怎样快速消除口腔异味:我想要一篇有关a famous chinese legend的文章或资料

Niu Lang and Zhi Nu
The seventh day of the seventh lunar month Raise your head on August 4 and gaze at the stars, you will find something romantic going on in the sky.

VALENTINE'S Day in China, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, falls on August 4 this year.

That is, on Monday evening, Niu Lang and Zhi Nu will meet on a bridge of magpies（鹊桥） across the Milky Way（银河）. Chinese grannies will remind children that they would not be able to see any magpies on that evening because all the magpies have left to form a bridge in the heavens with their wings.

Romantic legend

The legend has been handed down for nearly 2 millennia. The story has been recorded as far back as the Jin Dynasty (256-420 AD). Poets composed hundreds of verses on the love story and many types of Chinese opera tell the story.

The Chinese people believe that the star Vega（织女星）, east of the Milky Way, is Zhi Nu and, at the constellation of Aquila（天鹰座）, on the western side of the Milky Way, Niu Lang waits for his wife.

Zhi Nu was said to be the youngest of seven daughters of the Queen of Heaven. With her sisters, she worked hard to weave beautiful clouds in the sky, while Niu Lang was a poor orphan cowherd, driven out of his home by his elder brother and his cruel wife.

Niu Lang lamented over his lonely and poor life with an old cow, his only friend and companion. The magical cow kindly told him of a way to find a beautiful and nice woman as his life companion.

Under the direction of the cow, Niu Lang went to the riverside on an evening, where the seven fairies slipped out of their heavenly palace to bathe.

He took one of the beautiful silk dresses the fairies had left on the bank. When the fairies left the water, the youngest couldn't find her clothes and had to see her sisters fly back to heaven without her.

Then Niu Lang came out with the dress and asked the youngest fairy, Zhi Nu, to stay with him.

Several years passed on Earth, which were only a few days in heaven. Niu Lang and Zhi Nu lived happily together and had two children before the Queen of Heaven discovered Zhi Nu's absence.

She was so annoyed she had Zhi Nu brought back to heaven. Seeing his beloved wife flying in the sky, Niu Lang was terrified. He caught sight of the cowhide hanging on a wall. The magical cow had told him before dying of old age: "Keep the cowhide（牛皮） for emergency use."

Putting the cowhide on, he went after his wife with his two children.

With the help of the cowhide, Niu Lang was able to follow Zhi Nu into heaven. He was about to reach his wife when the Queen showed up and pulled off her hairpin to draw a line between the two. The line became the Silver River in heaven, or the Milky Way.

Zhi Nu went back to the heavenly workshop, going on weaving the clouds. But she was so sad, and missed her husband across the Silver River so much that the clouds she weaved seemed sad. Finally, the Queen showed a little mercy, allowing the couple to meet once every year on the Silver River.

Well-known poem

One of the most famous poems about the legend was written by Qin Guan of in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Fairy Of The Magpie Bridge

Among the beautiful clouds,
Over the heavenly river,
Crosses the weaving maiden.

A night of rendezvous,
Across the autumn sky.

Surpasses joy on earth.
Moments of tender love and dream,
So sad to leave the magpie bridge.

Eternal love between us two,
Shall withstand the time apart.
(Translated by Kylie Hsu)
鹊桥仙
宋·秦观
织云弄巧
飞星传恨
银汉迢迢暗度

金风玉露一相逢
便胜却人间无数

柔情似水
佳期如梦
忍顾鹊桥归路

两情若是久长时
又岂在朝朝暮暮

Compared with love stories in Western legends, the story of Niu Lang and Zhi Nu seems not as intense or passionate. Love doesn't kill or break up the barrier between them. They just wait patiently on the riverbank, believing that their love can withstand their time apart.

It is faith and emotional liaison instead of physical attraction and desire that is emphasized in the story as well as in many other Chinese folktales（民间故事） about love.

In only a few Chinese folk love stories can be found a description of the physical appearances of the hero and heroine.

In the "Butterfly Lovers", the heroine, dressed as a boy to attend school, falls in love with a classmate. After they have lived together as classmates for years, the hero did not have the slightest clue that his best friend is actually a girl!

Chinese ceremonies

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the only Chinese festival devoted to love in the Lunar calendar.

Unlike St. Valentine's Day in Western countries there is not so much emphasis on giving chocolates, flowers and kisses. Instead, Chinese girls prepare fruits, melons and incense（熏香） as offerings to Zhi Nu, the weaving maiden, praying to acquire high skills in needlecraft（裁缝）, as well as hoping to find satisfactory husbands.

In the evening, people sit outdoors to observe the stars. Chinese grannies would say that, if you stand under a grapevine, you can probably overhear what Zhi Nu and Niu Lang are talking about.

The Legend of the White Snake
The brief story of the Legend of the White Snake.

With 12 Yangliuqing woodcut paintings

"Good old man, please give us a ride!" Lady White shouted to the boatman from the bank. The young man asked the boatman to stop and let them go aboard. They thanked the young man and Xiaoqing asked him his name. He replied,"Xu is my surname. I am told that I once met an immortal near the Broke Bridge when I was a child so my father gave me the name Xian." (Xian means immortal in Chinese.)
And so Lady White's wish was fulfilled. The handsome young man was indeed the little boy who had always stayed in her heart.

Because of the downpour, Xu Xian lent Lady White his umbrella to carry home. Late, whenever she looked at it, she felt a longing for Xu Xian. Xu Xian also felt hemself falling in love with Lady White. On the day he went to get back his umbrella, he asked Xianqing to act as go-between to arrage a match between Lady White and himself. Xianqing did her job well and the pair married.

After their marriage, the couple and Xiaoqing moved to Zhenjiang and set up a herbal medicine store. Lady White wrote out the prescription while Xu Xian and Xiaoqing gathered and dispensed the herbal medicine. Patients unable to pay ere given free treatment and medicine. The store quickly became well known and popular.

At the time of the Dragon Boat Festival, it was the custom for every household to fasten plants such as calamus and Chinese mugwort on the ground to drive away spirits. These were of course dangerous to Lady White and Xiaoqing, since there were spirits after all. Lady White was by now pregnant so she had even more reason for staying at home. Xu Xian decided to spend the day at home with his wife. He prepared a pot of old wine with realgar, for realgar not only drove away evil spirits but was also considered benificial to pregnant women. Under her husband's coaxing, Lady White could not find a reason to refuse the drink and she took a sip, thinking that her superior magic skills would make her immune to the power of relgar. But she immediately was stricken ill and barely managed to get to bed. Xu Xian rushed to the bed and drew aside its curtain. Lady White was no loger there. In her place was a large white snake coiled on the bed. So great was Xu Xian's shock that he fell to the floor and died.

When the power of realgar's power faded, Lady White resumed her human form. She was heartbroken to find Xu Xian lying dead beside the bed. But she knew that the glossy ganoderma, a clestial herb on the Kunlun Mountain, could restore him to life. She flew to the Kunlun Mountain to steal the celestial herb but encountered the white crane and heavenly guards responsible for looking after the glossy ganoderma. They fought to prevent her from taking the herb and Lady White was losing the battle, when suddenly a voice commanded them to stop. It was the voice of the Immortal of the Southern End. Lady White begged him in tears to help her. Impressed by her sincerity and perseverance, he granted her the glossy ganoderma.

Lady White ground the herb and fed it to Xu Xian who soon came back to life. But he was still frightened at the memory of the snake that had appeared in his wife's place.

Lady White made up a story to set his mind at rest. The snake he saw, she told him, was in fact a dragon descending from heaven. The sight was a good omen. She regretted that she was unconcious at that time, otherwise, she would have burnt some incense to the dragon.

Xiaoqing added she also had seen something white resembling either a snake or a dragon and that it flew from the bed to the window and disappeared. Xu Xian's suspicions were allayed by this colorful story.

Synopsis of the Chinese Beijing Opera Legend of the White Snake

http://www.chinapage.com/wsnake.html