The seventh day of the seventh lunar month (七月初七） is the birthday of Kuixing （魁星聖誕千秋）.
People’s reverence for the stars goes beyond just the Cowherd and Weaver Girl. They believed that there were seven stars in each of the four cardinal directions—east, west, south, and north—which together formed the Twenty-Eight Mansions. Of these, the Big Dipper was the brightest and was used to find direction at night.
The first star of the Big Dipper is called Kuixing, or “Kuishou” (leader). In the imperial examination system, the top scholar was called “the great Kuixou of the world.” Because it was believed that Kuixing could influence the success of scholars in their exams, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month—his birthday—scholars would hold solemn ceremonies to worship him, hoping to achieve first place. This is why the Qixi Festival still retains traces of its earliest origins in star worship.
Kuixing, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, is the deity who governs scholarly success in Taoism. The belief in Kuixing flourished during the Song dynasty and was one of the most revered deities among ancient scholars, second only to the God of Literature, Wenchang Dijun. (The worship of Wenchang Dijun became more widespread after the Yuan and Ming dynasties with the formalization of the imperial examination system. It was customary for government officials and local scholars to visit temples dedicated to Wenchang Dijun on the third day of the second lunar month—his birthday—to offer sacrifices, compose poems, and hold “Wenchang gatherings.”)
During the Tang and Song dynasties, a top scholar was said to have “been marked by Kuixing to stand alone at the head.” In his book Guixin Zazhi, Song dynasty author Tong Mi recorded that when someone passed the imperial exam and became a top scholar, the imperial court would “present a gilded Kuixing cup and tray.”
Dr. Wilson Yong Copyright 2025
