#xiji festival

[dorothygale123]

In honor of the death anniversary of Saint Valentine, where we celebrate his decapitation by giving the same fate to flowers and forgetful boyfriends, we shall be looking at one of the most famous love stories in Chinese mythology. Today, we look at the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

Now, as with all stories that have already been covered by Red from OSP, I recommend watching her video because she's funny and her chibis are adorable. However there will be new information in this post, so feel free to enjoy both.

The version Red covers begins with the 7 daughters of the Jade Emperor and Xiwangmu sneaking down to the mortal realm for some sisterly skinny dipping, only for Zhinu to have her clothes stolen by a passing herdsman, Niulang. She thinks he's super cute and this theft of her clothes is very endearing, so she decides to stay and marry him while her sisters go back home. This displays a very common myth structure where a man finds a magical lady bathing, takes her clothes, and then marries her. Western myths often have this is often an animal bride, but in Asia the bride is likely to be a celestial maiden who is physically unable to return to heaven without the aid of her special raiment.

This is not the only version of the myth, though. One of my sources claims that Zhinu's father decided she'd been doing such a good job that she deserved a break and actually picked some random cowherd, in this story called Chen Li, to be her husband. His expectation was that she would have a short time of wedded bliss and then come back up to heaven to do her job again. Unfortunately Zhinu was unwilling to just abandon her loving husband and 2 children just to do more work, what a surprise.

In both versions, Zhinu's refusal to return pisses off her parents, who just drag her back up te heaven anyway. Naturally, her husband has some objections about it. However, since he's a mortal he can't really, you know, do anything about it, but he ends up getting help from a very unlikely place. Those who've watch Red's video may remember Niulang's "super intelligent ox he's had this whole time, don't even worry about it." Well, this magic ox has a bit of a backstory. It's actually a divine spirit, the Ox Star, that was being punished for some crime by laboring for humanity and was currently under the care of Niulang/Chen Li. In some tellings the ox was even the one who directed his master to the pool where the divine maidens were bathing and told him to steal their clothes, so you could say he's more than a little invested in their relationship. The ox's punishment was conveniently almost over, so he told Chen Li to wait until he died and take his skin and wear it as a cloak, and then he would be able to see his wife again. Chen Li did so and, taking his 2 kids with him, flies up to heaven to go get their mom back.

Unsurprisingly Zhinu's parents didn't take too kindly to this breech of their daughter's forever grounding, so they cut in between the lovers. Some versions say that Xiwangmu cleaved the sky with her hairpin, while others say the Jade Emperor threw a silver scarf down. Either way, the Milky Way was formed to keep the couple separated. This made Zhinu so sad that she would cry, causing soft rains. Eventually, her parents felt kinda bad for, you know, ripping apart this loving family and forever denying their daughter her husband and children, so they decided to let them meet for a whole day every year! On that day, magpies would fly up and make a bridge over the Milky Way so that the family could be together again.

Then they'd be separated again til next year.

Thanks mom and dad.

Sh*tpost Masterlist

[nikidecork111]

Some snaps from my incredible journey through Yunnan this Spring Festival. It was stunning and mighty craic - especially thanks to all the fellower backpackers and locals I met along the way ;) Probably my favourite province in China, it is brimming with stunning nature, indigenous culture and scrumptious food.

* Make sure to add Tiger Leaping Gorge to your list, one of the best treks I've done in my life.

* Go further north than Lijiang, Shangri La is a magical city full of surprises.

* Baishuitai is stunning and nice way to break up the Lijiang to Shangri-la, or visa-versa, journey.

* If in Dali, get a bus out to another small town called Xijie - much more local feel there!

* Go further south from Kunming, the Yuanyang rice terraces maybe a bit far and hard to get to BUT they are most definitely worth the hike.

Thanks to @astonenglish the stretch of school holidays which enabled me to go one more big adventure before leaving China. Get in touch if you're looking for a gateway into China - I can put you in touch with a recruiter. 😉