The ancients had long ago realized that the further north they went, the higher the North Star rose, and of course the Big Dipper would rise just as high. They wondered, if they went further north, would the Big Dipper rise above their heads and veer southward? This is entirely possible, and some people have actually seen such a sight. I will tell my friends the story of "Huo Zhaodong looking at the Big Dipper upside down".

Huo Daizi was a general during the Western Han Dynasty, a native of Pingyang County in Hedong County (now Linfen, Shanxi Province), and the nephew of Wei Qing, another general known as the "Invincible General". At that time, the Xiongnu in the north often plundered the borders of the Han Dynasty. When Huo was 18 years old, he was dispatched to lead an expedition against the Xiong Nu. He led 800 cavalrymen into the enemy line, killing more than 2,000 Xiong Nu soldiers and capturing the uncle of Xiong Nu's monarch, making him famous for his bravery and courage, and he was named Marquis of the Champion of the Two Thousand and Five Houses by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

After a few victories, the Xiongnu's military power was greatly weakened, and they had to retreat to the far north of the Great Desert. In the fall of 120 B.C., more than 10,000 Xiong Nu cavalry attacked the south again, penetrating deep into the right Beiping area (the northern part of present-day Hebei Province), killing and looting, and thousands of Han border people died under the Xiong Nu iron horsemen. So Emperor Wu of Han decided to go on an expedition to the north of the desert to completely destroy the Xiong Nu army.

That year, Emperor Wu mobilized 100,000 cavalry as well as hundreds of thousands of infantry and supply wagons, led by Wei Qing and Huo Daizi, and marched to the north of the desert on two roads, east and west. Huo Zaiwei led his army from Dai County (present-day Dai County, Shanxi), and set out, galloping across the great desert area, marching more than 2,000 miles, and finally captured the main force of the enemy army. Then Huo Zaizi commanded the Han army to launch an onslaught, a fierce battle began, the lance like straw like broken, reckless grassland, abandoned bodies, the mountains and rivers change color, the sun and the moon. After several days of bloody battle, the Han army finally won. In this battle, 70,000 enemies were annihilated, and almost the whole army of King Zuo Xian of Xiong Nu was destroyed. Huo Zuozheng led his army to pursue them to Wolf Juxu Mountain (present-day Del Mountain or Hangai Mountain in Mongolia). To celebrate this victory, Huo Zaiwei led his troops to build a mountain of soil at the top of Wolf Juxu Mountain and held a ceremony of sacrifice to heaven.

When he took a walk outside the camp in the evening and looked up at the Big Dipper, he was surprised to find that the seven stars of the Big Dipper had crossed the zenith of the sky and veered to the south. He saw the inverted Big Dipper pattern for the first time, and almost didn't recognize it at first glance. He hurriedly greeted his generals to watch it with him, and they all wondered at the strange sight, thinking that the sky was as round as a lid, and the place was like a chessboard, and that the mysteries of the universe were inexpressible. Afterwards, Huo Zaiwei in the nearby Gouyan Mountain held a sacrifice to the Zen ceremony, and climbed to the North Sea (now Lake Baikal), carved a monument, buried there, and then returned to the dynasty in triumph. This is the story of "Huo Zaiwei looking at the Big Dipper". Unfortunately, Huo died soon after his return to China at the age of 24. This military genius did not talk about enjoyment, but fought for the cause of border guarding all his life, and two of his famous lines have been passed down to this day: "If the Xiong Nu has not yet been destroyed, what is the home for!"

The latitude of Lake Baikal is about 55_N, and the Big Dipper turns to the southern sky when it goes up to the middle sky. This is indeed a rarity for people who grew up in the Central Plains. Liu Shang of Tang Dynasty wrote in his poem "Eighteen Beats of Hu Jia": "It is strange that the spring breeze does not come for a long time, there are no flowers and willows in Huzhong terroir, who knows that the sky turns over and the earth is turned upside down, and now we are looking at the Big Dipper in the south." It is also lamenting this sight.

2. Yan Chao bribed the Big Dipper

Because of the key position and striking shape of the Big Dipper, its status in the minds of ancient Chinese people became higher and higher day by day. Later the Big Dipper became the constellation that governs people's life and death. Gan Bao of the Eastern Jin Dynasty wrote the supernatural novel "So Shen Ji" has this story:

A man named Yan Chao, asked the plains people tube chariot face, the tube chariot said: "Your face is not good, there is a premature death of the face." Yan Chao heard very anxious, then asked if there is no remedy. Guan chariot closed his eyes and counted for a while, said: "Ten days later, you bring a large package of cooked venison and a large pot of wine, go to a certain mountain, where there is a piece of cut wheat, south of the ground there is a large mulberry tree, under the tree, there are two playing chess immortals, you do not have to say anything, with the meat and wine to serve them well on the line."

Yan Chiu rushed to the mountain wheat field under the big mulberry tree on this day with good wine and meat, and there were really two immortals playing chess there, Yan Chiu quietly approached, placed the wine and meat on both sides of the board, and stood on the side to watch the game himself. The two immortals were so engrossed in the game that they didn't realize that they had touched the wine and meat and then ate it, and in less than half an hour, they had eaten up all of Yan Chao's wine and meat. When the game was not yet finished, the immortal sitting on the north side looked up and said, "Aren't you Yan Chao? Is this wine and meat yours?" Yan Chao replied respectfully, "Yes." The immortal said, "Your life span is over, why are you still here?" At this point the immortal sitting in the south snapped, "Older brother, you just ate and drank from someone, how can you be so heartless, add a few years to their life!" The one in the north said, "The book of life and death is all set, how can you increase it?"

The south side said, "You're embarrassed, I'll do it for you." He said, he asked the immortal from the north to ask for a big ledger, turned over a page and wrote: Yan Chao, 19 years old. The immortal from the south added two strokes to the word "one" to make it "ninety-nine years old".

The result was that Yan Chao really lived to be ninety-nine years old. It turns out that these two immortals, sitting in the north is the North Dipper, the south is the South Dipper (one of the twenty-eight constellations). Because of the "South Dipper note life, North Dipper note death", a person's life, from the hands of the South Dipper to the North

Dipper, so the book of the North Dipper determines a person's lifespan. It seems that the gods are also good accommodation, this is really "the gods have their own gods, the world as a chess game is not finished".

Why is the Big Dipper destined to live and die on earth? This argument also has a root, ancient China, people and people have very little communication, transportation is not developed, obstacles and difficulties are very much, the Big Dipper became people usually go out to judge the direction of the important basis, so people take it as a lifesaving "lighthouse", as a god to worship.

3. Wang Mang and the Big Dipper

Because the Big Dipper circled around the North Pole, where the "Star of the Celestial Emperor" is located, day and night, from very early on, the Big Dipper became the car of the Celestial Emperor. Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty said in the "Records of the Grand Historian" that "The Book of the Heavenly Officials" said, "The Dipper is the vehicle of the Heavenly Emperor. The Book of Heavenly Officials", said: "The Big Dipper is the emperor's car, which is transported in the center and controls the four directions". Meaning: the Big Dipper is the carriage in which the Emperor of Heaven sits, and the Emperor of Heaven takes the center as the hub and sits on the carriage to tour the four directions without stopping. The capital of the Han Dynasty is Chang'an, Chang'an also has an individual name "Doucheng" is also from this concept.

Eastern Han Dynasty in the middle of the first century, Shandong Jiaxiang County, Wu Kaiming Tomb Stone Shrine, engraved with the "bucket for the emperor car map", the map of the Big Dipper seven stars, four stars before the composition of the moped, there is an image of the emperor sitting in the bucket spoon, after the three stars to form the car. This car has no wheels, and it travels on clouds and mist.

The Big Dipper has such a high status that all the emperors have been extremely worshipful of it, but if things go too far, they will become very ridiculous. I will tell you a story about Wang Mang and the Big Dipper.

The end of the Western Han Dynasty, the court out of a powerful minister called Wang Mang, he is neither a military general, nor a politician, can only be considered a Confucian, he abolished the Han Dynasty emperor, self-established as the king, established the name of the dynasty called "new", a Confucian by years of painstakingly established his own dynasty, which is also unique in the history of China. This is unique in Chinese history.

Wang Mang was originally a relative of the emperor, and after a period of time in the political arena, he reached the position of minister and then retired. Originally, he had the possibility to spend the rest of his life in peace, unexpectedly, after a short time, the emperor Liu Xin died, the royal family without a queen, and even a man to preside over the funeral can not be found. So, the Empress Dowager, Wang Zhengjun, Wang Mang's aunt, declared Wang Mang into the court, asked him to preside over the funeral, and appointed him as the Grand Secretary of State and the Minister of the Shangshu. In this way, Wang Mang had the highest military power and the highest administrative power in the whole country, and became a pivotal figure at once.

While in one person, ten thousand people, Wang Mang has been very humble, benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, faith, none of them do not let the people convinced, the whole day to set up a bowing and scraping, for the country's affairs, the image of a loyal and courageous ministers. For example, when Wang Mang betrothed his 14-year-old daughter to the emperor Liu衎 as the empress, the court rewarded Wang Mang with two counties and two townships of land and a bride price of 10,000,000 yuan, but Wang Mang refused to accept it and donated all the money for the relief of disaster victims. This act made the whole country grateful, and the whole country praised him as a sage who had never been seen before.

When he became so powerful that even the emperors obeyed him, he realized that he was already the uncrowned king, and he stopped being humble. He realized that he was no longer the king, and that he was no longer humble. Seeing that several emperors in a row were mediocre, and that many of the ministers were greedy and selfish, and that the country was poor and the people were discontented, it was clear that the Han Dynasty was about to run out of steam, and that he should be the king himself! So in 8 A.D., Wang Mang abolished the side of the child emperor Ru Zi Ying, himself on the throne, change the country's name for the "new", built the year for the "beginning of the country".

If Wang Mang can make the country well governed, no matter at that time people or descendants, will also be pleased to recognize the dynasty, but unexpectedly by the two-faced approach to Wang Mang, in politics can only be regarded as a third-rate role, never Han founding emperor Liu Bang's eloquence and flipping clouds wrist. He especially longed for the ancient ideal society written in the books of the Confucian scholars, so he made a big operation on the whole society and engaged in the reform of the ancient system, from the currency, the official system, the decree, the service to the administrative division, and changed whatever he wanted to change. The only tax item, let the good farmers farming income, not enough to pay the tax, the family food and clothing, not yet starved to death, had to rebel.

Wang Mang thought, since the Big Dipper is the emperor's car, then imitating the shape of the Big Dipper to create a talisman on the side, it will be able to bless themselves. In the ninth year of his ascension to the throne, he saw that there were too many rebels and his position was unstable, so he decided to cast a "Weidou". In August of this year, the casting work in the southern suburbs of the capital began, he personally supervised the scene. Widow is mixed with copper color stone casting, shape like the Big Dipper, long two feet five inches, he firmly believed that this thing must be within the blessing of their own stability in the throne, outside can help themselves to kill the rebels. Therefore, he slept on the Dragon bucket on the side of the bed, the court rested in the imperial seat, travel is to be carried in front of the imperial chariot.

But the peasants' revolt intensified and finally broke out into a nationwide uprising. In 23 A.D., the Green Army, one of the rebel forces, surrounded the city of Chang'an, then stormed the city and fought a fierce battle with official troops. On the next day, all the officials of the government offices ran away. Seeing that the Green Army was approaching the gate of the palace, Wang Mang led all the people to the front hall of the Weiyang Palace, and sat on the ground with the Big Dipper in his hand, looking like he was strategizing and deciding to win a thousand miles, and the "Astronomical Man Lang" followed beside him, operating the astrological instruments constantly to simulate the direction of the Big Dipper in the daytime, so as to allow Wang Mang to adjust the sitting position and the direction of the Big Dipper to coincide with the Big Dipper in the sky. The Dipper in the sky. -This action, Wang Mang as a ruler is not at all good, he casting Wei Dou cheat others just, but he even cheated himself. While cheating himself, he also recited the words: "Born in the virtue of I, Han soldiers as I how!" Wang Mang is worthy of a great scholar, this time also literary creations to apply the words of Confucius. The original words of Confucius are: "Born with virtue in I, Huan brown bear its like I how!" When Confucius traveled to study, the Song state's Secretary of Huan Huan wanted to kill him, accompanied by the students proposed to run away, Confucius calmly said this sentence, meaning: my virtue is God gave me, Huan Huan can do what I do?

Early in the morning of the third day, his soldiers helped Wang Mang to get into the car, and ran to the gradual stage - the astronomical observatory in charge of the time and calendar, the constellation in the sky is also called the gradual stage, which is part of the Vega shuttle - the gradual stage is in a large pool, Wang Mang thought: with the water blocking, perhaps can hold out a little longer. At this time he also embraced the Weidou not to let go. The green army will be gradually surrounded by the platform, the first shot arrows, arrows finished, then short combat, Wang Mang's soldiers dead and wounded, evening, the green army finally attacked the platform, Wang Mang was killed, the "new Mang" regime 15 years on the collapse of the platform.

Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem: "The Duke of Zhou was afraid of rumors on the day of Wang Mang's humble usurpation, so that the body died at the beginning of his life. Indeed, if Wang Mang died before he took over the Han Dynasty, he would have left a Zhu Geliang-type figure to history, and perhaps there would be a "Wang Mang Shrine" for us to admire, but now we have to go along with history to denigrate him.

4. A line to pardon the world

There is another story about the Big Dipper, which is derived from a line of astronomers in the Tang Dynasty.

A line, whose real name was Zhang Sui and whose monastic name was Line, was the first great astronomer in Chinese history. According to "Ming Emperor's Miscellany", his family was very poor when he was young, and his neighbor Wang Lou Lou was very kind and often helped him. Later, he was honored by Emperor Li Longji and became very influential in the imperial court. Once, Wang's son was convicted of murder and was about to be executed. The king's son was convicted of murder and was about to be executed, so he had to come to the line for help.

The line was very difficult and said, "If you are short of money, you can take it from me, but I can't show any favoritism to your son because he has violated the law of the land." When she heard this, she was very angry and said, "What's the use of knowing you as a ministerial monk? So many years have been spent helping you for nothing!" After saying this, she left in a huff without looking back.

Look at their past benefactor can not help, a line feel very guilty, but he did not dare to bend the law, so decided to use "magic", from the root to a big "bend the law". He let a room in the Hun Tian Temple, moved into a large urn, and quietly found two workers, said to them: "Starting tomorrow afternoon, you in the backyard workshop in the waste garden ambush, see an animal to come in, go up and catch them, a **** seven, one can not be less. Run off with one, and beware of a whipping."

The two men in the abandoned garden ambush, to the sunset, really do not know where to come a group of pigs scampered into the garden, the two men seven hands and feet to catch all these pigs into the urn, exactly seven. A row of wooden boards to cover the urn, to the God clay seal, and with a Zhu pen on the writing of some who do not know the strange words.

The next day, the emperor Li Longji called a line to the temple. As soon as the line arrived, the emperor asked, "The Imperial Historian came to play, last night in the sky is missing the Big Dipper seven stars, what is this sign?" A line said: "In the past, when the Wei Dynasty, there was a Mars disappeared. This time, the occurrence of the disappearance of the emperor's chariot is something that has not happened in ancient times. Generally speaking, if the star representing the grass people is not in its place, there may be disasters of water, drought and frost; now that even the emperor's carriage is missing, I am afraid that it is very unfavorable to the country and to you, Your Majesty."

Listening to this nonsense, Li Longji was scared out of his wits, and asked, "Master, do you have any way to save it?"

A line of leisurely out, "I believe that as long as your majesty does a great thing that is full of virtue, you will eventually be able to move the stars."

Li Longji asked, "How can you do something of great virtue enough to move the stars?"

One line said, "We Buddhists advocate forgiveness of all people, and to make enough great virtue, there is no better way than to grant amnesty to the whole world."

Li Longji slapped his thigh: "Good!" So announced a general amnesty. All kinds of criminals who were to be beheaded and beheaded, were acquitted of all charges, and Wang Lou Lou's son was also saved.

The next day evening, the historian said the first star in the Big Dipper appeared, and then one day out of a, to the seventh day all out. In fact it was released one by one in a row.

By this story, the Big Dipper is still the pig god, which has also been in Liaoning Hongshan culture, Shandong Dawenkou culture, Zhejiang Hemudu culture sites have found some evidence.

From this story, we can also see how powerful those astronomical elites in ancient times were, who dared to play the emperor in the palm of their hands.

5. The story of Kui Xing

Look, in the eyes of the ancients, the Big Dipper is the emperor's treasure car, is the people of the gods of life, and is the pig god, but that's not all! Friends must have heard of the word "Kui Xing", right! Kui Xing is the first four stars of the Big Dipper, they are dominating the world of fame and fortune of the God, because of this, the ancient literati worship Kui Xing worship the most ferocious.

Many places in China have built "Kui Xing Building" or "Kui Xing Pavilion", the main hall of the Kui Xing statue. People who have not seen the Kuixing statue may think, since the Kuixing is in charge of the merit examination, must be a refined white-faced scholar, right? In fact, on the contrary, the Kuixing hideous face, gold body green face, red hair and eyes, head and two horns, the whole seems to be the shape of the ghost. This Kuixing right hand holding a large brush, called Zhu Pen, left hand holding an ink bucket, right foot Golden Cock Stand Alone, underfoot stepped on the sea of a large arowana (a kind of big turtle) head, meaning "dominate the head", the left foot lifted up the back kick, the foot is the Big Dipper seven stars.

The story of Kui Xing is like this: In ancient times, there was a scholar whose name is no longer available, so let's just call him Kui Xing. This person is too smart, talent, high eight, readily recite, export, but it is ugly, so the interview repeatedly failed. How does he look like? It is said to have been ugly, and long face pockmarked, a also crippled, walking a limp, but he wrote too good, finally was the countryside, will be admitted step by step, again and again high school top. To the temple examination, the emperor personally interviewed his literary talent, a look at his appearance and draw a circle on the temple walking posture, the heart is not happy, the emperor asked: "What is your face?" He replied, "Back to the emperor, this is 'hemp face reflecting the heavenly image, holding picking stars and buckets'." The emperor found this man strangely interesting and asked, "What about your lame leg?" He answered again, "Back to Your Holiness, this is 'Jumping the Dragon Gate with one foot and taking the lead.'" The emperor was pleased with his quick wit, and asked again, "Then I ask you a question, and you must answer truthfully: who do you think writes the best essays in the world today?" He thought for a moment and said, "The article of the world belongs to my county; the article of my county belongs to my township; the article of my township belongs to my brother, who asked me to change the article." The emperor was delighted, and after reading his article, he even applauded: "Worthy of the world's first!" So he appointed him as the first scholar.

This ugly scholar's talent, wisdom and hard work led to his later ascension to heaven to become the Kuixing (魁星), the first four of the Big Dipper's seven stars, which are in charge of fame and fortune. The word "Kui" is split into half "ghost", which means the ugly face of Kui Xing, and half "Dou", which means Kui Xing's talent and the Big Dipper constellation. It is said that the hand of Kuixing Zhu Pen grant you what you are what, the literati rumors "any of your articles high eight buckets, for fear of Zhu Pen does not nod" is derived from this.

It is said that since then, the palace steps in the middle of the slate carved with dragons and ao fish pattern, a kui dui placed next to the temple

Test finished the list, the candidates are gathered in front of the palace, the scholars stood at the bottom of the steps to meet the list, the first prize winner is a hand-held kui dui, a foot stood on the head of the ao appearance, said "a move to win the title! "

Nowadays, the first scholar is the first person to be awarded the title of the first prize in the world.

Now all over the Kuixing building incense is still very strong, because the modern society is more competitive, parents are looking forward to their children, students are looking forward to the gold list, so they all come to worship the Kuixing, every Kuixing building have local college entrance exams in the past years, Wen, science and technology scholar list. However, as far as I know, the ancient and modern achievements of the university, no one is to worship the Kuixing become.

The story of the Tanabata Beggar's Tale

There is also a Tanabata Beggar's Tale connected with the seventh day of the seventh month. Due to the popularity of the story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, the Weaving Maiden was taken as the representative of the skillful women among the heavenly deities, and women hoped to make themselves handy by worshipping the Weaving Maiden star. The most suitable day for the festival was of course the seventh day of the seventh month, so soon after the formation of the story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, the seventh day of the seventh month became the "Begging for Coquettishness Festival", and by the Tang Dynasty it had already spread to all parts of the world and flourished for a long time.

The earliest method of begging for coquettish objects was that on the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month, the girls and daughters-in-law would put fruits and melons in the courtyard, and when they got up early the next day, if they found spiders with webs on them, it meant that the begging for coquettish objects had been successful. According to "the remains of the Kaiyuan", the emperor Li Longji mentioned in the previous chapter, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month, he had dinner with his daughter-in-law Yang Yuhuan in the Huaqing Palace***, and then he listed the melons and fruits in the courtyard and looked at the Cowherd and Weaving Maiden above his head, and firstly, he lamented that the Cowherd and Weaving Maiden were not free, and they only met once a year, and he was proud of his own dashing, and he could be with his beloved every day; and then, he pointed to the star and swore that he would like to be a husband and wife again in the next life. Then on the begging, let people bring spiders, put in a small box, resting on the side of the melon and fruits, and so on the dawn to see, the more dense the web weaving, that begging to the more coquettish. Li Longji vowed to be husband and wife in the next life, is he already have a premonition? Li Shangyin's poem: "At this time, the six armies were stationed at the same horse, and at that time, they laughed at the seven eve of the cow" shows the contrast between Li Longji's situation in this seven eve and the later one at Mawei stage.

There are many other ways to beg for money! There are places where people believe that the Weaving Maiden is the smallest of the seven nymphs, so it is called "seven sister God". On the night of Tanabata, young women put on their prettiest clothes and get together to sing to the star of the Weaving Maiden: "Heaven and earth, I invite the seven sisters to go to heaven. I don't want your needles, I don't want your threads, but I want to see your seventy-two good skills." This is called "Worshiping Seven Sisters". This is called "Worshiping the Seven Sisters". They also use straw to tie a straw man, dressed in flowers, named "Qiao Gu", with fruits and offerings, each girl daughter-in-law from home to bring a bowl of water, the bean seedlings, green onions cut into the water, it is said that by looking at the moon's projection in the water, you know the master of the tricky.

Some places use a basin to catch the dew on the eve of the seventh day of the seventh month, which is said to be the tears of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden when they meet, and smearing them on the eyes and hands can make one's eyes bright and hands fast. Of course, the most is still a race to wear a needle, women in the misty moonlight on the seventh day of the first seven, are touching with colorful threads to wear a needle, wear over the, is to get smart, especially respected by everyone. However, there is a literati said well: "Weaving woman looking forward to meet with the Cowherd look forward to a year, it is not easy to meet on the eve of the seventh, just a few hours is busy, that have the leisure time to the earth to send the coincidence."

The Shu people floating rafts to explore the Milky Way

We mentioned Zhang Hua and his "Museum Journal" in the previous story of the Bullfighter's sword. This book then tells a story of a Shu man who went up to the sky to visit the Bullfighter.

The ancients believed that the Milky Way in the sky led to the Yellow River at one end and to the sea at the other. Some people who lived by the sea often noticed that in August every year, some big rafts (floating rafts) sailed through the distant sea and were especially punctual. There was a man in Shu who thought, "Where are these big rafts going, why don't I explore them too? So this man also made a big raft, built a hut on the raft for shelter from the wind and rain, took enough food with him, and floated away on this raft.

Walked for more than ten days, he knew he was still at sea, because he could see the sun, moon and stars, and could distinguish between day and night, and then the surrounding area became a muddy, can not see the day and night. Floating for more than ten days, suddenly found a new continent: in front of a ground, distantly seen a city, houses neat and spectacular.

He thought: "Is this the earth or the fairyland? Why don't I get closer to find out? Closer he found that he sailed the river just in the city through the right bank is a luxury palace, from the window, many women in the loom weaving cloth; and then look at the left bank, there is a man, hand holding a cow, is the river to the cattle water. The raftman went up and was about to talk to him, but the cowherd asked the visitor from afar with surprise: "Why did you come here?" The raftsman briefly explained his own ambition and experience in searching for adventure and exploration, and asked, "What is this place?" The marionette avoided answering and simply said, "When you go back, ask your Yan Junping of Shu, and you will know."

The raft rider felt that this place was a bit secretive and fishy, so he didn't dare to go ashore and didn't stay any longer. Taking the raft, he embarked on his return journey, exactly in August of the following year, back to the seaside from which he had set out. In order to solve this mystery, he went back to Shu, and after a few rounds of trouble, he finally found Yan Junping, and told him the story of this incident. Yan Junping said, "I have a record here: on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, a guest star commits an attack on Altair." Taking the raft a pair of days, he realized that it was the very day he had spoken to the Altair. It turned out that he had arrived at the Heavenly River, met the Heavenly Court, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, and he himself had become a "guest star" at that moment.

Modern people explain this story as a record of ancient extraterrestrial travel: the raft (Crew) that is, UFOs, the ancient astronauts from the Earth, more than ten days between the solar system is still in the solar system, so you can tell day and night, flying out of the solar system will not distinguish between day and night, muddy a piece of it. It flew to Altair, was observed by the scholar Yan Junping on the ground, so that "a guest star offenses Altair". This is a bit of a modern myth.

Zhangqian and the Zhiqi Stone

After this story came a tale of Zhangqian traveling to the Milky Way on a raft.

Zhang Qian was an explorer of the Han Dynasty who made several missions to the West. It is said that when he was envoyed to Daxia in the Western Regions, he also made a big raft and traveled up the Yellow River in the hope of finding the source of the Yellow River. After traveling for several months, he not only failed to find the source of the Yellow River, but also found that the Yellow River

was getting wider and clearer, and later he also arrived at a citadel, with its staggered buildings and well-organized streets, and with the river flowing through the city.

He paddled in curiously, and saw a man on the bank of the river holding a cow, which was poking its head into the river to drink; on the opposite bank there was a woman washing clothes. Zhang Qian paddled his raft closer to the woman and asked, "Sister-in-law, what is this place?" This time the woman didn't keep it a secret and answered quickly, "This is the River of Heaven! Are you from the earth?" Zhang Qian replied, "Yes, it's not easy to travel for several months." Seeing a stone beside the woman, the shape and color of which had never been seen on earth, he asked, "What kind of stone is this?" The woman said, "This is called Zhi Ji stone, you like it, so I'll give it to you." Zhang Qian took the stone and looked at it, it turned out to be the stone bar that presses the cloth on the loom, and said in surprise, "Oh, I know, you are a weaver!" The woman nodded.

After traveling around the city, Zhang Qian sought the original way, following the waters of the Yellow River downstream, back to China. In order to find out what was going on, he also came to Shu to ask Yan Junping, but did not find him and left the Zhiqi stone in Chengdu as well. Chengdu in the Tang Dynasty, there is a Tianning Guan, Zhi Ji stone has been displayed in the Guan, it is said that it is "high with the people, a little blue and purple" (perhaps a meteorite), the previous talk about the emperor Wenchang, has been mentioned. Now Chengdu has "Zhi Ji Shi Street".

It seems that the "Museum" in the raft man and this Zhang Qian, one is the east of the sea adventure, one is the west of the Yellow River to find strange, and the result is to reach the Milky Way, quite east and west of the flavor of the voyage around the world.

About the latter story, there are quite a few people mentioned in poems. For example, Liu Yuxi's "Wandao Sha" of the Tang Dynasty reads:

The nine curves of the Yellow River have covered ten thousand miles of sand, and the waves and winds have swept since the end of the world. Now we are going straight up to the Milky Way to the home of Altair and the Weaving Maiden.

Song Zhiwen's "Minghe Chapter" says it more clearly: "...... Minghe can be expected to be unapproachable, and I wish to take the hews to ask the Jin. I would like to take the raft and ask for the jinx. I would also like to visit the weaver's stone, and also visit Chengdu's diviner." "Minghe" is the Milky Way, "Chengdu divination seller" refers to Yan Junping.

Li Shangyin's "Sea Guests" is the most interesting: "Sea Guests traveled by hewer to the purple atmosphere, the starry e strike weaving a heard, should not be afraid of the Altair jealousy, chat with the Zhiqi stone to give you." The "purple atmosphere" refers to the heavenly realm, "Star E" is the weaver, she was not afraid of the cowherd jealousy, and Zhang Qian talked for half a day, but also gave the stone to others.

Some people also wrote: "How not to find Tian Sun Jin, stop with the Zhiqi piece of stone still." Meaning, since you have seen the Heavenly Sun Weaver, why don't you bring back some heavenly brocade and only bring back a piece of broken stone? This person's insight is a little Western explorer flavor.