Have you ever heard a different version of the legend of the Cowherd Weaver Girl?
Now, I'll tell you about one. Once upon a time, there was a child whose parents died when he was young, and he had to live with his brother and sister-in-law, eating chaff every day, and from time to time he would be blinded and disliked by his sister-in-law. For this reason, he can only look in his eyes and remember in his heart. But he didn't dare to say it.
Teenage Cowboy
At that time, people said that there was a sacred cow in the depths of the Eight Hundred Mile Funiu Mountain, but unfortunately no one had ever seen it. The boy was also bent on finding the cow. So he bid farewell to his brother and sister-in-law, walked nine hundred and ninety miles, crossed ninety-nine mountains, crossed ninety-nine rivers, and finally came to the bottom of Funiu Mountain, and finally he searched for nine days and nine nights in Funiu Mountain, and finally found a skinny old cow on a large rock deep in the mountain. When the old cow saw someone coming to him, he raised his head and said to the child, "Child, I was originally a heavenly sacred cow, because I stole the grain seeds from the heavenly warehouse for the human world, and I was sent by the Jade Emperor to hammer down the mortal world." Now my leg is crippled and I can't move. As long as I drink a hundred days of flower dew, I can stand up and walk, will you feed me a hundred days of flower dew? The child nodded his head in agreement. From then on, the child took dew from the flowers every day and fed it to the old cow, and after a hundred days of feeding, the old cow really stood up and followed the child back to the child's hometown. Since then, it has been discovered that wherever the child goes, he leads the old cow there, so people call the child "cowboy.".
Funiu Mountain Sacred Cow
The sun and the moon are like shuttles, time is like an arrow, and in the blink of an eye, Niu Lang has grown up. His brother and sister-in-law thought that Niu Lang ate too much, so his sister-in-law proposed to separate from Niu Lang. Niu Lang nodded in agreement, and he didn't want anything left by his other fathers, just the old cow and a bullock cart. He then built a thatched hut outside the village as his home for him and the old cow.
One day, the old cow suddenly spat out a tea bean from his mouth, he arranged for the cowherd to plant in front of his house, who knew that the tea bean sprouted quickly, and soon grew green leaves, and in less than a month the tea bean vine grew longer and longer, and the cowherd set up a shelf for it to let the tea bean branches climb. Soon, tea bean vines crawled all over the shelf. One night, the old cow suddenly opened his mouth to Niu Lang and said that as long as he stood under the tea bean rack, he could see the fairies in the heavenly royal river bathing. If one of them had a fairy who would be kind to him every day for the next seven days. Then this fairy will be his wife in the future. Niu Lang listened to the old cow's words, and just after dark, stood under the tea bean rack and looked up at the sky. Sure enough, after a while, a group of fairies really came to the royal river and began to take a bath, and after washing, one of the fairies nodded to him. The next day after the fairies had finished bathing, the fairy who had nodded at him yesterday winked at him. Later, on the third night, the fairy began to make love to him. On the fourth day the fairy began to have affection for him. On the fifth night, the fairy began to wink at him. On the sixth night, he saw the fairy begin to hide the things used for spinning and weaving. On the seventh night, the fairy began to pack her own clothes. On the eighth night, the old cow said to the cowherd again, "Okay, put me on the ox cart, and let's go pick up the bride!" The cowherd listened to the old cow's words, so he put the old cow on the ox cart and sat on the ox cart himself. Who knew that he had just sat on the ox cart, and the old cow immediately flew into the sky in the clouds and the fog. In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the Royal River, and Niu Lang found that the other fairies were gone, leaving only a flower-like jade-like woman sitting by the river. So he quickly invited the woman to sit on the ox cart, and then they returned to the world together.
Weaver
Arriving at Niu Lang's house, the fairy and Niu Lang were married in the presence of the old cow. Since then, Niu Lang has driven old cattle to the field every day to cultivate the land. His new wife, on the other hand, spun cotton weaving at home, and it is said that the cowherd's wife woven a cloth that resembled brocade. Dress warm in winter and cool in summer. The pattern on the cloth was red like morning sun, green like brocade, yellow like gold and blue like the sky, it was simply lifelike. Because the cloth that the fairy woven was so good, people called her "Weaver Girl". Since then, the cowherds have been ploughing the fields outside every day, and the weavers have been spinning cotton and weaving fabrics at home, so their days have become more and more prosperous. The two also became more and more affectionate. In a few years, the weaver girl gave birth to a pair of cute children to the cowherd, and the family and the old cow lived sweetly, fortunately happy and blessed!
One day, the cowherd was ploughing the old cow, when suddenly there was a "rumbling" thunder in the sky. The old cow stopped when he heard the thunder, and then with tears in his eyes, he said to the cowherd that because he had violated the rules of heaven for marrying the cowherd and the weaver girl, he would be sentenced to death today. When he dies, let the cowherd peel off his skin. When there is an emergency in the future, put on his cowhide so that the cowboy can go to heaven and earth. As soon as the old cow finished speaking, another thunderclap came from heaven and immediately chopped him to death on the ground. The cowherd then suppressed his tears, and with a sad face, according to the old cow's arrangement, he peeled off his skin and then put it up, and then he buried the bones and flesh of the old cow.
Weaver girl spinning cotton weaving
A few days later, Niu Lang was working alone in the field, when suddenly his son led his daughter to the edge of the field and told him that their mother had been pulled away by an old woman. Niu Lang rushed home to find the cowhide, and then took his son in one hand and his daughter in the other and flew into the sky. After a while, he saw his wife being pulled by the Queen Mother niangniang and flying towards the South Heavenly Gate. Niu Lang sped up his speed in a hurry, and seeing that he was about to catch up with his wife, the Queen Mother Niangniang looked back and saw that Niu Lang was about to catch up, so she took out a golden hairpin from her head and swiped it backwards. Suddenly, a big river with rolling waves blocked the cowherd. People call this river in the sky "Heavenly River".
Since then, Niu Lang has been on this side of the Tianhe River, while the Weaver Girl is on the other side of the Tianhe River. Later, when the Jade Emperor saw that niulang and weaver girl's two children were pitiful, he was moved by compassion, so he asked Niulang and weaver girl to meet on the night of July 7 every year. The magpies in the world were gone that day, and legend has it that they held the tail of another magpie and built a magpie bridge on the Tianhe River, waiting for the cowherd and the weaver girl to meet at the queqiao, it is said that that night, if you stay under the tea bean branch, you can also hear the conversation between the cowherd and the weaver girl!
Queqiao meets