China’s Four Great Folktales
1. Butterfly Lovers
During a time when women were still discouraged from taking up scholarly pursuits, Zhu Yingtai, urges her father to permit her to disguise as a man so that she can attend classes. He eventually agrees. On her way to Hangzhou to study, Zhu meets Liang Shanbo, a scholar from Kuaiji. As they converse, Liang feels drawn to Zhu in a brotherly way and they decide to take an oath of fraternity in the pavilion of a wooden bridge. For the next three years, the two study together in school and Zhu eventually falls in love with Liang. But with his nose buried in books, he fails to notice Zhu’s feminine characteristics. One day, Zhu receives a letter from her father, urging her to go home, and she has no choice but to agree. Before she leaves, however, she reveals herself as a woman to the headmaster’s wife and asks her to send a jade pendant to Liang as a betrothal gift. When Liang sees her off, Zhu hints that she is a woman, but when her efforts fail, she tells Liang to come visit her.
Months later, Liang visits her and discovers that Zhu is actually a woman and that her parents have arranged for her to marry a wealthy merchant. Liang is heartbroken that he falls critically ill and dies as a county magistrate.
Eventually, the day of Zhu’s marriage to the wealthy merchant arrives, but strong winds make it hard for them to proceed. Along the way lies Liang’s grave so Zhu decides to stop to pay her respects. But upon reaching the grave, she throws herself in to join Liang, and the two meet in the afterlife. The story ends with their spirits taking the form of butterflies flying away together.
2. Legend of the White Snake
Lü Dongbin, one of the most powerful deities of the Eight Immortals in Chinese mythology, disguises himself as a tangyuan vendor. A boy named Xu Xian unknowingly buys his immortality pills from him. After eating them, Xu doesn’t feel a sense of hunger for three days. He goes back to the vendor to ask why, but is led to a lake and flipped upside down by the deity so that he could vomit the tangyuan. A snake spirit in the lake accidentally eats the pills and gains 500 years worth of magical powers. This turn of events binds her with Xu Xian.
Another snake in the same body of water was jealous since it wasn’t able to consume any of the pills. One day, a beggar catches the snake to dig out its gall and sell it. The white snake transforms into a woman, buys the snake from the beggar saving its life, and the two form a friendship. After 18 years pass, both snakes transform themselves into two young women called Bai Suzhen and Xioqing, respectively, to attend the Qingming Festival. It starts to rain, and they meet Xu Xian who offers them his umbrella. Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen eventually fall in love and marry. Shortly after, both move to Zhenjiang where they open a medicine shop.
A terrapin spirit takes on human form, disguising as a monk, and plots to break Bai Suzhen’s relationship with Xu Xian. He approaches Xu Xian and convinces him to let his wife drink realgar which would reveal her true form. Xu Xian reluctantly agrees, but he dies from shock of discovering Bai Suzhen in the form of a white snake. Bai Suzhen, in the company of Xiaoqing, travels to Mount Emei to steal a magical herb to bring Xu Xian to life. They succeed and when Xu Xian comes back to life he chooses to love Bai Suzhen regardless of her true nature.
3. Lady Meng Jiang
Lady Meng Jiang and her husband were just married when the Great Wall was under construction.
Emperor Qin wanted the Great Wall to be finished right away, so he ordered his soldiers to seek able-bodied men and force them to finish building the Great Wall. One of the men was Lang, Meng Jiang’s husband who was taken days after their wedding. Months passed by and he didn’t return, but Lady Meng Jiang kept her hopes up, thinking about him every second of the day.
On one winter night, Lady Meng Jiang had a nightmare of her husband calling out to her for help because he was freezing cold. The next day, she decided to bring him clothes, but upon reaching the Great Wall, she discovers that her husband has died. Filled with grief, she cries so hard against the wall that she causes it to collapse, revealing the bones of her husband. Moments later she climbs up the terrace, curses the emperor’s corruption, leaps into the sea and drowns herself.
4. The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid
A young cowherd named Niulang comes across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Deciding to have fun and trick them, he and his ox steal the fairies’ clothes and wait around to see what would happen. The fairy sisters elect Zhinü, the youngest and most beautiful amongst them, to retrieve all their clothing. Zhinü agrees and then marries Niulang since he had already seen her naked. Despite how they met, they are an honourable and happy husband and wife. They have two children.
However, Zhinü’s mother goddess finds out about her daughter marrying a mortal and becomes furious. She orders Zhinü back to heaven to resume her duties as the weaver of colourful clouds. Zhinü returns to the heavens leaving Niulang. Suddenly, his ox begins to talk, instructing his master to kill him so that he will be granted an opportunity to go up to heaven. Niulang kills him, wears his skin, and carries his two children with him to heaven to look for Zhinü.
When Zhinü’s mother discovers this, she becomes so furious that she takes out her hairpin and scratches a wide river in the sky to separate her daughter from the mortal forever, thus forming the Milky Way between Altair and Vega. This leaves Zhinü weaving clouds forever, while Niulang watches her from afar and takes care of their two children. But it is believed that once a year, all the magpies in the world would take pity on them, fly up to the heavens and form a bridge over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so that the lovers would be together for just one night. And that night happens to be the seventh night of the seventh moon which has been celebrated as the Qixi Festival in China since the Han dynasty. It has also been celebrated in the Tanabata festival in Japan and in the Chilseok festival in Korea.
This is the Year of the Rabbit. The first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year 2023 was celebrated last Sunday, January 22. That marked the beginning of a public holiday period in China which lasts for 7 days, but the New Year celebrations will continue until they come to an end with the Lantern Festival on February 5.
This is an official national event and is the grandest and most popular festival in China. The New Year festival is national, cultural, traditional, popular and commercial. Because it is rooted in ancient tradition, it exhibits many aspects of Chinese culture and is marked by popular events and practices which support considerable commercial opportunities. It is also observed at a particular time of the year, according to the Lunar calendar, and does not fall on the same date every year.
It owes its origins to mythology and traditions, and this includes the Lantern Festival which brings the festivities to a close. At the base of this are folktales – traditional myths and legends that explain how the festival came into being and why certain customs exist. That makes it appropriate for us to pay tribute to Chinese heritage on the occasion of the Lunar New Year by focusing on Chinese folk tales. Like the rest of the world, China has a strong storytelling tradition and it is interesting to investigate the myths that include explanations for several natural phenomena and even historical events. The four great folktales of China: “The Butterfly Lovers”, “Legend of the White Snake”, “Lady Meng Jiang” and “The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl”, hold a very high position in the corpus of that country’s oral literature. They are all love stories, but tied to elements of the nation’s history, traditions, beliefs and customs.
“Butterfly Lovers” comments on social history – old education and marriage traditions and the tragedy they can cause. “Legend of the White Snake” focuses on traditional beliefs, animism and folklore, as much as it does vengeance, love and loyalty. “Lady Meng Jiang” touches on the history of the Great Wall of China as well as despotic monarchies, illustrating the way something historic like the Great Wall and old dynasties can generate legend and myth. “The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl” also illustrates myths explaining elements of the cosmos such as the Milky Way and the stars Vega and Altair, based on traditional beliefs.
All four of these are among what storytellers and documentalists call “China’s most beloved and well known legends” in addition to being the most popular.
(The Confucius Institute at the University of Guyana is pleased to be associated with the presentation of these tales as part of its contribution to knowledge about Chinese culture and language and the elucidation of the cultural heritage emanating from the old and contemporary Chinese communities in Guyana.)