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The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid
The Weaving Maid, granddaughter of the Jade Emperor, and the Cowherd fall in love and neglect their heavenly duties; they are parted by the Milky Way and may meet only once a year, when magpies make a bridge on the seventh night of the seventh month. Zhu Mingshi's short novel tells the whole legend, from their former lives to the magpie bridge, with all the gods of heaven in attendance. This is a complete new English translation, with names in modern pinyin and the text rendered as plain, readable English prose. It is one of the long narratives that shaped Chinese fiction, full of household detail, comedy and grief, and it reads straight through like any great novel. Few of these novels have ever been available in complete English form, and this edition lets English readers follow the whole story from the first chapter to the last.
