Details of the story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl

There are two stone statues in Doumen Sub-district Office in Chang 'an District, which are respectfully called "Shi Ye" and "Shipo" by the local people (1956, these two stone carvings of Han Dynasty were identified as the first batch of protected cultural relics by the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government). With the development of the times and the evolution of history, around these two stone statues, there have been many legendary stories widely circulated among the people, among which the story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, which is listed as one of the "Four Legends of Folk Love Stories in China", has far-reaching influence.

Legend has it that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were originally stars in the sky, and they loved their children for a long time, but they were discovered by the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother interfered with them, stopped them and tried every means to break them up. When Taurus learned about this, he thought that the Queen Mother was meddling and had inadvertently contradicted the Queen Mother. In a rage, the Queen Mother sued the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor was furious, knocking Jinniu to the ground, turning him into an old cow, and Altair was put down to suffer.

Cowherd was born in a peasant family named Sun. There are two brothers at home. Cowherd is a younger brother named Sun Shouyi, and his older brother named Shouren. The two brothers are fairly harmonious, except for the unruly nature of Cowherd's sister-in-law. In order to seize the family property, she tried every means to frame Cowherd. One day, the cowherd was ploughing in the field when the old cow suddenly spoke. Cowherd was surprised, but he didn't expect the old cow to be transformed by Taurus in the sky. The old cow said to the cowherd, "If your sister-in-law gives you pancakes today, you must not eat them. They are poisonous. " When Cowherd came home, his sister-in-law politely served him pancakes. The cowherd took them in his hand, and suddenly remembered the old cow's words, and said falteringly, "There is still work to do in the field, so I'll eat on the way!"! So the cowherd went out with the cake. When going out, Cowherd pretended to drop the cake on the ground. rhubarb dog, who was lying at the gate, saw it and ate it in one bite. As a result, rhubarb dog was poisoned. This time, the plot of Niulang's sister-in-law was exposed. Sister-in-law became angry from embarrassment and offered to break up with Cowherd. Sun Shouren, his brother who went out to collect debts, was also called home. Sister-in-law was greedy when she split up, and her brother Sun Shouren swallowed under her compulsion, so she had to give the old cow, the broken car, the knotted rope (broken into several pieces of straw rope), the worst house-the hut and a piece of thin land to the cowherd according to her wife's meaning.

From then on, the poor cowherd can only live alone with the old cow. One day, the old cow spoke again: "The Weaver Girl descended to earth". Cowherd was about to ask again when he suddenly heard a frolic sound in the lotus pond in the distance. Cowherd wanted to walk around and see the true face of the fairy, but he found a red gauze skirt on the road, whose texture and workmanship are by no means owned by the world. He thought that the fairy must have accidentally let the running water wash down while playing and taking a bath. The kind cowherd picked up his clothes and dried them on a clean sunny stone. He turned the veil from time to time, hoping that the clothes would dry early, so that he could return them to the fairy who was anxiously looking for clothes after taking a shower. After a long time, the fairies rushed out of the bath and rushed back to heaven. At this time, the smallest weaver girl in Seven Sisters couldn't find her veil. This veil used to be a magical coat, without which you can't go back to heaven. In order not to delay the time for her sisters to return to heaven, Weaver decided to look for clothes by herself. She searched and searched, and suddenly she saw something red fluttering on a big stone not far away. She hurried over, and when she saw her veil, she felt an indescribable joy. At the same time, the cowherd quickly got up from the grass and bowed. The Weaver Girl saw the simple and kind Cowherd, and the Cowherd finally saw the beautiful and dexterous Weaver Girl. They fell in love at first sight, don't you know they have fallen in love in heaven? Because she hit it off at first sight, Weaver Girl made a bold decision: She wanted to live an ordinary life with Cowherd on earth, and never went to a paradise full of golden rules again. So they began to build their own small home. Cowherd is hardworking, working in the fields all day, and Weaver is smart, spinning and weaving at home every day. What is even more gratifying is that they have the crystallization of their own love-a man, a woman and two children. The days are getting better day by day, and Weaver Girl has been immersed in a happy time for several years unconsciously. One day, when the cowherd was feeding the grass to the old cow, the old cow spoke again: "Cowherd, I am too old to help you." Take off my skin after I die and keep it well. It can help you when necessary. "It wasn't long before the old cow died. The cowherd took off his cowhide according to the instructions of the old cow and buried the old cow.

One day in the sky and one year underground, a few days later, the Queen Mother called the weaver to the temple to offer brocade, but the youngest weaver did not come, so she called the other six sisters for questioning. When the queen mother knew what had happened, she flew into a rage and wanted to go to heaven to pick up the weaver herself.

On this day, as usual, the cowherd and the weaver girl, one plowed in the field and the other tapestry at home. Suddenly, the cowherd felt something was wrong and ran home. Before I got home, I saw the Weaver Girl being dragged to the sky by the Queen Mother. He ran home quickly, found out the old cowhide, and carried two children with a pole to chase the weaver girl, who was about to catch up. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Queen Mother tore the Hosta off her head and rowed it behind her, and there was a Tianhe river that could not see the other side, that's all.

After returning to heaven, Weaver Girl was placed under house arrest and lived in Lacrimosa every day. After returning to the mortal world, Cowherd also worried about his wife day and night, and the two children kept calling for their mother. All the immortals in the heaven felt that it was cruel to do so, and suddenly cut off the feelings of husband and wife, mother and child. The Queen Mother was also affected at this time, so she made concessions and allowed them to reunite on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year. Magpie brought firewood to bridge the meeting. Many years later, the cowherd who had been laid down on earth returned to heaven and became a morning glory again.

Records about Petunia and Weaver Girl were first found in The Book of Songs, Xiaoya Dadong.

Or take its wine and deny its pulp; I don't know what I am.

Wei Tian has Han, Jian' an has light; The weaver girl falls down seven times a day.

Although it is seven, it is not a service seal; If you look at the cow, you won't recognize the box.

Qi Ming in the east and Chang Geng in the west, ending the day's trip.

This record about Vega and Petunia is regarded by experts as the bud and embryo of the legend of Vega and Cowherd.

In the third year of founding ceremony in the Western Han Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty (BC120th year), the country was not at peace because of the continuous insurrection in southwest Yunnan. The Han government dug a Kunming pond in Nanfeng Village, Doumen Sub-district Office in Chang 'an District, trained sailors to seize Yunnan, and erected cowherd and weaver girl statues on the east and west sides of Chi Pan across the river. According to China's traditional view of space, this layout is the projection of Petunia, Weaver Girl and Hejin in the sky on the ground. Three Auxiliary Huang Tu, Volume Four, Pond Marsh quotes the old saying of Guanfu written by Yang Zhen in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "There are two stone men in the Kunming pond, and there are cows and weaver girls in the pond, which look like Tianhe." There is a sentence in Ban Gu's Xi Du Fu in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Facing the Kunming Pool, the morning glory on the left and the girl weaving on the right are like a vast sea of clouds." Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu" says: "There is the spirit marsh of Kunming, the secret place of black water, ... the cow stands on its left and the weaver girl is on its right."

The place names such as Fenghe and Doumen, which are derived from the water in Kunming Pool, all originated here. It is the reservoir of Kunming Pool in the Western Han Dynasty, like a bucket. Nanfeng Village is named because it is located in the south of Fenghe River. There is a village around Shi Xia, which turned out to be a stone gate, meaning the Watergate of Kunming Pool. Legend has it that after the sailors were trained, Emperor Wudi personally commanded the army to crusade against Yunnan and went to the land of Bashu. The enemy saw that the Han army was well-groomed and had high morale, and thought that the heavenly soldiers would help it, so they lost without a fight. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conquered Yunnan and won a great victory, the whole country celebrated. The common people think that the Weaver Cowherd and the Weaver Cowherd are two immortals who help them, so they have been addressed as "Shi Ye" and "Shipo". After thousands of years, Kunming Pool in Han Dynasty has long been turned into fertile land, but the "Shi Ye" standing in Doumen Town and the "Shipo" standing in the northeast of Liujiazhuang Village in Liuli Town accurately mark the east and west banks of Kunming Pool. But the story has a long history, and the change of geographical environment has led to other contents. In the future, people don't know why the husband and wife "Shi Ye" and "Shipo" separated, so they explain this strange phenomenon in their eyes through their own imagination. They think there must be a reason for the separation of Shipo and Shiye, because there is a big stone in the Shipo Temple now, and people call it "Shi Kang". It happened that there was a small ditch on Shikang, and people imagined that Shi Ye accidentally wet the bed, and Shipo loved cleanliness, so he slapped Shi Ye and went to Doumen. More interestingly, "Shi Ye" ran away in a hurry, leaving his hat and shoes on the way to Doumen. Because some local stones look like hats or shoes, ordinary people also participate in the story.

The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been circulated here for thousands of years, and the people have passed it on from generation to generation, constantly enriching and expanding. This has also become the reason why the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been circulated here for nearly 3,000 years.

The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is closely related to the begging custom on July 7. Tanabata, also known as Jojo Festival, is said to be the night of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year. On that day, the weaver girl met the cowherd and the magpie bridge. The Weaver Girl is a beautiful, clever and clever fairy. On this romantic night, facing the bright Milky Way, ordinary women worship seasonal fruits in the sky, begging fairy girls in the sky to give them intelligent hearts and dexterous hands, so that they can master needlework skills, and even beg for a clever match between love and marriage. Valentine's Day in China is also called "Daughter's Day" because of her close relationship with actresses. The Story of Jingchu Times recorded the influence of this story on customs earlier: "July 7th is the night when Petunia and Weaver Girl get together. She is a woman of Xijia, wearing seven holes (needles) with colorful threads, or using gold and silver stones as needles. Chen Guaguo is clever in court, and there is a happy subnet on the melon, so it is appropriate. " "Miscellanies of Xijing" records that "women in Han Dynasty often wear seven-hole needles in Jinkai Building on July 7th, and all of them use Xi's needles". Jinkailou, also called Jinkailing, is the name of a pavilion in Kunming Pool.

In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, folk activities related to the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl reached a climax again in the ancient capital Chang 'an. There are many poems about Qixi, such as Xu, Du, Li Qiao, Zhao, Li Wa and so on. Based on Bai Juyi's Song of Eternal Sorrow, the biography of Song of Eternal Sorrow has the following records: "The custom of Qin people, Zhang Jinxiu, Chen's diet, tree fruit, burning incense in court, with ingenuity." The same book also said: "It is particularly important to have a palace." "Song of Eternal Sorrow" records, "On the seventh day of July, in the Palace of Eternal Life, we secretly told each other in the quiet midnight world. In heaven, I wish I were a wing bird, growing together on the earth, two branches of a tree ... "The description of Li Yang's touching love also quoted the story of the cowherd and weaver girl meeting in Tianhe on Tanabata. In the 14th year of Zhenyuan in Tang Dezong (798), there were temples dedicated to Shipo and Shiye in Doumen Town, commonly known as Shipo Temple and Shiye Temple. Qiao Qi's activities are also very popular. Wang Renyu's "The Legacy of Qiaoqi Building in Kaiyuan Tianbao" in the Five Dynasties records: "The palace is made of brocade, which is hundreds of feet high and can accommodate dozens of people. Chen cooked with melons and fruits and set up a banquet to worship the cow girl. "

After the Song Dynasty, stories and legends about Cowherd, Weaver Girl, Shipo, Shi Ye and sacrificial activities were recorded in the local records of Chang 'an. For example, Luo Yuan Tian Xiang's Annals of Chang 'an, Volume 7, Zhinv Stone, quoted a new theory and said: "Kunming Pool in Han Dynasty is now a land with Zhinv Stone, which is more than ten feet long. The soil was buried to the knee, and the halberd glared at the original house. The number is Shipo Temple. " The local worship activities of Cowherd and Weaver Maid in Chang 'an are still going on today.

Because of the poet's chanting, the painter's description and the arrangement of the literati, this sad love story gradually spread widely among the people, touching and euphemistic.

Nineteen Ancient Poems depicts "Altair, Jiao Jiao Han and female. Skillful hands, make a loom. There is no chapter all day, and tears are pouring down. The river is clear and shallow, and there are many differences. Ying Ying is easy to water, and his pulse is silent. " Here, the two stars, Penny and Weaver Girl, have already played roles-being woven by machines and missing tears; The Weaver Girl misses Penny all day long and longs to meet each other, but "there are so many flowers in the water that there is nothing to say". The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl began to be woven into a love tragedy in which loving couples suffered isolation. There is a passage in the book "Customs" edited by Shao in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "The weaver girl crosses the river on Tanabata, and the bridge will be held. It is said that on the seventh day, the magpie had no reason to be unhappy, because Liang Yidu crossed the Weaver Girl. (see "China"). They use magpies as a bridge every year, and the story of Chinese Valentine's Day's meeting is also widely circulated among the people and integrated into the customs. During the 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, saying, "Cow is the husband, Weaver is the star of Cow, and it will be held on July 7th. "It can be seen that Petunia and Weaver Girl have become prominent and commonly used images for poets to express their love and yearning. In the Song Dynasty, Qin Shaoyou wrote a poem "The Fairy of the Que Bridge": "Clouds are scattered and clever, flying stars spread grievances, and the silver and the Chinese are far away from darkness. 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. Tender as water, like a dream, reluctant to go home? If the two love each other for a long time, sooner or later. "It is also the interpretation of this eternal love story to the extreme.

The theme of marriage and love is the eternal theme of literature, and the stories and legends of Cowherd and Weaver Girl greatly enrich the performance field of marriage and love theme. Loyalty, freedom, equality, mutual love, tragic color, happy ending and other ethical concepts are also in line with the psychological habits and values of the Chinese nation. The pursuit of true love, so that lovers will be well, embodies the fine virtues of the Chinese nation, which is eternal and national. For more than two thousand years, the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been sung and performed one after another, showing a very prosperous situation. Until today, the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, as the theme of love creation, is still a hot spot in literary creation. In Doumen area of Chang 'an, the origin of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, the story of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is relatively complete, from the wedding of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl on the 17th day of the first month to the meeting on Tanabata. Stories and legends have their local life prototypes-Sun Shouyi and Sun Shouren, whose contents are closer to daily life and skillfully connected with local unique historical objects. Kunming pool, stone master, stone woman, stone kang, stone pillow, stone crown and stone shoes are easy to touch the scene and make the legend more pleasant.

The legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl in Doumen, Chang 'an fully reflects people's good wishes for marriage, love and family happiness in farming society, and has extremely profound national cultural connotation. It embodies people's aesthetic taste and ideals in farming society, and entrusts China people's love ideals. It has always carried forward the spirit of China people's struggle and sacrifice for love loyalty and freedom of marriage, and has important social value for building a harmonious (ideal) family and a harmonious society.

The stories and legends of Cowherd and Weaver Girl are mainly spread in Doumen, Chang 'an through temple fairs, folk stories, local operas and poems. Not only has a large number of poems, songs and prose works been preserved, but also widely reflected in paper-cutting, shadow play, Shaanxi opera, folk songs, nursery rhymes, murals, novels, film and television dramas, Quyi and other works, involving almost all major art forms in the art field. Only The Story and Legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has become a well-known cultural phenomenon, and its influence has spread to surrounding areas. Since its birth, the stories and legends of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl have spread to various regions and ethnic groups in China, and at the same time, they have formed Valentine's Day and Begging for Clevership Festival in China, which has a great influence. After thousands of years of circulation, the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has also spread to South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and has a very profound and extensive influence among Chinese all over the world.

Today, the historical site of Cowherd and Weaver Girl in Doumen, Chang 'an District has been seriously damaged. The existing stone-broken temple has a small area and the houses are very simple. The statue of Shipo Shi Ye is severely weathered, and there are no temples in Shi Ye so far. According to the astronomical phenomena of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in Hehan, Kunming Pool has become a farmland, which greatly reduces the cultural space bearing the legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, and weakens or disappears the vigorous folk activities in the past of Tanabata. As oral literature, the inheritors are mostly older. With the death and aging of many inheritors, they are in danger of losing their files, and many oral stories need to be compiled urgently. The number of local folk literature works and artists around the love story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has dropped sharply, especially the paper-cutting, shadow play and Shaanxi opera, which are full of the color of the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and the content is becoming more and more monotonous.