牛郎织女

English (for the teacher)

In China there is a couple who have been married for thousands of years, yet they can only meet once a year. And where they meet is a bridge made of magpies.

They are the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and Chinese people grow up hearing their story. It comes in many versions; here is the one people know best.

Long ago there was a young man whose parents had died when he was little, and his older brother and sister-in-law treated him badly. When the family split up its property, the house and the land went to his brother, and all he got was an old ox. From then on, everyone called him the Cowherd.

One day the old ox suddenly spoke: “Tomorrow the fairies from heaven are coming to the lake to bathe. Sneak off with one set of clothes: the one who loses hers can’t go back to heaven, and she’ll stay and be your wife.”

The Cowherd nearly jumped out of his skin, but the next day he went anyway. The one who lost her clothes was the Weaver Girl, the most skilful girl in heaven. She saw that the Cowherd was an honest man, and she stayed. He farmed, she wove, and a few years later they had two children, a boy and a girl.

The old ox grew very old. Before it died, it told the Cowherd: “Keep my hide. If you’re ever in trouble, put it on and you’ll be able to fly.”

Before long, the Queen Mother of the West found out that the Weaver Girl had stayed in the human world, and in a fury she sent heavenly soldiers to drag her back to heaven. When the Cowherd got home, all he found were the two children, crying for their mother. He remembered the old ox, threw on its hide and, with a shoulder pole carrying two baskets and a child sitting in each, flew up into the sky.

Just as he was about to catch up, the Queen Mother pulled a gold hairpin from her hair and drew a line between them. A wide, deep river appeared across the sky, leaving them on opposite banks. That is the Milky Way we see today.

Flocks of magpies, moved by the pair, flew up to the river and made themselves into a bridge. The Queen Mother could do nothing about it and had to agree: every year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, they may meet on the magpie bridge. An old book even says that magpies go bald on top after Qixi, from spending a night as a bridge.

That is the story of Qixi. Qixi has another name, the Festival of Begging for Skill, because in the old days girls would ask the Weaver Girl for a pair of skilful hands that night. Today many people call it “Chinese Valentine’s Day”, and young people are busier than usual, sending flowers and going on dates.

On summer nights you can still look up and see them: the Cowherd Star, Altair, on the east side of the Milky Way, and the Weaver Girl Star, Vega, on the west. Astronomers say the two stars are more than a dozen light years apart. If the Weaver Girl rang to say “I miss you”, the Cowherd wouldn’t hear it for more than a dozen years.

So next time a friend complains to you that long distance is too hard, you can comfort them: at least you don’t have to wait for the magpies.