Because the myth of cowgirl is related to two famous stars in the sky, and the story itself is vivid and lovely, it is widely circulated among the masses. "Shi Pin Xiaoya Dadong" says: "There is Han Yu, and there is light in prison. Three of the three, Vega, seven times a day. Even if the weaver girl is busy, she can't knit a stripe well. Give him a cow instead of a box. " It is only by grasping the main characters and the main place where the story takes place (Tianhe) and the main "professional characteristics" of two women (women weaving and men carrying cattle) that we can see the clue of the story. Today, we can see the earliest written records of Tianhe Niunv.

After the Han Dynasty, there were many related records. Huainan Confucius said, "The black magpie fills the river into a bridge and crosses the weaver girl." "Custom Pass" said: "The Weaver Girl will cross the river on Qixi, and the magpie will be the bridge." These plots of "black magpies filling the river and crossing the weaver girl" came into being much earlier than written records. I think it may be the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The ancients observed astronomical phenomena. At midnight in early July, both cows and girls appeared on the meridian. Because of the sky effect, the distance between the two stars seems to be much closer, so people regard July 7 as the day when cows and girls meet. At this time, it is the season when black magpies lose their hair. When the ancients looked up at the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in Tianhe, they naturally thought that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl could meet with the help of the bridge of black magpie. Song Luoyuan's "Erya Yi Shi Birds": "On the seventh day of autumn, (Wu Que) was upset for no reason. According to legend, the Rihe Drum and the Weaver Girl will meet in the east of Han Dynasty, and the black magpie will cross the bridge, so it will be all off. " It is very reasonable to explain the cause of "serving the black magpie as a bridge" from natural phenomena. People then regard July 7th as the day when cows and girls meet. In fact, the size of Altair is only 1/3 of Vega's and its mass is only half of Vega's. It is really a pair of "brother and sister love". The two satellites are 16 light years apart. It takes 1 1 km to fly for 400,000 years. It takes 16 years for the other party to hear the call. Two stars in the sky will never meet. But because of the story of Qixi, it was later considered as a women's festival.

I think the protagonist in the original myth of Niu Nv is the "civilian image" of two laborers who are "women weaving and men herding (or farming)", so although it is widely circulated among the masses, it has not been recorded in the literature for a long time. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the country was unified, and the establishment of the imperial system was reflected in astronomy, which described the seemingly chaotic stars in the sky as a hierarchical "star country", including the Emperor of Heaven, the Emperor Car, the Three Princes, the Nine Nobles, the General, the Empress, the Maharaja and the Vega, who were also described as the daughters or granddaughters of the Emperor of Heaven (see Official Records of Historical Records). Because the Weaver Girl has climbed the blood relationship of the Emperor of Heaven, her value has doubled. This may also be the reason why "Chinese Valentine's Day" is attached great importance not only by the people, but also by the court and the official, making it a "national festival".

Yanya Township, Yiyuan County, Shandong Province, is the hometown of the fairy tale Cowherd and Weaver Girl, and the birthplace of China's love culture. The legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl actually originated from the worship of the stars in the primitive belief, which is a deification and personification of the stars.

Some people think that the story of Niu Nv may have originated in the Western Han Dynasty, but it was completed between the end of Han Dynasty and Wei and Jin Dynasties. Many people believe that the story of Niu Nv can be traced back to the era of The Book of Songs. But I think the myth of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has a very old origin and is a primitive myth. Its founding date should be before 2400 BC, when it was the matriarchal period of primitive clan society in China.

Where the hell is Cowherd and Weaver Girl?

This is a poem by Du Fu. In his poem, he said, "Petunia goes out of Hexi, and Weaver Girl is in the east." Pu Qilong, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, said: "The word' Petunia and Weaver Girl' should be reversed. The morning glory is like a Samsung, in Hedong; The weaver girl Samsung is like a tripod, in Hexi. The public pen was accidentally mistaken. " Modern people also said in the book "History of Chinese Astronomy": "The east and west directions are reversed here." Judging from today's astrology, what they said is very reasonable, because Vega is in the west of Tianhe and Altair is in the east of Tianhe. The title of this poem by Du Fu is "Petunia and Weaver Girl", and the whole poem is not long. How can the first two sentences confuse the positions of two stars? It turns out that Du Fu's poem is a classic: Jin's poem "Quasi-Far Altair" wrote: "Altair belongs to the northwest, and Weaver looks to the southeast." Liang Zonggu of the Southern Dynasties wrote in the Chronicle of Jingchu: "To the east of the Tianhe River, there is a weaver girl, the son of the Emperor of Heaven; Woven every year, woven into a brocade skirt. God pitied him for being alone and promised to marry a cowherd in Hexi. After getting married, I gave up knitting. The Emperor of Heaven was furious and ordered him to go back to Hedong and meet him once a year. " This passage is also found in Liang Yinyun's novels of the Southern Dynasties. After Du Fu, Zhang Lei, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, said in his Qixi poem that "the beauty of Hedong is the son of heaven" and "Hexi marries petunia". It can be seen that Du Fu's poems, such as Cowherd to the West and Weaver to the East, are by no means "accidental slips of the pen", and they are used before and after, at least depending on Du Fu's allusions. But why are the actual astronomical phenomena in different directions from Lu Ji's poems, Jingchu Chronicle, Yin Yun's novels, Du Fu's poems and Zhang Lei's poems? Zheng said in the Origin of Astronomy in China: "It is estimated that in 2400 BC, the river drum (Altair) was west of the Weaver Girl." Why is this?

Let's talk about a celestial phenomenon first. Although the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl are stars, their relative positions are not always the same. In fact, their relative position is also changing, but we didn't notice it in a short historical period. For example, the Big Dipper, 654.38+ ten thousand years ago and 654.38+ ten thousand years later, is very different from now; For another example, the "Polaris", known as the center of the star kingdom, refers to the star closest to the north celestial pole. It seems to be still in people's field of vision. In fact, due to the precession of the earth's rotation axis, the North Celestial Pole is slowly and quietly moving its position in the stars. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the Polaris seen in different historical periods is different. In this way, it is not difficult for us to understand why before 2400 BC, the orientation of the two stars, Niu and Nv, did not coincide with Du Fu's astronomical phenomena at that time and today.

How did later generations know the map at that time? How did it spread to the Six Dynasties, the Tang Dynasty and even thousands of years later? Spread to the Six Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty, I think it is because of word of mouth, which shows the charm of the myth of Cowherd and Weaver Girl. As for the star map more than 4,000 years ago, how did future generations know it? As early as the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin had pushed back the astronomical phenomena in history and made remarkable achievements. However, due to the observation accuracy at that time and the mastery of the operation law of celestial bodies, these speculations were not accurate enough; But now, for example, if we use the American sky demonstration software "Sky Map", it can immediately demonstrate the actual starry sky we need at that time and place, including the exact location of almost all celestial bodies such as stars, sun, moon, planets, comets and even extragalactic nebulae. Therefore, it is relatively easy for us to infer the position of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in 2400 BC today.

In my opinion, the position of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in Du Fu's poems is different from that at that time and today, but it coincides with 2400 BC, which inadvertently reveals a secret: the founding age of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl myth is before 2400 BC, which coincides with the position of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Yuan Ke and Cheng Qiang, famous experts in China mythology research, speculated that the origin of the myth of Niu Nv is very old. But when and why "ancient" originated is very old and unknown. Scholars believe that the Yellow River Basin is the cradle of ancient culture in China. As early as 8,000 years ago, agriculture, handicrafts and animal husbandry appeared during the Peiligang cultural period, and they knew something about astronomy. During Yangshao culture (5000-3000 BC), agricultural production further developed. Besides millet, hemp, vegetables and lotus roots are also planted. At that time, in order to meet the needs of production and life, the ancestors had paid attention to observing and understanding the astronomical phenomena and seeking their changing laws. According to the historical chronology of China, most people think that the ancient version of Bamboo Slips Chronology says that the Xia Dynasty was from 2 1 century BC to16th century BC. In 2400 BC, it was equivalent to the matriarchal clan period. Marx once said: "The ancient people experienced their own prehistoric period in fantasy and myth." He also said that in the "barbaric low stage" of human society, "myths, legends and legendary literature without written records were created, which had a strong influence on mankind". The "barbaric low stage" is the matriarchal period of primitive clan society in China. I think the myth of the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid originated in this period.

Vega is one of the earliest stars known to China's ancestors.

The ancestors at that time had paid attention to observing the astronomical phenomena. Besides the sun and the moon, the earliest known stars may be Beidou, the North Pole, Antares and the Weaver Girl. The four seasons were determined by the position of the Weaver Girl in the Xia Dynasty, which shows that the Weaver Girl was a very important star in the eyes of the ancients. Because Vega is a bright star in the northern sky, everyone except arcturus is included. Vega's volume is 33 times that of the sun, its temperature is 5000 degrees higher and its luminosity is 50 times that of the sun. Vega is next to the Tianhe River, which is easier to identify than arcturus. Therefore, the ancestors named the bright star in the northern sky as a star related to "women"-this should be a sign and mark of respecting women in the prosperous period of matriarchal society. During Yangshao culture, the ancestors had planted marijuana, which showed that the matriarchal society had been able to weave marijuana into clothes, and this work was all operated by women.

According to legend, the Yellow Emperor married Lei Zu, the daughter of Xiling, who was the earliest silkworm farmer in China legend. Later generations honored her as the "first silkworm" sacrifice. It can be seen that mulberry planting and sericulture have a long history in China. This is the social background and conditions for the ancestors to respect this bright star by the Tianhe River as a "Weaver Girl". As early as 8,000 years ago, during the Pei Ligang cultural period, animal husbandry appeared, and ancestors began to domesticate and breed pigs and cattle. During the matriarchal clan period, the work of "taming cattle" and "taming cattle for use" was basically operated by men. With the progress of people's diligent observation of stars, in addition to the stars that are easy to know, such as Beidou and Weaver Girl, our ancestors have also known other stars one after another. So he chose three stars on the other side of the Tianhe River ("Hegu II" in the middle is brighter) and named them Petunia. To some extent, this reflects the domestication of livestock by our ancestors. At that time, the development of society had changed from group marriage to pairing marriage. People describe the two stars in the sky as a pair, which is a reflection of pairing marriage in mythology. Petunia is in the west of Tianhe, Weaver is in the east of Tianhe, rising in the east and falling in the west, and men run and women chase, which is probably related to the higher status of women in matriarchal society and their boldness in love. Compared with these two stars, Vega is much brighter than Altair, which shows that there are still traces of female-centered pairing marriage in the myth of Cowherd and Weaver Girl. At that time, the myth of Cowgirl must be very simple. It may just be said that these two stars, one is Weaver Girl and the other is Penny, are a loving couple. Weaver Girl and male shepherd (or plow) work together to create a happy life. This myth is a tortuous reflection of the life of the ancestors at that time, and it is entrusted with their good wishes.