How did the ancients spend Valentine's Day on Tanabata?

The earliest festival custom of Tanabata: basking in the sun without worms.

The earliest credible record about July 7th comes from the Eastern Han Dynasty. At first, this festival had nothing to do with the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl. "Jade Candle Collection, July Qiu Meng", the seventh chapter, quotes the preface of four people's month written by Cui Ai, a scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty:

"On the fourth day, I ordered the room to cure cockroaches, bring a book and a mallet, and bring the Internet; On the sixth day, the grain grinder was cured; On the seventh day, I was smashed and ground. On this day, you can close the blue pill and Shu Qi pill, uncover the scriptures and clothes, make a dry embarrassment, and pick up Huier. "

"Rice" is a kind of distiller's yeast, a kind of food rich in Aspergillus oryzae spores. The cellar is a room dedicated to brewing wine. "Thin hug" is a kind of pancake. "Governance" and "equipment" both mean preparation. I don't know what "blue pill" is. If I guess subjectively, it may be all kinds of food or medicine made of blue grass. "Shu Qi" is generally considered as a plant "Changshan". However, the ancients lacked systematic botanical knowledge and their understanding of Changshan was very confusing. Documentary records often contradict each other. Not only do we not know the specific meaning of Shu Qi, but perhaps the ancients themselves didn't really understand it. "Exposure" is exposure. It means "fried rice and wheat". "Huier" is actually a familiar plant, such as Xanthium sibiricum or Xanthium sibiricum. It is recorded here that preparations should be made for the activities on July 4th and 6th, but on July 7th, "Blue Pills", "Shu Qi Pills" and fried wheat should be made, xanthium should be harvested, and books and clothes should be dried.

The record of Tanabata in "Four-person Moon Order" is quoted from "Ancient Yi Series Jade Candles Collection". These records in the Four-Person Monthly Order are the earliest known records about Valentine's Day in China.

Among these customs, "exposure" is the only one that has a great influence on later generations, but it is enough to let us see a clear inheritance relationship. The literature on exposure in later generations is very rich. Here are only two interesting stories in Shi Shuo Xin Yu as examples:

Ruan Zhongrong lives in the south with the infantry, and Zhu Ruan lives in the north. Rich in the north and poor in the south. On July 7, North Ruansheng was drying clothes, all wearing Luo Jinqi. Zhong Rong hung a big cloth calf with a pole in the atrium. People or strange, answer: "I can't avoid customs and talk to you."

On July 7th, Long Hao spent a day in Japan and China. People asked him why, and they replied, "I print books."

The "calf nose" is a kind of shorts worn by the poor, and it is named because its nose looks like a cow. According to historical records, when Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun eloped to open a small bar, Sima Xiangru wore it. The first paragraph of these two quotations tells the story of Ruan Xian and Ruan Ji's willfulness without money, and the second paragraph shows that Long Hao's performance art is quite unique. At that time, this custom of exposing moisture was very grand and solemn. On Valentine's Day in China, the whole country, from the royal family to ordinary people, will enthusiastically participate in it. An ordinary worker also gets the sense of ceremony necessary for the festival. This is also one of the reasons why we think that July 7 recorded in the "Four-person Month Order" can belong to a festival.

Exposure itself belongs to labor. Although it has gained a sense of ceremony, it is not entertaining after all. Besides, other customs recorded by Cui Ai, such as blue pills and Shu Qi pills made on this day, look less delicious than Yuanxiao and Zongzi. In the long run, such festivals are likely to decrease. Fortunately, Weaver Girl and Cowherd arrived later. Thus, another core custom of Qixi appeared.

Spider divination, praying for ingenuity

This custom is to pray to the weaver girl (sometimes including the cowherd). One of the most famous is begging for wisdom. To beg for wisdom is to beg the weaver girl to teach her skills. The earliest record of this custom comes from the Jin Dynasty.

Ge Hong, a A Jin scholar, recorded in Volume 1 of Miscellanies of Xijing:

"Korea? Women who open buildings on July 7 often wear seven-hole needles, all of which use Xi. "

Volume 3 and yue:

Mrs. Qi's second Jia Lanpei, who later became the wife of Confucianism, said in the palace ... until July 7, she was in the pool of ancient philosophers and made fun of it. After the music is over, it is called' connected love' with five colors. "

It is a custom to wear a seven-hole needle and tie a colored rope. We don't know whether such a custom really existed in the Han Dynasty (of course, it was almost impossible in Mrs. Qi's time), but since Ge Hong talked about it, begging for cleverness was already a popular custom at that time.

The custom of begging for cleverness continued to develop in later generations. The Chronicle of Jingchu Written by Liang Xiao in the Southern Dynasties in Zonggu;

"Now is the night, the woman is wearing a seven-hole needle, or gold, silver, or? ? Stone is the needle, and Chen Guaguo is clever in court. If you have a happy subnet on melon, you think it is corresponding. "

? ? Stone is copper ore. Xizi refers to a spider of the octopus family. The divination custom mentioned here is that if Xiao Wu ties a net on the melon and fruit dedicated to the gods, it is a sign of seeking cleverness. The denser the net, the more clever it is. Because cobwebs are similar to human weaving, it is very common to use scorpions skillfully for divination in later generations. Among them, the most common method seen in the literature is that every girl catches a scorpion and puts it in a box for one night. When the box is opened at dawn, everyone will compare who has more scorpions. The more nets there are, the more skilled the girls are this year-well, if you were born in ancient times, you probably couldn't play Tarot cards happily with other girls of that era.

Pray for many children and grandchildren

Besides begging, you can ask for something else. The Book of Jade Candles in the seventh edition of July Autumn Dream (yes, the person who is listed as a "recluse" in the "Three Realms" in the fifteenth edition of Shi Shuo Xin Yu is the son of Zhou Fu) has a more detailed record in the Local Records:

"July is a day. Sweep the court at night, give a machine banquet, set up preserved wine and fruit, spread fragrant powder at the banquet, and have a heavy meal. Please analyze the drum and the weaver girl and say that these two gods will meet. The night watchman has a personal wish. Or there is a cloud saying,' I see a white spirit in Hanzhong in the sky, such as the waves of the earth and the river, which swings and glows, and there are five colors of light, which is a sign. When you see it, you must worship your wishes, beg for wealth and longevity, and beg for children and grandchildren. Just one, not two. Three years is enough. "Or the cloud is quite affected by it."

There are three cases of seeking wealth, longevity and children, but the most common one in the literature is seeking children. Quoted from Miscellanies of Xijing, it is said that Tanabata needs the "Lin Baizi Pool", and the name of this pool seems to expose some problems. The spider in the story of Jingchu period quoted in the last paragraph is called "Xizi", which can also represent the happy event in ancient China culture. In popular literature, they are mostly used to imply happy events related to love, slapping or pregnancy.

For example, the third volume of Guazhier compiled by Feng Menglong of Hunan Province contains a folk song called Pangui (the brackets in the quotation are "mezzanine"):

"Spiders suddenly hung in front of the eaves. The lamp on the silver jar was knotted (last night). (Today) Magpies crow, and there are (again) pairs of paintings on the powder wall. I haven't heard from (him) for a long time. I think he will go home tomorrow. If I return home tomorrow, I will be widowed tonight. "

The "happy spider" here is the "happy son". In addition, in the later Tanabata, there are many customs directly related to praying for children. For example, many documents say that newly-married girls will play with a doll called "metaplasia" on Tanabata, which is self-evident. Many scholars, such as Lynn Yang (1990), think that the custom of piercing needles also has the significance of reproduction, and then think that Qixi is originally a festival focusing on praying for children. In fact, although many evidences supporting the conclusion that praying for children is the core content of Tanabata are still controversial, there is no doubt that praying for children is a very important part of traditional Valentine's Day in China.