Happy Spider Indicating Dexiterity
This is also an early practice to seek for dexterity, a little bit later than that of threading needles to seek skills, and originated from about the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Liang Zonglin of the Southern Dynasty writes in Jingchu Seasonal Records, “At this night, people set up fruits in the yard to pray for dexterity. If spiders weave web on the fruits, people would think it was auspicious sigh.”
Wang Renyu of Five Dynasties writes in Stories of Kaiyuan and Tianbao Reigns, “On July 7, people in the palaces would catch spiders and put them into small boxes. In the morning, they opened the boxes to see the density of the web woven by the spiders. The higher of the density, the more of dexterity; if the density is lower, the dexterity is less. Folk people all followed this practice.” Meng Yuanlao of Song dynasty writes in his Dream Records of East Capital, “At the night of July 7, people put spiders in boxes, then checked the webs next day. If it was round and fine, people would think the person was deft.” Zhou Mi of Song dynasty writes in Qianchun Seasonal Records, “People put spiders in boxes to see the density of the web. If the density was high, the person was deft.” Tian Rucheng of Ming dynasty writes in Xichao Leshi, “At the night of Qixi Festival, people put spiders in small boxes, then observed the density of the web next morning. The higher the better.” From the above we can know that the methods to tell dexterity are different in various dynasties. In South and North Dynasties, people would see if there were any webs, in Tang dynasty to see the density, in Song dynasty to see if the web is round and fine. The following dynasties mostly followed the customs in Tang dynasty.
Throwing Needles to Tell Dexterity
This is a variation of threading needles on Qixi Festival. It comes from needle threading, but is different from it. It was a popular custom for Qixi Festival in Ming and Qing dynasties. Brief Records of Capital City composed by Liu Dong and Yu Yizheng of Ming dynasty say, “At the noon on July 7, people throw needles for dexterity. First, ladies would put a basin of water under the sun at noon. Then, after some time, a water film would form on the surface. Next, ladies would throw embroidery needles into the basin which would float on the surface. They would see the shadows cast by the needles on the bottom of the basin. If the shadow was like clouds, flowers, birds, beasts, etc., or like shoes, scissors, eggplants, etc., the person was deft. If the shadow was as thick as a hammer, or as thin as a wire, or as straight as an axis or a candle, the sign of clumsiness.” Annuals of Zhili also states, “In Liangxiang county, on July 7, women sought for dexterity. They threw needles into water to tell dexterity or clumsiness against the sun shadow. At night they also sought for skills from the weaver fairy.” Yu Minzhong of Qing dynasty in his Research on Old Stories quoted from Assorted Records of Wan County Office, “Women in Yan capital put a bowl of water under the sun on July 7. Then they put a small needle drifting on the water and observe the shadow in the bottom. The shadows may be like flowers, clouds, threads, or cones, on basis of which to predict dexterity of the person.”
Planting Life for Children
In the past, several days before Qixi Festival, people would put a layer of earth on a small wooden board, and sew seeds of rice. Later, when green shoots came out, put a small straw shack and flowers on it, to be like a farmer’s house, calling shell board. People could also put green beans, small beans, and wheat seeds into a bowl. When the shoots were about one inch long, bound them up with red or blue threads into bunches. This custom was called planting life, or five life basin, and flower growing basin. In the south, it was also called soaking dexterity, and the bean shoots grew out were called dexterous shoots. Some even used this shoots instead of needles and threw them on water to pray for dexterity. They also made various figures with wax, such as the cowherd and the weaver fairy, condor, mandarin duck, etc., then drifted them on water, calling water drifting. There were also puppets made of wax for babies, which women would buy and place on water at home for good fortune of babies. This was called begging for life.
(Source: bjchinese.bjedu.cn)
