This story happened during the Qin Dynasty (qīng cháo 清朝, 221BC-206BC). There was once an old man named Meng (孟 mèng) who lived in the southern part of the country with his wife. One spring, Meng sowed a seed of bottle gourd in his yard. The bottle gourd grew up bit by bit and its vines climbed over the wall and entered his neighbor Jiang’s yard. Like Meng, Jiang (jiāng 江) had no children and so he became very fond of the plant. He watered and took care of the plant. With tender care of both men, the plant grew bigger and bigger and gave a beautiful bottle gourd in autumn. Jiang plucked it off the vine, and the two old men decided to cut the gourd and divide it by half. To their surprise when they cut the gourd a pretty and lovely girl was lying inside! They felt happy to have a child and both loved her very much, so they decided to bring the child up together. They named the girl Meng Jiangnu (mèng jiāng nǚ 孟姜女), which means Meng and Jiang’s daughter.

     
The Cowherd and the Girl Weaver (niú láng zhī nǚ 牛郎织女) is one of the Chinese four great folklores. It is concerned with love, which reflect people's recognition of true love. As the story goes, an honest cowherd had been so kind to his ox that the creature told him of a secret pond where the beautiful daughters of the Emperor of Heaven (yù dì 玉帝) bathed. If the cowherd stole one of their clothes, she would be unable to escape and become his wife. As it happened, the girl happened to be the seventh, youngest and most beautiful, daughter of the Emperor of Heaven. They fell in love and lived together happily for many years and bore two children.