The Origin and Development of Valentine's Day in China
The Origin of Women's Begging for Cleverness on Valentine's Day in China
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.
Nature worship
Qixi originated from people's worship of nature. According to historical documents, at least three or four thousand years ago, with people's understanding of astronomy and the emergence of textile technology, there was a record of Altair Vega. People worship the stars far more than Altair and Vega. They think that there are seven stars representing directions in the east, west, north and south, which are collectively called 28 nights, among which the Big Dipper is the brightest and can be used to tell directions at night. The first star of the Big Dipper is called Kuixing, also known as the champion. Later, with the imperial examination system, the top scholar in the middle school was called "Dakui Scholar in the World", and the scholars called Tanabata "Kuixing Festival" or "Book-drying Festival", which preserved the trace that the earliest Tanabata originated from worshipping stars.
Time worship
Qixi also comes from the ancient people's worship of time. "Seven" and "period" are homophonic, and both the month and the day are "seven", giving people a sense of time. In ancient China, the sun and moon, together with the five planets of water, fire, wood, gold and earth, were called "Seven Obsidian". Seven figures are staged in time among the people, and the calculation of time often ends with "July 7th". In old Beijing, when doing Dojo for the dead, it was often done by "July 7th". Using "seven obsidians" to calculate the current "week" is still reserved in Japanese. "Seven" is homophonic with "auspiciousness", and "July 7th" has a double auspicious meaning, which is an auspicious day. In Taiwan Province Province, July is called "Joy brings good luck" month. Because the happy character in cursive script looks like "seventy-seven", 77 years old is also called "Happy Birthday".
digital worship
Tanabata is also a phenomenon of digital worship. In ancient times, people listed the seventh day of the first month, the third day of March, the fifth day of May, the seventh day of July and the ninth day of September as auspicious days, plus the even number of February 2 and the multiple of June 6. "Seven" is the number of beads in each column of the abacus, which is romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious aesthetic feeling. "Seven" and "wife" are homophonic, so Qixi has largely become a festival related to women.
Reproductive worship
July 7th is a life cycle. The Yellow Emperor's classic naive theory: "Men are only eight or eight, women are only seven or seven, and the essence of heaven and earth is exhausted." "
It says that men are 8 years old and women are 7 years old. The 7-year-old woman is full of kidney qi, and her hair becomes longer when she changes her teeth. On the 27th day, the pulse passed. Tiangui is the essence of kidney, and acts as governor of two veins. Chinese medicine says that "it is the sea of yin and yang, and the five qi are chastity", which means that you can have children when you come to menstruation on February 27. Panax notoginseng has general kidney qi, long and fully developed final teeth. 47. Strong bones and muscles, extremely long hair and strong physique, reaching the peak. On May 7th, Yangming's pulse failed, his face became brown and his hair began to fall off.
Sixty-seven: "Sanyang pulse declines in the upper, the face is burnt, and the hair begins to turn white." July 7 is the end of a life cycle, that is, "any pulse is weak, the pulse is too strong, the sky is exhausted, the tunnel is impassable, and the shape is bad without children." The number "seven" refers to the west, so the meeting on July 7 should be the final birth. I ching: "repeat the same mistakes, come back in seven days, and follow the right path." Confucius' Ying Da Book said: "After the sun's yang disappeared, it took seven days for the sun's yang to revive. This is the natural principle of heaven, so it is called heaven. " "Come back" means going back, that is, rebirth and reincarnation, so the soul is exhausted in 7749 days and full in 7749 days.
Legend has it that Cowherd's parents died young, and his elder sister-in-law didn't like him when he was young. The whole person is closest to the old cow. One day, Cowherd met a fairy, the Weaver Girl. So much for love at first sight. Cowherd fell into unrequited love, and the old cow saw that Cowherd seemed to be in trouble, so he appeared and gave him a plan on how to capture the heart of Weaver Girl.
One day, the fairy took a bath by the river, and the Cowherd decisively took the clothes of the Weaver Girl. The Weaver Girl naturally panicked and begged the Cowherd to return the clothes to her, but of course the Cowherd refused to give her the clothes so simply, so he said, "If you are willing to be my wife, then I will give you the clothes." The weaver girl should come down, because she came for the cowherd, and now they are congenial.
Married life is very happy, even gave birth to a son and a daughter. Later, the old cow died when she was old. The couple felt very sad, but the old cow told the cowherd to keep its skin and put it on for help when she was in trouble. After the old cow died, the couple reluctantly peeled off the cowhide and buried the cow on the hillside.
However, the nightmare came soon. When the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd got married, the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother knew about it and sent people down to catch the Weaver Girl. When the Cowherd was not at home, the gods took the Weaver Girl. The cowherd went home without seeing the Weaver Girl, guessing that it was from heaven, so he remembered the advice of the old cow, put on his cowhide and flew with his two children.
On the verge of catching up, the queen mother was in a hurry, tore off the golden hairpin on her head and rowed to the Milky Way. The once shallow Milky Way suddenly became stormy, and the Cowherd couldn't go any further. Since then, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can only look at each other across the river with tears, forever and ever, and the Jade Emperor and the Empress Dowager can't resist their sincere feelings, allowing them to meet once every July 7th. According to legend, on the seventh day of July, human magpies will fly to the sky to build a magpie bridge for the cowherd and weaver girl in the Milky Way.
Tanabata in the development of Tang and Song poetry, women's begging is also 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.
After the love story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid was incorporated into the begging festival, the folk girls believed it. So every seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid met at the "Magpie Bridge", the girls would come to the flowers to look up at the stars and look for the Cowherd and the Weaver Maid on both sides of the Milky Way, hoping to see their annual meeting, praying that God would make them as ingenious as the Weaver Maid and pray for a satisfactory and happy marriage in time.
Why is Tanabata called Qiao Qi Tanabata, also called Qiaoqi Festival, which originated in the Han Dynasty. Ge Hong's Miscellanies of Xijing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded that "women in the Han Dynasty often put seven-hole needles on the top floor on July 7, and everyone was there".
The first Begging Festival is not to commemorate the love of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, but to commemorate the Weaver Girl who is called "Seven Sisters" by the people. Therefore, Valentine's Day in China is first and foremost a festival for women, and the Weaver Girl is regarded as the goddess of textile and the object of ancient women's worship. On the night of the seventh day of July, ordinary women beg her for wisdom and skillful skills, and of course they will certainly seek a happy marriage and get a husband.
According to the "Tokyo Age Record", "Tanabata is full of family colors and clever sheds." Its grand occasion can be seen. The activity of "seeking cleverness" is actually seeking the cleverness of the Weaver Girl.
There was a custom of begging for cleverness in Han dynasty; In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, women tied colored threads and wore seven-hole needles. In the Tang Dynasty, this custom was particularly popular, in which throwing needles was used to indicate the cleverness of the needle throwing woman, that is, taking a bowl of clear water, exposing it to the sun, and then throwing a small needle on the water to see the shape of the needle shadow under the water.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Tanabata evolved into a "Seven Niangs' Meeting", in which seven girls invited together to wrap all kinds of flower and fruit figures and court utensils with materials such as medulla tetrapanacis, colored paper and rice flour, and displayed them on the table of the Eight Immortals in front of the court on the night of Tanabata for tourists to enjoy, and then they competed together to wear needles to worship the Weaver Girl.
Articles on the origin and development of Valentine's Day in China;
★ The origin and customs of Valentine's Day in China
★ What are the origins and customs of Valentine's Day in China?
★ When did Valentine's Day in China originate?
★ Introduction to the origin of Valentine's Day in China.
★ What are the origins and customs of Valentine's Day in China?
★ The origin story of Qixi Valentine's Day
★ The origin of the traditional festival Valentine's Day in China
★ Allusions to the origin of Valentine's Day in China.
★ When did Valentine's Day in China originate?
★ What is the origin and custom of Tanabata?
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