The allusion of tanabata

The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl came into being-

Guo Cuixiao: Excuse me, He Laoshi, the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is one of the four legends in China, and everyone is familiar with it. The folk legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl must have been different at first, right? Can you tell us about the development and evolution of this legend?

Ho: Well, let's discuss the formation process of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl along the historical context.

About Petunia Weaver Girl was first seen in The Book of Songs Xiaoya Dadong.

Look at the Milky Way on that day, sparkling and shining.

Weaver girl, seven things all day.

Even if the weaver girl is busy, she can't knit a stripe well.

Don't report to the box.

Dadong was originally a poem expressing the resentment of the subjects of the eastern vassal States against the Zhou royal family in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The general idea of this section is: Vega and Altair on both sides of the Milky Way, despite their names, can't pull carts; So do today's rulers. Although they are in high positions, they have no sympathy for the people, only in name. Here, the two stars, Weaver Girl and Morning Glory, only lead to a metaphorical association as natural star images, and there is no story. At this time, people's understanding of Erxing was probably related to the Valley God (morning glory) and the Mulberry Goddess (Weaver Girl) in the farming belief at that time, but it was only a simple mythical image about the sun, the moon and the stars. The understanding and imagination of love are still two completely different systems, and naturally they cannot be the precursors or embryos of legends. However, it has something to do with legend. Because in any case, at this time, Petunia and Weaver Girl are no longer constellations of pure natural phenomena, and have no other significance. At this time, as cultural factors, they have begun to enter the literary system. It is this "factor" that has prepared the potential cultural conditions for the emergence of this legend.

In the Western Han Dynasty, Weaver Girl and Penny were passed down as two gods, with statues standing opposite each other. There is a sentence in Ban Gu's Xijing Fu: "Facing Kunming Pool, cows are led on the left and girls are woven on the right, like boundless clouds." Li Shan quoted the Book of Han Palace Que as saying: "There are two stone men in Kunming Pool, like cows and weaver girls." It is clearly pointed out that there are statues of morning glory and weaver girl on the left and right sides of Kunming Lake. They came to earth from heaven and were isolated on both sides of the lake. Wang Xiaolian, a scholar in Taiwan Province Province, also thinks that Petunia is personified in The Journey to the West (he thinks that Petunia's personification is an "important key" to the formation of this legend and an "inevitable requirement" under the situation that China's traditional thought pursues "rationalization"), and infers that it was formed between Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty and Emperor Han Ming of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This view is exactly the same as the author thinks. Of course. At this time, it is not clear whether Penny and Weaver are loving couples or lovers, because there is not enough information. However, it may not be absurd to think that their relationship goes further than Dadong's, which opens the door for people to imagine that they are husband and wife and lovers. At this time, if the inspiration of love is destined to enter this "gate", then it will certainly give birth to beautiful poems and touching stories.

As time goes by, the combination of love factors with the legends of Petunia and Weaver Girl becomes more and more obvious. Nineteen Ancient Poems revealed this information for the first time. Among them, "All the Way Altair" sings:

Distant Altair, Jiao Jiao Hehan girl.

Fill your hands with fine fibers to make a loom;

There is no chapter all day, and tears are pouring down.

What's the difference between a clear river and a shallow one?

Ying Ying Yishui asked, pulse condition speechless.

Here, the two stars, Penny and Weaver Girl, have already played roles-being woven by machines and missing tears; And began to be woven into a loving couple suffering from isolated love tragedy. Although there is no truth that Penny and Weaver are husband and wife in the poem, Weaver misses Penny all day and longs to meet each other, but the plot of "There is no word in the water" is very clear.

More telling, it is the "Custom Yi Tong" compiled by Ying Shao in the Eastern Han Dynasty, in which there is a record:

Weaver crossing the river on Tanabata, Queqiao Club. According to legend, on the seventh day, magpies flew in for no reason, because Liang Yidu crossed the Weaver Girl. (See "Hua")

This shows that at that time, not only the theory that the cow and the weaver girl were husband and wife was generally recognized, but also the story that they met on Qixi with magpies as a bridge every year was widely circulated among the people and integrated into the customs. Obviously, it takes a long and active evolutionary process to get to this point.

This can also be seen in some portraits of the Han Dynasty. According to Wu Zengde's book Stone Relief in the Han Dynasty, there is a stone statue of a fairy in the tomb of the Guo family in Xiaotangshan, Xiaolipu, Licheng County, Shandong Province. In the picture, Altair and Vega stand opposite each other. Under Vega, a woman sat on a loom with a bird beside her. It is probably a reflection of the legendary Cowherd and Weaver Girl who took magpies as a bridge and met on Tanabata. In addition, there is a portrait of Cowherd and Weaver Girl in Nanyang Han Painting Museum, Henan Province. In the upper right corner of this portrait, there is an Altair. There is a cow painted under the Altair. In front of the cow, there is a man who leads the cow with a whip. There is a weaver girl in the lower left corner, where a woman with a high bun is kneeling. This is obviously an artistic reflection of the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl.

In the later Three Kingdoms period, many poems reflected this content. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, Shan Li quoted Cao Zhi's Nine Songs when commenting on the selected works of Wei Wendi's Ge Yanxing: "Petunia is the husband, Weaver is the star of Petunia, and it will be held on July 7." It can be seen that Petunia and Weaver Girl have become prominent and commonly used images for poets to express their love and yearning.

Here, we can draw two conclusions.

First, the basic plot or prototype of the legend that determines the life characteristics of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been formed. This is: ① the determination of the love relationship between the cowherd and the weaver girl; ② Tianhe is separated; ③ Meet on Tanabata. Among the three, ① is the key, and the key plot is the injection of love theme (that is, an emotional savings of the group subject). With the injection of love, two unrelated constellations, two legendary gods, have human nature and become husband and wife who embody human feelings, thus producing an independent artistic life system. Once this life is born, it will define and influence the future development with its potential structural function. Constrained by it, the Milky Way, which was originally a natural phenomenon of celestial bodies, got rid of the original matter as soon as it entered this system, and formed a new matter, which became a symbol that hindered the reunion and happiness of Morning Glory and Weaver Girl. It is natural and reasonable that love is blocked and then we meet on Tanabata. Judging from the historical development of the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, the above three basic plots constitute the core elements of its life system. If we compare the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid, which is fully developed later, to a tree with lush foliage, then these three plots are its tree body and trunk. Later development, such as its combination with the stories of "Two Brothers", "Sweater Girl" and "Difficult Husband", gave birth to many colorful plot networks.

Secondly, the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid, as a legend, came into being at the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty and possibly in the Western Han Dynasty. Because, although the above materials can be quoted in the Eastern Han Dynasty and even later in the Three Kingdoms period, they are all written records processed and transformed by literati, and such records must be based on legends widely circulated among the people. We know that it is not easy to spread a legend widely, even in today's developed information media, it is even more impossible to realize it in a short time in ancient times with backward economy and culture. Therefore, we can infer that its actual formation is earlier than the recorded period.

The social background and folk customs behind the legend

Guo Cuixiao: From the development of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, we can find that many new elements have been added in the gestalt process of the legend, such as the old cow, a pair of children, the Weaver Girl's descent to take a bath, the obstruction of the Queen Mother, the meeting between the magpies and the bridges, and so on. What is the social and historical background of these elements? What folk ideas do they reflect?

Ho: As mentioned earlier, the development of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has a long historical process. It started as a story between two stars. Obviously, it was a late story until the story of the old cow and his children appeared. In later legends, this old cow who understands human nature and human language plays an important role in the development of the story. Usually the cowherd's good partner and the right-hand man at the critical moment. For example, her sister-in-law wanted to poison the cowherd, but the old cow told him not to. When the Weaver Girl went down to the lake to take a bath, it was the old cow who pointed out that he had stolen clothes and got a beautiful wife. When the Weaver Girl was brought back to the Heavenly Palace, it was the old cow who gave her life, let the Cowherd commit suicide and flew to heaven to catch up with her. Some legends emphasize Yujia's role in The Old Cow. For example, Cowherd's brother-in-law often takes his own flat food, steamed stuffed buns, fried oil cakes and other delicious foods. With the help of the old cow, the cowherd can go home to drive the cow every time. The old cow designed the separation of cowherd and elder sister-in-law. After the separation, the cowherd ate whatever he wanted in the market, and the expenses were charged to the account. The old cow also told the cowherd to shout "old cow" three times before returning the clothes of the Weaver Girl. Because the Cowherd forgot about it, the Weaver Girl got the clothes and flew back to the Heavenly Palace. But later, Cowherd chased the Heaven Palace by cowhide, and according to the instructions of the old cow, he successfully broke through the "three gates" controlled by the golden lion, the silver lion and the ghost, and finally found his wife according to the instructions of the old cow. According to legend, an old cow is neither a real cow (ordinary cow) nor a real person (ordinary person). It has a special image of ox, humanity and divinity. The intimate relationship between man and cattle in the story not only conveys the relationship between early man and animals, but also clearly reflects the mode and form of production in agricultural society. For a long time, the important tools of agricultural production in China are all kinds of livestock related to land, and some of them are even totems of a social group or nation, so it is very natural to be endowed with divinity. Catal Huyuk's huge bull image in Neolithic (6000 BC) rock paintings implies that the bull is not only a hunting object, but also a sacred object. In the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, the old cow was endowed with surreal skills and personality, which has a profound historical and cultural background. On the one hand, the worship of cattle by working people in China comes from real life. In the agricultural economy and society, cattle are people's loyal helpers, which are directly related to people's fate. It may also be related to the influence of Buddhism. In South Asian Buddhist countries, cows are regarded as sacred animals. India, Nepal and other countries have the custom of worshipping cows. Cattle are called sacred cows, which are protected by law and society. There are canon laws prohibiting the slaughter of cattle. According to Buddhist records, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma live on the face, neck and back of cattle. Cow excrement is the sacred river, milk is the sacred sea, the cow eye is the sun and moon god, and the oxtail is the snake king god. The whole body of a cow is sacred. In Maijishan Grottoes, 90 miles southeast of Tianshui, Gansu, China, there is a "Niuertang" dedicated to cows, which contains a statue of cows. Local farmers called it "Niu Wa with golden hoofs and silver horns" and came to pray for a bumper harvest to touch the "god cow". In addition, I think that the loyalty and integrity of the old cow are integrated with the quality of the cowherd, which can be said to be the extension and sublimation of the quality of the cowherd. It vividly embodies the deep sympathy and sincere help of generations of working people to the hardworking, kind and bullied cowherd, and it is the embodiment of justice and beauty. As for "a pair of children", it is an ideal family model for ordinary people in agricultural society. It is a typical reflection of China's traditional family ethics of carrying on the family line and raising children to prevent old age. Up to now, there are still proverbs of "one son, one woman and one flower" and "a son is not afraid of old age".

The story of The Fairy Descending to Bath conveys at least two cultural messages, 1, the boundary between man and god, and the important role of the lake as "water" in customs. The fairy became human because she took off her clothes or feathers and took a bath in the lake. Without clothes and feathers, they can't go back to the sky. On the surface, clothes and feathers are important media for their metamorphosis, but their hidden function should be "water". "Water" is an important medium for people to become gods or gods to become people, and even people to become ghosts. This can be found in the customs and ceremonies of many ethnic groups. Give a small example, but it can be said to be very typical. In the south of China, children used to be frightened, and there was a ceremony to summon souls. A bowl filled with clean water is covered with a thin paper. The adults shouted the children's names, dipped their fingers in the clear water in the big basin and threw them on the paper towels. When a small water ring appears on the paper towel, it is considered that the child's soul is back. This bowl of water with "soul" was drunk by the child, and the child's fright was cured. The water in a big basin, a small bowl and a small water circle on paper are all considered as places where the soul can stay. In addition, bathing has changed people's social role. For example, a Zambian girl's coming-of-age ceremony has a "bathing" ceremony, and only through the "purification ceremony" can she be transformed into an "adult" who can talk about love.

On the surface, the obstacles set by the Queen Mother are a reflection of the feudal society's opposition to free love between men and women. On the deeper level, they are a tortuous reflection of bar mitzvah and service marriage. There are many works in the novel Cowherd and Weaver Girl, which are circulated in minority areas. After the Cowherd chased the Weaver Girl to the Heavenly Palace, the Weaver Girl's parents (God and mother) refused to accept it. They created many difficulties for Cowherd and tried to destroy his marriage with Weaver Girl. For example, the Miao people's "The Story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" said: The Cowherd went to heaven, and God was very dissatisfied. He repeatedly had problems and wanted to harm him. First, take him to the scene, sneak back when he is not paying attention, trying to make him lost in the bustling crowd and unable to go home; Then let him climb to the tree to peel the fir tree, and then take the opportunity to remove the ladder in an attempt to throw him to death or starve to death in the tree; Then let him burn the mountain fence. When he climbed halfway up the mountain, he set a fire from below and tried to burn him to death. When Cowherd overcame the above difficulties and risks with the help of his wife, God personally poisoned him with poisoned wine. The kind and clever Weaver Girl invited animals to save her husband. At this time, God had to agree to their marriage. They brought their children back to earth. The above-mentioned "problems" mainly include two aspects: one is to complete the task of productive labor; The second is to stand the test of life and death. On the surface, these contents are the test of the skill, wisdom, courage and will of the father-in-law to the son-in-law (Cowherd); But further analysis, we can also see the legacy of "service marriage" and "rite of passage" in early human history.

Guo Cuixiao: Can you explain to us what is "service marriage" and what is "bar mitzvah"?

He: Service marriage was once a popular marriage custom in the history of human marriage. This is a form of marriage, provided that the man goes to the woman's house to work for free. Its specific performance is that men go to the woman's house, live with her family, and engage in all productive labor of her family for free. Only after a certain number of years (labor income is equivalent to the wife's worth) can they take their wives (children) back to their father's house or start their own business. The man "serves" the woman for two purposes. One is to compensate the wife's value with labor; The first is to accept the test of the woman's parents' ability to host the portal and support their wives and children. This marriage custom is the product of the transition from pairing marriage to monogamous individual marriage, which accords with the historical stage of the transition from matrilineal clan society to paternal clan society in ancient times. During the period of pairing marriage, the man marries to the woman's house and takes part in the work of the woman's house, and the children born to her belong to her. In the period of monogamy, a woman married to a man's house to work, and her children were owned by the man. In this way, the convenience of women has changed from one more labor force to one less labor force, which has suffered double losses economically. In order to make up for this loss, wealthy families use bride price as ransom for their wives; Those who are "too poor to hire" have to "take themselves as the quality" and try their best to prove their abilities as economic compensation for their wives, otherwise they will not get a wife. So service marriage appeared.

The inauguration ceremony is a ceremony for uncivilized tribes to accept a school-age youth to join the club through a series of difficult and severe tests. The young man who went through this ceremony showed that he had entered "adulthood" from "boy", and since then he has assumed certain responsibilities to the society (tribe) and obtained certain rights, including the right to get married and start a family (some tribes also hold this ceremony for girls). This is a very old custom, which once existed in all nationalities in the world and has its own unique forms of expression. Its "ceremony" is very mysterious, and it is strictly forbidden for women and people outside the tribe to ask questions. The main content includes two parts: one is knowledge education, and the other is physical and mental torture. According to the survey of ethnologists, the education content in bar mitzvah is very rich and extensive, such as mastering the names of gods believed by tribes, being familiar with related myths and sacrificial methods, being familiar with taboos and secrets of tribes, and mastering production techniques such as farming, hunting and fishing, which includes all the social life knowledge that an adult man must have. Physical and mental suffering is even more bizarre and cruel, and some children were killed in this ceremony. Specific practices, some let boys leave their families and tribes and be exiled to forests or wilderness to experience the hardships of hard life; Some are circumcision, tattoos, tooth extraction and burn scars; Some are locked in mysterious houses, not allowed to talk, not allowed to laugh, not allowed to sleep, and only eat a little food; Some let them live in seclusion, paint them all white (indicating the death of childhood), wash off the white after accepting the ceremony (indicating the regeneration in adult society), or let them bleed all over; Others asked them to walk through the fire, or run in the storm, or swim in ice water, or be bitten by insects; There are all kinds of sudden threats.

Guo Cuixiao: The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl evolved from the love between two gods to the love of an adult god. It was the cowherd who changed from god to man, not the weaver girl. The story is not that a woman on earth married a fairy in the sky, but that a fairy in the sky married a cowherd on earth. Some scholars call this kind of story "the fairy marries the poor", which is not accidental, is it? Could you please talk about the reason?

Ho: I have read the Index of Story Types. It seems that no fairy marries the poor, some are swan virgins, Chinese Valentine's Day and crossword puzzles, but there are quite a few stories with such contents, such as the seven fairies, the people in the painting, the dragon girl and even the snail girl. I think there are three main reasons for the emergence, richness and long-term spread of such stories: first, many poor people in reality can't get married; Second, the marriage between men and women is bound by the feudal ethics of "parents' orders and matchmakers' words" and cannot be independent; Third, both men and women have a strong desire for a better marriage. The last one is the most important. For things that can't be obtained in reality, people will find and be satisfied in the spiritual world of folk art such as "chattering", "telling stories in a dragon gate array" and rap. So it is not difficult to understand that female storytellers and listeners also like this kind of works. Of course, they reflect not the social stage of disorderly marriage and group marriage, but the situation in the marital society.

A mysterious day-July 7th.

Guo Cuixiao: The legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl didn't have the plot of "Tanabata Meeting" at first. Why did you choose July 7th? Is there any inevitability in this choice?

Ho: Meet on Chinese Valentine's Day is a legendary and exquisite pen. This magical and mysterious imagination seems almost absurd. It is in this imagination and absurdity that people's courage and strength are fully expressed, and people's wishes are met to the greatest extent psychologically and emotionally. It is no accident that the date of meeting was arranged on July 7th Festival, which is considered extremely unusual. Besides people's beautiful expectations and expectations, it obviously has profound cultural connotations. First of all, people have a mysterious feeling about "seven", which is related to digital worship. Not only in China, but also in many countries in the world. It is not only common in folk literature, but also in religious ceremonies and scriptures. There is a legend in Buddhism that Sakyamuni changed his face successfully in seven days. Christianity says that God created everything in seven days, so there are seven days in a week. Islam divides heaven into seven layers, namely, pure silver, pure gold, pearls, platinum, rubies and unattainable and unspeakable holy light. Babylonians, Egyptians and China believed that there were seven sacred stars in the sky: the sun, the moon, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Mars and Saturn. At present, the western world still advocates the so-called "seven virtues" and avoids the so-called "seven deadly sins punished by heaven"; Arabs still like to use "seven" to call names; The Japanese often pray for the so-called "Seven Fortune Gods" to bless them; China said that people have "seven emotions": joy, anger, worry, thinking, sadness, fear and surprise; There are seven spectra of light: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple; There are "seven tones" in the sound spectrum: palace, Shang, horn, sign, feather, palace change and Shang; There are "seven treasures" in the treasure; Gold, silver, glass, dragonfly, agate, amber, coral. In addition, there are "seven flavors" in the stereochemistry theory, and the human memory constant is seven; And so on. It can be seen that the worship of "Seven" is a very common cultural phenomenon. One "seven" is unusual, so the "seven seven" composed of two "seven" is of course more mysterious. According to China's ancient books, "The millet is ripe in July, and the seventh day is a positive number, so the elk is precious" ("Taiping Magnolia" (Volume 3 1), and "July 7 is an auspicious day", so it is regarded as an auspicious day to celebrate the autumn harvest, and it was regarded as a day of assembly and amusement during the Han and Wei Dynasties. That day is also the day when the immortals of the Heavenly Palace get together. In "Continued Harmony", "On July 7th, the weaver girl crossed the river and the immortals returned to the palace". Of course, more is to regard this day as a beautiful day for lovers to meet. "Hanwu Story" tells that the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty met the Queen Mother of the West five times, each time on July 7th. In the future, the date of Niu Nv was designated as Tanabata by "the Queen Mother who created the lovers' meeting", which is really people's expectation for "July 7" and all the beautiful meanings contained in "July 7". I have to say that it has a profound cultural background. Mr. Wang Junling, an expert in folklore in China, believes that Qixi is China's Valentine's Day. It is precisely because there are many legends about Valentine's Day in China, the meeting of lovers, the meeting of cows and girls, that it finally falls on such a day. As for the customs related to Valentine's Day in China, begging for children, begging for wisdom and begging for all happiness come from this. I quite agree with her.