The origin of Tanabata? How can there be Tanabata in Japan?

The Origin and Legend of Chinese Valentine's Day

Qixi Qiqiao originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong's Miscellaneous Notes on Xijing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty records that "women in the Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles on July 7 in the building, and everyone wears them", which is the earliest record of begging for cleverness in ancient literature we have seen. In later Tang and Song poems, women's begging for cleverness was repeatedly mentioned. In the Tang Dynasty, Wang Jian wrote a poem "The stars are bright and the pearls are bright, and Gong E is busy begging for cleverness". According to "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao", every time Emperor Taizong and his concubines held a banquet in the Qing Palace on Tanabata, the ladies-in-waiting begged with their own ingenuity. This custom is also enduring among the people and passed down from generation to generation.

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Qiaqiao was quite grand, and there was also a market in Beijing that monopolized Qiaqiao goods, which was called Qiaqiao City by the world. Song He's series "Talking about Drunken Weng" said: "Tanabata, the property is a gimmick. From July 1 ST, horses and chariots were swallowed, and three days before Chinese Valentine's Day, horses and chariots were not allowed to pass, and they stopped driving again and again until the night. " Here, we can infer the lively scene of the Jocci Festival from the grand occasion of buying Qiao Qi goods from Qiao Qi. People have been putting up flattering articles since the first day of July, and people are coming and going in the flattering market. By the time of Tanabata, the market of Qiqiao was already crowded with people, as if it were the biggest festival-Spring Festival, which showed that Qiqiao Festival was one of the favorite festivals of the ancients.

The Legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl

Valentine's Day in China is always associated with the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl. This is a beautiful love story that has been passed down through the ages and has become one of the four folk love legends in China.

Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a clever and honest young man in Niujiazhuang, west of Nanyang. His parents died early, so he had to live with his brother and sister-in-law. His sister-in-law, Ma Shi, is vicious, often abusing him and forcing him to do a lot of work. One autumn, his sister-in-law forced him to herd cattle and gave him nine cows, but he was told to wait until he had ten cows, so the cowherd had no choice but to drive them out of the village.

The cowherd drove the cow to the mountains alone. On the mountain with deep grass and dense forest, he sat under the tree and was sad. He doesn't know when he can drive ten cows home. At this time, an old man with white hair and beard appeared in front of him and asked him why he was sad. When he learned what had happened to him, he smiled and said to him, "Don't be sad. There is a sick old cow in Funiu Mountain. You go and feed it well When the old cow is ready, just wait. "

The cowherd walked a long way over the mountains and finally found the sick old cow. Seeing that the old cow was very ill, he went to bundle the grass for the old cow. After feeding for three days in a row, the old cow looked up and told him that he was a great fairy in the sky, but he was sent to heaven because he broke his leg and could not move. His injury needs to be washed with toilet water for a month. Cowherd carefully took care of old Niu Yi for a month, picking flowers for the old cow during the day and sleeping beside the old man at night. After the old cow recovered, the cowherd happily drove ten cows home.

After returning home, my sister-in-law is still not good to him. She hurt him several times and was saved by the old cow. Finally, my sister-in-law got angry and drove the cowherd out of the house. The cowherd only wanted the old cow to accompany him.

One day, the weaver girl in the sky played games with the fairies and took a bath in the river. With the help of the old cow, the cowherd got to know the Weaver Girl, and they hit it off. Later, the Weaver Girl sneaked into the world and became the wife of the Cowherd. The weaver girl also distributed wild silkworms brought from the sky to everyone, teaching them to raise silkworms, spin silk and weave bright silks and satins.

After the marriage of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, a man plowed and a woman weaved, giving birth to two children, a man and a woman, and the family lived happily. But the good times didn't last long, and it was soon known to the Emperor of Heaven that the heavenly queen herself came down to earth and forcibly brought the Weaver Girl back to heaven, and the loving couple separated from each other.

There is no way for Cowherd to go to heaven, or the old cow told him that he could wear shoes with his own skin after he died. Cowherd did as the old cow said, put on shoes made of cowhide and took his children with him. On the verge of catching up, I'm afraid the queen mother pulled out the golden hairpin on her head, and a choppy Tianhe appeared. Cowherd and Weaver Girl are separated on both sides, and they can only cry each other. Their loyal love touched the magpies, and thousands of magpies flew to build a magpie bridge, where the cowherd and the weaver girl met. The Queen Mother has no choice but to allow them to meet on July 7th every year.

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 stars and 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 that they will have a happy marriage, thus forming China's Valentine's Day.

Japanese Tanabata is a related custom and historical origin in Chinese Valentine's Day, Japan. In Japan, people once had the custom of Tanabata, which has a long history and is for the early cultural exchange between China and Japan. China's Tanabata is integrated with Japanese traditional culture. The custom of Qixi was introduced to Japan from China in Nara era, but the Japanese quickly localized it. In addition to the traditional "Legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl" in China, the Japanese added the legend of shed machine. "The Legend of Shed Machine" originated from "Ancient Stories", which tells that in ancient times, in order to solve problems for the village, a girl shed machine knitted clothes at the water's edge and sacrificed to the gods, and married for one night. Since the Nara period, the Qixi memorial shed machine and cowherd and weaver girl have coexisted, and the influence of the legend of shed machine can be seen from the Japanese word "たなばた" on Qixi. In addition, Japanese Tanabata is pronounced as "たなばたつめ" (Weaver Girl) from the Japanese word "Sheji つなばた", and