Bai Juyi's Annotated and Translated Ancient Poem on the Seventh Night of the Fallen Sun is the curved moon hanging from the clouds, making this night's sky appear light and clear. The Autumn Eve Festival has been celebrated at this moment since ancient times. The joyous feelings of reunion of the Altair and the Weaving Maiden and the disappointment of parting are not known to be subsumed into the night of Tanabata.
"Tanabata" is a seven-character stanza composed by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty and an advocate of the New Lefu movement. The original text of the work: The faint moon in the smoky sky is tantalizingly long in the sky, and the autumn period of the Silver Han is the same as that of all ages. The moonlight is so small that the sky is so thin, and the autumn period is the same as that of the silver man for all eternity.
The Tanabata Festival, also known as the Seven Charms Festival, the Seven Sisters Festival, the Daughters' Festival, the Beggar's Festival, the Seven Maidens' Meeting, the Tanabata Festival, the Day of the Ox and the Oxen, and the Qiaoxi Festival, etc., is a traditional festival of Chinese folklore. The Tanabata Festival evolved from the worship of the starry hosts, and is traditionally known as the Birthday of the Seven Sisters, so it is called Tanabata because the worship of the Seven Sisters is held on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.
Worshipping the Seven Sisters, praying for blessings and making wishes, begging for skillful craftsmanship, watching the star of Altair and Vega, praying for marriage, and storing water for Tanabata are all traditional customs of Tanabata. Through the development of history, Tanabata has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden", making it a festival symbolizing love, which is considered the most romantic traditional festival in China, and in contemporary times, it has even produced the cultural meaning of "Chinese Valentine's Day".
The Tanabata Festival is not only a festival for worshipping the seven sisters, but also a festival of love, which is a comprehensive festival with the theme of praying for blessings, begging for coincidental gifts, and love, with women as the main body, and with the folk legend of "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" as the carrier. The "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" of Tanabata originated from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena, and in ancient times, people corresponded astronomical star zones with geographical areas.
About the Author
Bai Juyi (772-846), known as Lotte, was known as the Jushi of the Fragrant Mountain in his later years. In his later years, he was called Xiangshan Jushi. Afterwards, he was relegated to the position of Secretary of Jiangzhou because of his request to arrest the murderer of Chancellor Wu Yuanheng, which offended the powerful and rich.
Later, he became the Minister of Justice. In literature, he advocated that "articles should be written for the times, and poems and songs should be composed for the events", and was the advocate of the new music movement. His poems were easy to understand, and it was rumored that his poems were comprehensible to an old woman. Together with Yuan Zhen, he was known as "Yuan Bai", and with Liu Yuxi, he pioneered the style of literati relying on their voices to fill in lyrics in the Middle Tang Dynasty. He was the first to start the style of lyric writing in the Middle Tang Dynasty with Liu Yuxi.