in the Book of Songs. Weaver Girl and Morning Glory 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 a poem "The Distant Altair", from which we can see that Altair and Weaver Girl were lovers who loved each other, but they were not identified as husband and wife in the poem. In written records, the earliest person who called Cowherd and Weaver Girl husband and wife should be the Selected Works compiled by Xiao Tong of Liang Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. There is a note in Luo Shen Fu that says, "Petunia is the husband, Weaver Girl is the woman, and the star of Weaver Girl Petunia is beside the river drums everywhere. It will be a while on July 7th." At this time, the story of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" and the plot of Tanabata meeting have begun to take shape, from two stars in the sky to husband and wife. But in the imagination of the ancients, the couple in the sky and the couple on the ground are basically the same, so there is no tragic color in the story. As for why Penny and Weaver stayed for a short time on July 7th? The original text does not explain. According to later generations, on the one hand, it may be that the stars in the sky are the brightest in July every year, and the morning glory and the weaver girl are very close; On the other hand, July 7th is the day of folk custom "begging for cleverness". The working people regard the Weaver Girl as an expert and can weave a hundred horses in ten days, so they "beg for cleverness" from her. As a result, people mixed the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl with folk customs. As time goes on, the story continues to enrich and develop. There is such a record in the Chronicle of Jingchu: "To the east of the Tianhe River, there is a weaver girl, and the son of the Emperor of Heaven also weaves hard labor and a brocade every year. Sad for his loneliness, the Emperor of Heaven betrothed him to Hexi to lead the cowherd and gave up weaving after marriage. The Emperor of Heaven was furious and ordered him to return to Hedong, only for a period of time on July 7 every year. " The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has changed a lot from here to now. Because the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were greedy for pleasure after marriage, they "abandoned weaving", which angered the Emperor of Heaven and was punished. This brings a tragic atmosphere to the story. Besides, there are two kinds of legends. First, the Weaver Girl is the seventh (some say the ninth) granddaughter of the Emperor of Heaven. She weaves brocade clothes in the east of Tianhe, and the cowherd grazes cattle in the west of Tianhe. They are both diligent. The heavenly emperor pitied them and let them get married. After marriage, the two are greedy for pleasure, which wastes people and money. The Emperor of Heaven was so angry that he separated them and ordered the crow to tell them that they would meet once every seven days across the Tianhe River. However, the crow spread false news that they would meet on July 7 every year. Second, the Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Queen Mother, weaving clouds in the sky. Cowherd is a cowherd on earth and is abused by his brother and sister-in-law. One day, the cow told him that the Weaver Girl was going to bathe in the Galaxy with other fairies and asked the cow to take a fairy costume. When the weaver girl looks for clothes, she will return them to her and propose to her. Of course, she will agree. So is the cowherd. After the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd got married, they gave birth to a boy and a girl. When the Queen Mother knew about it, she took the Weaver Girl back. The cow told the cowherd that he could put his skin on his body and chase him to the sky. When the Cowherd picked out two children and chased them to the sky, the Queen Mother plucked the hair clasp from her head and drew a milky way behind the Weaver Girl to separate the loving couple. Crying across the river every day touched the queen mother, so they were allowed to meet once a year on July 7. When they met, magpies bridged the gap between them. The basic plot of the previous legend is similar to the story of Jingchu era, with the addition of the plot of "the crow sends a message". The latter legend greatly enriched and developed the original story. It has changed from the love between stars and gods to the love between people and gods. As for other legends, most of them are based on this and extended. Then, why add the role of the old cow to the later legends and let it play a huge role in the story? Because cattle are the treasure of the farm, farmers love breeding cattle and even pin their life ideals on them. When the ideal of life is hindered, farmers often have the illusion of helping cows, hoping that cows will exert their magical power to help them tide over the difficulties. At the same time, anthropomorphizing animals is also one of the artistic techniques often used in various folklore. Related records first appeared in The Book of Songs, Xiaoya Dadong: "There is Han Yu, and there is light in prison. You know, Weaver Girl, seven times a day, though seven times a day, can't be a newspaper. He is holding a cow, not a suitcase. " In the poem, the cowherd is called Petunia, 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, Cowherd and Weaver Girl were described as two gods. In Xi Du Fu by Ban Gu, there is a description that "near Kunchi, there are cows on the left and weaver girls on the right, which looks like a vast sea of clouds", referring to the statues of cowherd and weaver girls on both sides of Kunming Pool. 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. According to legend, there is a Vega and an Altair in the sky. Weaver Girl and Penny are soul mates. But it is forbidden for men and women to fall in love and fall in love privately. The Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Queen Mother, so the Queen Mother demoted Penny to the world and made the Weaver Girl Brocade as a punishment. Weaver's job is to weave layers of beautiful clouds on the loom with a magical silk, and change their colors with time and season. This is the "heavenly clothes". Ever since Penny was demoted, Weaver Girl has been in Lacrimosa, thinking about Penny with a frown. She sat by the loom and kept knitting beautiful brocade, in order to win the favor of the queen mother and let Penny return to heaven as soon as possible. One day, several fairies begged the Queen Mother to see the Lian Bi Pool on earth. The queen mother was in a good mood today and promised them. Seeing that the Weaver Girl was unhappy all day, they begged the Queen Mother to let the Weaver Girl go with them. After the punishment, the heavenly queen felt sorry for her granddaughter and told them to go and come back quickly. After being demoted, Penny was born in a farmer's home and named Cowherd. Later, when his parents died, he lived with his brother and sister-in-law. Brother and sister-in-law are very unfriendly to Cowherd and want to separate from him. They only gave him an old cow and a broken car, and the rest were monopolized by his brother and sister-in-law, and then they separated from the cowherd. Since then, the cowherd and the old cow have lived together. They cut thorns, cultivated land and built houses in the wasteland. A year or two later, they built a small home and barely made ends meet. However, except for the old cow who can't talk, Cowherd is the only one in the deserted home, and life is quite lonely. The cowherd doesn't know that the old cow is the Taurus in the sky. On this day, the old cow suddenly spoke and said to the cowherd, "Cowherd, today you go to Bilianchi, where some fairies are taking a bath." You hide that red fairy costume, and the fairy in the red fairy costume will become your wife. " Cowherd was surprised and happy when he saw the old cow talking, so he asked, "Niu Ge, can you really talk?" Is it true what you said? "The old cow nodded, and the cowherd quietly hid in the reeds beside Bilianchi, waiting for the arrival of the fairies. After a while, the fairies really floated in, took off their light clothes and jumped into the clear stream. The cowherd ran out of the reeds and took the red fairy's clothes. When fairies saw someone coming, they quickly put on their clothes and flew away like birds, leaving only fairies who could not escape without clothes. She is a weaver girl. Seeing that her fairy clothes were taken away by a young man, the Weaver Girl was ashamed and anxious, but she was helpless. At this moment, Cowherd came over and told her that he could not return her clothes unless she promised to be his wife. The weaver girl looked intently and realized that the cowherd was the cow she missed day and night, so she shyly agreed to him. In this way, the Weaver Girl became the wife of the Cowherd. After they got married, they worked hard, loved each other and lived a very happy life. Soon, they gave birth to a son and a daughter, very cute. Cowherd and Weaver Girl thought they could be together for life and grow old together. However, when the Queen Mother learned of this incident, she flew into a rage and immediately sent a fairy to catch the Weaver Girl and make amends. On this day, the weaver girl was cooking, and the cowherd hurried back from the fields. His eyes were red and swollen, and he told Weaver, "Niu Ge is dead. Before he died, he asked me to peel off his cowhide and put it away. One day, I can wear it and fly to the sky. " Hearing this, the Weaver Girl wondered. She knew that the old cow was the golden bull in the sky, and she was demoted to heaven just because she said a few good words for the demoted morning cow. How can you suddenly die? The weaver girl asked the cowherd to peel off the cowhide and bury the old cow. At this time, the sky is stormy, and the heavenly soldiers will fall from the sky. It is hard to say that it is escorting the Weaver Girl to the sky. Flying, flying, Weaver Girl heard the voice of Cowherd: "Weaver Girl, wait for me! "Looking back, the Weaver Girl saw the Cowherd coming with a pair of baskets and two cowhide children. Slowly, the distance between them is getting closer and closer, and the weaver girl can also see the lovely faces of her children. The children opened their arms and shouted "Mom". Seeing, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl are about to meet. But at this moment, the queen mother came in with Xiangyun. She took off the golden hairpin on her head and rowed it among them. At the moment, a Tianhe wave is caught between the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd and cannot be crossed. The Weaver Girl looked at the Cowherd and his children across the Tianhe River and cried herself hoarse. Cowherd and children also cried their eyes out. Their cries and the children's cries for "mom" are so heart-wrenching and tearful that even the fairies and immortals watching the battle feel sad and unbearable. Seeing this situation, the Queen Mother was slightly moved by the loyal love of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, so she agreed to let the Cowherd and the children stay in the sky and let them meet once a year on July 7. From then on, the Cowherd and his children lived in the sky, separated from the Weaver Girl by a Tianhe River. Among the stars in the autumn night sky, we can still see two big stars on both sides of the Milky Way. They are Vega and Altair. The Altair has two little stars, namely a son and a daughter of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. On July 7, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met, and countless groups of magpies flew to bridge the gap for them. On the Magpie Bridge, Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet again! The Weaver Cowherd is affectionate, hugging the children, and there are endless words and feelings! Legend has it that on July 7th every year, if people listen quietly in the vines under the grape trellis, they can vaguely hear Yue Xian's performance, and the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd are talking affectionately. To put it bluntly, it's been a long time before I met her, but it's been longer since we broke up. They look forward to meeting again on July 7 of the next year every day. Later, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, it is said that when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet at the Magpie Bridge, the girls will come to the flowers and the moon, look up at the starry sky, look for the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl on both sides of the Milky Way, hoping to see their annual meeting, and pray to God that they will be as ingenious as the Weaver Girl, and pray that they can have a happy marriage and beautiful love, thus forming China's Valentine's Day. This story contains the core values of matriarchal clan society, that is, matriarchal families raise children, and husbands can only reunite with their wives and children occasionally. This shows its long history.