Author Archives: apasztor

Liang Shan Bo and Ju Ying Tai

“Zhu Ying Tai was a girl from a good reputable and well off family; however, she was not satisfied with woman’s lifestyle then and she begged her family to let her dress up as a guy and to attend school, to which her family finally said yes to.

At school, she met a guy named Liang Shan Bo who was gentle and very intelligent, and the two hit it off really well, and in the span of three years, they became the best of friends. Eventually, they parted ways and the next time Liang Shan Bo met Zhu Ying Tai, she came to him in the form of a girl, and they finally realized their love for each other.

Thus, Liang Shan Bo asked for her hand in marriage, but her family has already decided to marry her off to another son of a rich family. Liang Shan Bo despaired so much that he fell sick and passed away. Zhu Ying Tai, who’s been trying to defy this marriage, suddenly agreed to it. She wore her red wedding gown, and went into the carriage, everything was happy and loud till after the carriage landed, Zhu Ying Tai walked out in all plain clothes, and walked to the grave of Liang Shan Bo. She started wailing loudly and a storm came with loud banging noises, until eventually the grave split open, and she jumped in and disappeared. The storm now faded, and a pair of butterflies flew out of the grave, dancing happily under the sun.”

CM learned this folktale growing up in China. It’s somewhat similar to a Chinese Romeo and Juliet, lovers separated by family and dying for each other’s love. The magical element of the loud storm, grave opening up, and butterflies leaving the grave gives it a very mystical fairytale-like edge.

The White Snake

“Once upon a time, during the raining season of Qing Ming festival (chinese version of festival of the dead), in the scenic Xi Hu (west lake) emerged two beautiful maiden. They are snakes in the form of humans; they don’t have any bad intentions, but just that they are curious about the human life so they took thousands of years of training and transformation to finally become human. The White snake took the name of Bai Su Zhen and the green snake took the name of Xiao Qing. It is here where Bai Su Zhen encountered Xu Xian, a scholarly young man who lived by the lake. He held out an umbrella for her and that started a loving relationship between Bai Su Zhen and Xu Xian. Xu Xian and Bai Su Zhen are eventually happily married, and they opened a pharmacy together called Bao He Tang. This pharmacy eventually got famous because it cured many weird diseases while it also never charged poor people. Everyone was delighted by this pharmacy except for this monk named Fa Hai. As more people are cured of their rare diseases, less of them goes to the temple to pray and give money, and Fa Hai was not pleased. He comes down the mountain to see the pharmacy and realizes that Bai Su Zhen is actually a snake. Thus, he goes and tells this to Xu Xian, but Xu Xian said that even if Bai Su Zhen were a snake, she is still a very kind person and that she is also pregnant with their child so he will never leave her.

Furious that he failed to get Xu Xian on his side, Fa Hai captures Xu Xian and takes him back to the temple. Bai Su Zhen, after hearing about this, rushes to rescue Xu Xian, but was defeated and captured also by Fa Hai and trapped under a mountain.

Xiao Qing–the green snake, after escaping, goes into the mountain and trains for 10 years. She came back, finally defeats Fa Hai and traps him into a crab’s stomach. She saved Bai Su Zhen and Xu Xian and they lived happily ever after.”

CM learned this as a child as a Chinese folktale. Usually snakes are presented as evil in western tales, so it’s interesting that in this Chinese one the snake is a positive creature and helps heal people. Less surprising is that the snake is in opposition to religion, based on Christian traditions and other religious stories.

Meng Jiang Nv

“During the Qin dynasty China, there was a kind and beautiful woman named Meng Jiang Nv. One day, she discovered a young man hidden between the grapevines in her backyard–turned out that his name is Fan Xi Liang, and he is hiding from Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di’s guards, for they are going everywhere, capturing people to go build the Great Wall where many starved and died of exhaustion. Meng Jiang Nv saved him and sheltered him and eventually the two fell in love.

On their wedding night, when everything was going so well, guards suddenly barged inside their house and took Fan Xi Liang away to go be labor for the Great Wall. Meng Jiang Nv was so sad and angry that she decided she is going to go to the Great Wall herself and to find her husband. She spent many days, going through steep mountains and rivers, suffering through terrible conditions with no complaint till she reached the Great Wall.

She asked everywhere for her husband, but no one seemed to have seen him till finally, someone told Meng Jiang Nv that her husband’s been long dead and that his bone are buried at the bottom of the Great Wall. Under great pain, Meng Jiang Nv started to cry for 3 days and nights and she cried so much that eventually part of the Great Wall collapsed, exposing the bloody bones of her husband. She finally got to see her beloved husband again, but he will never get to see her again, due to the tyrannical request of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di.”

CM learned this folktale growing up in China. It expresses the problems in everyday life under the horrible conditions when ruled by the tyrant. The tale shows corruption and the people’s frustration with the Qin dynasty. It also relies on a national landmark, the great wall, and is a very country-specific folktale.

Zhi nv and Niu Lang

“Legend says that there is a Zhi Nv star and a Qian Niu star and they fell in love; but the law of heaven (chinese heaven) forbids man and woman to fall in love, so as a punishment, Qian Niu star was stripped of his “heaven” status and forced to descend to the human world, while Zhi Nv star was forced to make clouds out of the spinning wheel indefinitely. After Qian Niu star was sent to the human world, he was “born” into a farm family and being named “Niu (cow) Lang.” After his family passed away, he went to live with his uncle and aunt who treated him terribly, and casted him out of the house with nothing but a broken cart and a cow. Niu Lang managed to make a living with himself with just that but his life is still very poor and terrible, and then one day the cow told Niu Lang to go to Bi Lian Chi (green lotus pool) and that if he hid the red clothes of the fairy, he can have that fairy as his wife. Niu Lang did that, and so when it’s time to leave, all the other fairies flew away with their clothes, but Zhi Nv, having her clothes hidden, could not leave. Zhi Nv was very embarrassed but Niu Lang told her that he will not give her her clothes back unless she marries her. Zhi Nv looked at Niu Lang once again and realized that he is the reincarnation of the Qian Niu Star that she loved so much so then she said yes to marrying him.

The two then are happily married and had one daughter and one son. Just when they thought they could be together forever, the queen of heaven Wang Mu (direct translation: King Mom) found out about this and sent for heaven guards to go and capture her. At the same time, Niu Lang comes crying to Zhi Nv telling her that the cow has died and that before it died it told Niu Lang that if he skins him, he can use his cow skin to fly to the sky.

The guards came to capture Zhi Nv and thus Niu Lang followed with their children and the cow skin. Just as they are about to reach each other, Wang Mu came and created a sky river that rushed between the two and they can never cross it. Niu Lang and the children cried so hard that eventually Wang Mu was touched by their love and thus allowed the two to meet once on the 7th of July every year. Since then, the two lives up in the sky with a river in between them where they stand on each side and try to look for each other, and the 7th of July became the Chinese Valentine’s day that people celebrate.”

CM says that based on geographic location apparently the stars are actually located that way. Everyone learned this tale as a kid and would celebrate Chinese Valentine’s day, which is very similar to western valentines day. It’s an excuse for people to give presents to each other and go on dates, etc. In Chinese movies they prohibit western holidays so they often use this as valentines day. It’s interesting that it is based on forbidden love, similar but a much less gory story than the western St. Valentine.

Dad Joke #1

Why do scuba divers fall backwards off a boat? Because if they fell forward they would still be in the boat.