Niulang

THE WHOLE FESTIVAL IS THIS COUPLE, AND THE CORPUS HELD NEITHER. Qixi is the most widely observed romantic festival in the Chinese calendar and its two protagonists had no records. The story is not softened here: he takes her clothes so she cannot leave.

Domains

• cattle herding
• the star altair
• the magpie bridge

Relations

• spouse: Zhinü

Sources

• Reference treatment of Zhinü, Niulang and Yue Lao: Niulang the Cowherd and Zhinü the Weaver Girl are the central figures of the Qixi story; Zhinü is a goddess skilled at weaving colourful clouds, the daughter of the Jade Emperor and the goddess of weaving, whose star is Vega, while Niulang is the star Altair in Aquila. Zhinü came down to Earth and, while bathing in a river, met Niulang; he stole her clothes, and unable to return to heaven without them she decided to marry him. When the heavenly queen found out about their union she tore them apart, condemning them to live on opposite sides of the Milky Way. Qixi is celebrated on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month, when a bridge of magpies forms across the sky for the lovers to cross. Yue Xia Laoren, the old lunar matchmaker god, is the Taoist deity in charge of the red thread and of marriages, typically represented with a staff in his right hand, a marital register in his left, and red thread draped over his arms.