Seven Fairies (China)

[2] This "quasi-Swan Maiden" story was possibly told to explain why some large birds carried off children.

)After plucking many peaches, one of the fairies accidentally awakens Sun Wukong (Monkey King), the "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven" now in charge of the garden.

When they answer in the negative, a disappointed Sun Wukong casts a spell to transfix the fairies to the spot, before he heads straight for the Queen's palace.

[6] The well-known story of Heaven sending a celestial maiden to assist the filial son Dong Yong first appeared in writing in the third century.

For more than a millennium after the fourth century this maiden — Dong Yong's wife-to-be — was identified as Weaver Girl (zhinü): after all she was to help him on the loom!