-
Sylvhia
.User deleted
The Legend of the White Snake
Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals, disguised himself as a man selling tangyuan (a Chinese food made from glutinous rice flour mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and then cooked in boiling water) at the Broken Bridgenear the West Lake in Hangzhou. A boy called Xu Xian bought some tangyuan from Lü Dongbin without knowing that they were actually pills that gave immortality. He didn't not feel hungry for the next three days after eating them, so he went back to ask why. Lü Dongbin laughed and carried Xu Xian to the bridge, where he flipped him upside-down with the purpose of him vomit the tangyuan into the lake.
In the lake there were the spirit of a white snake who had been practising Taoist magical arts in the hope of becoming an immortal after centuries of training and cultivation. She ate the pills and gained 500 years' worth of magical powers. It therefore felt grateful to Xu Xian and their fates became intertwined. But in the lake there were another spirit, a terrapin (or tortoise) spirit also training in the lake who did not manage to consume any of the pills and it was very jealous of the white snake. One day, the white snake saw a beggar on the bridge who had caught a green snake and wanted to dig out the snake's gall and sell it. The white snake transformed into a woman and bought the green snake from the beggar saving the green snake's life. The green snake was grateful to the white snake and that one regarded the white snake as an elder sister.
Eighteen years later, during the Qingming Festival, the white and green snakes transformed themselves into two young women respectively called Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing . They met Xu Xian at the Broken Bridge in Hangzhou. Xu lent them his umbrella because it was raining. Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen gradually fell in love and got married. They moved to Zhenjiang, where they opened a medicine shop.
In the meantime, the terrapin spirit accumulated enough powers to take human form, so he transformed into a Buddhist monk called Fahai. Still angry with Bai Suzhen, Fahai plotted to break up her relationship with Xu Xian. He approached Xu Xian and told him that during the Duanwu Festival his wife would have to drink "realgar wine", a wine associated with that festival. Bai Suzhen unsuspectingly drank the wine and revealed her true form as a large white snake. Xu Xian died of shock after seeing that his wife was not human. Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing traveled to Mount Emei, where with extreme bravery they stole a magic plant that can restore life to Xu Xian.
After coming back to life, Xu Xian still maintained his love for Bai Suzhen despite knowing her true identity. Fahai tried to separate them again by capturing Xu Xian and imprisoning him in Jinshan Temple Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing fought with Fahai to rescue Xu Xian. Bai used her powers to flood the temple and drowned many innocent people. However, her powers were limited because she was already pregnant with Xu Xian's child, so she failed to save her husband. Xu Xian later managed to escape from Jinshan Temple and reunited with his wife in Hangzhou, where Bai Suzhen gaves birth to their son, Xu Mengjiao. Fahai tracked them down, defeated Bai Suzhen and imprisoned her in Leifeng Pagoda.
Twenty years later, Xu Mengjiao earns the zhuangyuan (top scholar) degree in the imperial examination and returned home in glory to visit his parents. At the same time, Xiaoqing, who escaped when Bai Suzhen was captured by Fahai, went to Jinshan Temple to confront Fahai and defeated him. Bai Suzhen was freed from Leifeng Pagoda and reunited with her husband and son, while Fahai fled and hid inside the stomach of a crab. There is a saying that a crab's internal fat is orange because it resembles the colour of Fahai's kasaya.
The Legend of the White Snake or Lady White Snake is a Chinese legend that was handed down orally for a long time before it was transcribed.
Inspired plays, films and television series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_White_Snake
.
The Legend of the White Snake |
