提 要：牛女原始故事发生在西汉水即今甘肃西境内。作为神话传说，它产生于东汉水即南阳与襄阳之间，其本质则是西王母的走婚制与中原地区的夫妻婚制之间的矛盾和冲突。牛郎迎娶织女，正是传统耕织生活方式的基本内容、基本模式和基本理想。农耕时代，粮食的收获要靠自然的成熟，致使远古先民必须观察自然，所以天文学相对发达。远古先民把人事活动与自然星象联为一体，借助于星象宣泄自己的意志，即借助于牛女星宿的“分离”来表达“相聚”的愿望。七夕牛郎会织女的本质在于教育女子（无论婚否）学会生活，学会做女人，也是学会做家务和性爱。牛女故事在汉代得以兴盛，主要的因素在于汉代地方官吏在任职期间不允许携带家属。独身生活使他们有闲暇考究天象，探索自然的奥秘，并思念妻子，期盼相会。所以，牛女神话故事本身的传播也是汉代官吏对传统的行政制度的反抗和控诉。

关键词：汉画像 牛郎织女 原型分析

Title:Analysis of the Prototype of the Myth of Cowboy and Weaving Girl Reflected in the Drawings from the Han Dynasty

Author:Zheng Xianxing, Professor, Centre for the Study of Han Culture, Nanyang Normal Collage, Nanyang, China, 473061

Abstract:The story of the Cowboy and Weaving Girl happened in the area of western section of the river Hanshui(汉水)， which locates in today's west part of the Gansu province. As a legend, it was reconstructed in Nanyang(南阳) and Xiangyang(襄阳) area, which locates in the eastern section of the river Hanshui. The theme of the reconstructed story is the contradiction and conflict between the mobile marriage system(走婚制) of the Queen Mother of the West（西王母） and the monogamy of the central area of China. The marriage of the Cowboy and the Weaving Girl reflects the real picture of traditional agricultural and weaving life style that era. Because grain harvest was largely a natural process, people had to observe nature phenomenon, which resulted in a relatively developed astronomy in ancient china. Since people commonly linked human activities with the natural phenomena, including the stars, they might use the images of stars to express their wills. The regular distance changes between two bright stars were thus employed to express people's expectation of family reunion. Another essence of this story was to inspire women's consciousness of womanhood, including how to make a living, how to be a woman, how to do housework, and how to deal with sexual relationship. This story was widely spread during the Han Dynasty because that during that period the officials in local level were not allowed to bring their families with them. Living virtually as single men provided them with more spare time to learn astronomy and explore the mysteries of nature, while missing wives was likely a natural feeling of them. In this respect, the spread of the Cowboy and Weaving Girl story was actually a protest and a complaint against the administrative system of the Han Dynasty.

Key Words:drawings of the Han dynasty Cowboy and Weaving Girl story prototype analysis