Legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl

Applicant: Heshun County, Shanxi Province

Project No.: 523

Project No.: i-36

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Folk Literature

Region: Shanxi Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Heshun County, Shanxi Province

Protected by: Heshun Cultural Center

The legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl

Applicant: Heshun County, Shanxi Province

The legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl originated in the pre Qin period. It is one of the most popular and influential folklores in China. It is also known as the "four major folklores" together with Meng Jiangnv, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai and the legend of white snake. For thousands of years, this beautiful legend has been handed down from generation to generation, which has an important impact on the Folk Ethics and public cultural psychology.

The legend of Niulang and Zhinv originated from the book of songs, Xiaoya and Dadong, which is the artistic imagination of shangcan two stars (Niulang and Zhinv) separated by the Milky way in the sky. This poetic image gradually personified the people of later generations, and was endowed with humanistic symbolic meaning, which transformed into the legend of Cowherd and weaver girl. From the basic content and ideological tendency, the legend of Cowherd and weaver girl shows the social structure of men's farming and women's weaving under China's agricultural civilization and the social situation of non free marriage under the feudal patriarchal system. The love tragedy of Cowherd and weaver girl has been widely sympathized by the people, which has become the driving force for the spread and reproduction of the legend, and also promoted the formation of the Qixi begging custom. People often regard the protagonist in the legend as the real person around them, and the place where the event happened as the local area. As a result, there are many related historical sites (such as temples, caves, Niulang village, etc.), and there are related sites of Niulang Zhinu legend in Xi'an, Shaanxi, Yiyuan, Shandong, and Heshun, Shanxi. In the process of modernization, the spread of the legend of Cowherd and weaver girl is gradually showing a declining trend, and it is urgent to strengthen the protection, so that this national cultural treasure can continue to be inherited.