The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
| The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The reunion of the couple on the bridge ofmagpies.Artwork in theLong Corridorof theSummer Palace,Beijing | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | Ngưu Lang Chức Nữ | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | Ngưu Lang Chức Nữ | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Cowherd [and] Weaver Girl | ||||||
| |||||||
The Cowherd and the Weaver Girlare characters found inChinese mythologyand appear eponymously in a romanticChinese folk tale.The story tells of the romance betweenZhinü(Chức Nữ;theweavergirl, symbolized by the starVega) andNiulang(Ngưu Lang;thecowherd,symbolized by the starAltair).[1]Despite their love for each other, their romance was forbidden, and thus they were banished to opposite sides of theheavenly river(symbolizing theMilky Way).[1][2]Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventhlunar month,a flock ofmagpieswould form a bridge to reunite the lovers for a single day. Though there are many variations of the story,[1]the earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to a poem from theClassic of Poetryfrom over 2600 years ago:[3]
Kinh Thi · tiểu nhã · đại đông |
Classic of Poetry, Lesser Court Hymns, Poem 203 |
The Cowherd and the Weaver Girloriginated from people’s worship of natural celestial phenomena, and later developed into the Qiqiao orQixi Festivalsince theHan Dynasty.[5][better source needed]It has also been celebrated as theTanabatafestival in Japan and theChilseokfestival in Korea.[6]In ancient times, women would make wishes to the stars of Vega and Altair in the sky during the festival, hoping to have a wise mind, a dexterous hand (in embroidery and other household tasks), and a good marriage.[7]
The story was selected as one of China's Four Great Folktales by the "Folklore Movement" in the 1920s—the others being theLegend of the White Snake,Lady Meng Jiang,andLiang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai—but Idema (2012) also notes that this term neglects the variations and therefore diversity of the tales, as only a single version was taken as the true version.[8][9]
The story ofThe Cowherd and the Weaver Girland its two main characters are popular in various parts of Asia and elsewhere, with different places adopting different variations. Some historical and cross cultural similarities to other stories have also been observed. The story is referenced in various literary and popular cultural sources.
Literature
[edit]The tale has been alluded to in many literary works. One of the most famous was the poem byQin Guan( Tần xem; 1049–1100) during theSong dynasty:
Cầu Hỉ Thước tiên |
Meeting across the Milky way |
Du Fu( Đỗ Phủ ) (712–770) of theTang dynastywrote a poem about the heavenly river:
Thiên hà |
The Heavenly River |
Analysis
[edit]Influence and variations
[edit]The story of the cowherd and weaver girl spread across Asia, with different variations appearing in various languages and regions over the course of time. In Southeast Asia, the story has been conflated into aJataka taledetailing the story ofManohara,[12]the youngest of seven daughters of theKinnaraKing, who lives onMount Kailashand falls in love with Prince Sudhana.[13]
In Korea, the story focuses on Jicknyeo, a weaver girl who falls in love with Gyeonwoo, a herder. In Japan, the story revolves around the romance between the deities,Orihime and Hikoboshi.In Vietnam, the story is known asNgưu Lang Chức Nữand revolves around the story of Chức Nữ, the weaver, and Ngưu Lang, the herder of buffalos.[needs context][14]The Vietnamese version is also titledThe Weaver Fairy and the Buffalo Boy.[15]
Tale type
[edit]In the first catalogue of Chinese folktales (devised in 1937),Wolfram Eberhardabstracted a Chinese folktype indexed as number 34,Schwanenjungfrau( "The Swan Maiden" ): a poor human youth is directed to the place where supernatural women bathe by a cow or a deer; the women may be Swan Maidens, a celestial weaver, one of thePleiades,one of the "9 Celestial Maidens", or a fairy; he steals the garments of one of them and makes her his wife; she finds the garments and flies back to Heaven; the youth goes after her, and meets her in the Heavenly realm; the Heavenly king decrees that the couple shall meet only once a year.[16]Based on some of the variants available then, Eberhard dated the story to the 5th century, although the tale seems much older, with references to it in theHuainanzi(2nd century BC).[17]Eberhard also supposed that the fairy tale preceded the astral myth.[17]
Chinese folklorist and scholarTing Nai-tungclassified the versions ofThe Cowherd and the Weaver Girlunder theAarne–Thompson–Uther IndexATU 400, "The Quest for the Lost Wife".[18]The tale also holds similarities with widespread tales of theswan maiden(bird maiden or bird princess).[19]
Cultural references
[edit]- Reference to the story was made byCarl Saganin his bookContact.[20]
- Episode 63 of the 1981-1986 JapaneseanimeDr. Slump - Arale-chan,based on the mangaDr. SlumpbyAkira Toriyama,parodies the tale.
- The story, as well as the puppetry shown, was told by Meiying to Dre Parker during theQi Xi Festivalin the filmThe Karate Kid.
- The tale and theTanabatafestival are also the basis of theSailor Moonside story entitled "Chibiusa's Picture Diary - Beware the Tanabata!", where both Vega and Altair make an appearance.[21]
- The post-hardcore bandLa Disputenamed and partially based their first album,Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair,after the tale.
- The JRPGBravely Second: End Layeralso uses the names Vega and Altair for a pair of story-important characters who shared a love interest in each other years before the game's story began, Deneb being their common friend.
- TheK-popgirl groupRed Velvet's song "One of These Nights"from their 2016 EPThe Velvetalso references the legend of the two lovers.
- J-popbandSupercellalso references the story on its song "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari".
- The novelBridge of BirdsbyBarry Hughartis centered around the tale, but incorporates many more Chinese folk stories while retelling the tale.
- Korean girl groupDreamcatcher's song "July 7th" from their EPAlone in the City,is based on this tale.
- TheSouth Korean television seriesVincenzofeatures a reference to the legend of the lovers, in which Vincenzo mixes up the names from the Korean tale.
- In the twelfthMagic Tree Housebook, "Day of the Dragon King", Jack and Annie save this story fromEmperor Qin'sbook burning,then use it to escape theemperor's mausoleum.
- InThe Big Bang Theory,S07E19 "The Indecision Amalgamation", Raj references the story to Penny as a romantic folk tale.
- TheK-popboy groupTreasure's song "Bling Like This", the b-side track from their second single albumThe First Step: Chapter Twois also based on this story.
- The Japanese rock groupAlice Nine's song "Heisei Jyuushichinen Shichigatsu Nanoka" from their 2005 EPAlice in Wonderlandis based on this story.
Similar to theChang'e space programbeing named after theChinese goddess of the moon,theQueqiaoandQueqiao-2relay satelliteis named after the "bridge of magpies" from the Chinese tale of the cowherd and weaver girl.[22]The Chang'e 4 landing site is known asStatio Tianhe,which refers to the heavenly river in the tale.[23]The nearbyfar-side lunarcraters Zhinyu and Hegu are named afterChinese constellationsassociated with the weaver girl and the cowherd.[23]
In Japan, theEngineering Test Satellite VIImission was an automated rendezvous and docking test of two satellites nicknamed "Orihime" and "Hikoboshi."
Gallery
[edit]-
Zhinü with a shuttle in her hand, painted by Zhang Ling,Ming dynasty -
Zhinü crossing the River of Heaven, as painted byGai Qi,1799 -
Zhinü as depicted on the ceiling ofMuxuyuan Station,Nanjing. -
Zhinü and Niulang, by the Japanese painterTsukioka Yoshitoshi. -
Depiction of the creation of the River of Heaven (Milky Way), painted byGuo Xu,Ming dynasty -
Rendezvous in the Milky Way -
The painting of Niulang - Zhinü in the bookVân tiên cổ tích truyệnof theNguyễn dynastyby Lê Đức Trạch
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^abcBrown, Ju; Brown, John (2006).China, Japan, Korea: Culture and Customs.North Charleston: BookSurge. p. 72.ISBN978-1-4196-4893-9.
- ^Lai, Sufen Sophia (1999). "Father in Heaven, Mother in Hell: Gender politics in the creation and transformation of Mulian's mother".Presence and presentation: Women in the Chinese Literati Tradition.New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 191.ISBN978-0312210540.
- ^Schomp, Virginia (2009).The Ancient Chinese.New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. p. 89.ISBN978-0761442165.
- ^Karlgren, Bernhard(1950).The Book of Odes(PDF).Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
- ^Schomp, Virginia (2009).The Ancient Chinese.New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. p. 70.ISBN978-0761442165.
- ^Hearn, Lafcadio; Rogers, Bruce (1905).The romance of the Milky Way: and other studies & stories.Wellesley College Library. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- ^"Cultural discourse on Xue Susu, a courtesan in late Ming China".International Journal of Asian Studies; Cambridge.
- ^Gao, Jie.Saving the Nation through Culture: The Folklore Movement in Republican China.Contemporary Chinese Studies. University of British Columbia Press.
- ^Idema, Wilt L.(2012)."Old Tales for New Times: Some Comments on the Cultural Translation of China's Four Great Folktales in the Twentieth Century"(PDF).Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies.9(1): 26. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2014-10-06.
- ^Qiu, Xiaolong (2003).Treasury of Chinese love poems.New York: Hippocrene Books. p. 133.ISBN9780781809689.
- ^Owen, Stephen [translator & editor], Warner, Ding Xiang [editor], Kroll, Paul [editor] (2016).The Poetry of Du Fu
,Volume 2.De Gruyter Mouton.Pages 168–169.ISBN978-1-5015-0189-0
- ^Cornell University (2013).Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University: Fall Bulletin 2013.Page 9. "It is generally accepted that the tale of Manora (Manohara) told in Southeast Asia has become conflated with the story of the cowherd and the celestial Weaver girl, popular in China, Korea, and Japan. This conflation of tales, in which Indian and Chinese concepts of sky nymphs cohere, suggests a consummate example of what historian Oliver Wolters refers to as “localization” in Southeast Asia.
- ^Jaini, Padmanabh S. (ed.) (2001).Collected Papers on Buddhist StudiesPage 297-330.ISBN81-208-1776-1.
- ^Landes, A.Contes et légendes annamites.Saigon: Imprimerie Coloniale. 1886. p. 125 (footnote nr. 1).
- ^Vuong, Lynette Dyer.Sky legends of Vietnam.New York, NY: HarperCollins. 1993. pp. 54-80.ISBN0-06-023000-2
- ^Eberhard, Wolfram (1937).Typen Chinesischer Volksmärchen.FF Communications (in German). Vol. 120. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica. pp. 55–57.
- ^abEberhard, Wolfram (1937).Typen Chinesischer Volksmärchen.FF Communications (in German). Vol. 120. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica. pp. 58–59.
- ^Nai-tung TING.A Type Index of Chinese Folktales in the Oral Tradition and Major Works of Non-religious Classical Literature.(FF Communications, no. 223) Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1978. p. 65.
- ^Haase, Donald.The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales: A-F.Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. p. 198.
- ^Sagan, Carl(September 1985).Contact.Cover illustration byJon Lomberg(1st ed.). New York.ISBN0-671-43400-4.OCLC12344811.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^"Chapter 2 Beware of Tanabata - WikiMoon".wikimoon.org.Retrieved2021-02-11.
- ^Wall, Mike (18 May 2018)."China Launching Relay Satellite Toward Moon's Far Side Sunday".Space.Future plc.Archived18 May 2018 at theWayback Machine
- ^abBartels, Meghan (15 February 2019)."China's Landing Site on the Far Side of the Moon Now Has a Name".Space.Future plc.Archived15 February 2019 at theWayback Machine
Further reading
[edit]- Yu, Eric Kwan-wai (1998). "Of Marriage, Labor and the Small Peasant Family: A Morphological and Feminist Study of the Cowherd and Weaving Maid Folktales".Comparative Literature and Culture.3:11–51.
- Ping, Xu (2016). "All the way to the Altair and the fable of cowherd and the weaving maiden".Proceedings of the 2016 2nd International Conference on Education Technology, Management and Humanities Science.Atlantis Press.pp. 708–711.doi:10.2991/etmhs-16.2016.156.ISSN2352-5398.
External links
[edit]- Zhao, Shannon (2022)."The myth of the original star-crossed lovers".TED-Ed.