Legend of the White Snake Lady and the Butterfly Lovers

The Legend of the White Snake Lady

One Thousand years ago there was a white snake that could transform into any creature. It came to Hangzhou and transformed into a beautiful lady to be able to walk around and admire the lakes. As she was wandering around it started to rain and she went under the weeping willow trees for shelter. A doctor was walking by at that time and saw the beautiful woman. He offered her his umbrella and they fell in love. They got married and the doctor opened a pharmacy for the village. With the help of his wife’s magic his medicines were able to cure many illnesses and all the villagers loved them.

But the monks in the temple did not love them. They did not trust the snake lady. They went to the doctor and pressure him to divorce her saying that she was a snake and she would always be untrustworthy. However the man loved his wife and refused the monks request. She soon became pregnant and the couple was blessed with a beautiful little boy.

The monks decided to get rid of the snake lady themselves. They went to the doctor one day and told him they had imprisoned her in their temple. He rushed to the monastery to save her but instead he was the one who was captured and imprisoned. The monks then went to the snake lady and told her they had captured her husband and would not let him go until she left forever. She became angry and used her magic to bring the rain and floods. The temple 

flooded and many monks drowned. The Gods watched as many of their loyal followers drowned and blamed the snake lady, they reached down and imprisoned her underneath the pagoda in the temple. The husband was released but he was so sad at the loss of his wife he became a monk so he could always stay near the pagoda she was trapped under.

Their son was sent to live with his aunt and uncle. He grew up and when he turned 18 the aunt and uncle told him the story of his parents. They suggested the boy ask the emperor to release his mother from her prison since the emperor was the living God. To meet the emperor the boy became a scholar and studied as hard as he could. He passed all his exams and received the highest marks for the imperial scholar test. Once he reached the highest status he sought an audience with the emperor and told him the story of his parents. The Dragon emperor was moved by the story and used his power to open the pagoda and free the snake lady. The family was reunited.

The Story of the Butterfly Lovers

Hangzhou was a prosperous city. It had many big and powerful families. The women of that time were only expected to cook, clean and raise sons. But one young daughter had a passion for learning. She disguised herself as a boy and went to school. She became good friends with a boy at school and they spent their days together eating and studying. When the day of graduation came and it was time to leave the girl realized she was in love with this boy. Scared of revealing herself she told the boy to visit her home and meet her “twin sister” who was beautiful and of marriageable age.

The girl returned home and awaited for her friend, but she soon learned that in her absence her father had already arranged a marriage for her. Her father could not break the arrangement he had already made and she could not refuse her duty to her father. When her friend came to visit she was forced to reveal everything to him, the truth, her feelings, and her engagement to someone else. The boy was heart broken. He was in love with her as well but they knew they would never be together. He was so sad he lost all appetite and soon starved himself to death.

When the girl learned of his death she devastated. It was raining on the day of her wedding. Her cart passed right by the boy's tomb and as she looked out a lightning bolt came down from the sky and split open the tomb. She ran out and jumped inside and the tomb magically closed up around her. Two butterflies flew around the tomb. The two were together at last and every spring two butterflies would appear around the tomb.

Fun little side story related to this legend. About two weeks after we heard this story Ryan and I were channel flipping in our hotel room one night and I came across a show with English subtitles. I got excited because it was rare to find a Chinese show we could actually follow along with. It was old, like probably from the 70s give or take a decade, and there was a girl who was very upset with her father arranging her to marry some creepy guy she didn’t like. The father got all upset  that she was arguing with his decision and then it came out that she had met a boy at school and a light bulb went off in my head and I realized, woah hey this is a movie of that story they told us in Hangzhou! It was, it was an old opera movie about the butterfly lovers. Gogo continuity!

FYI Chinese operas are paaiinnful to listen to. They sing in high whiny squeaky voices and every single song sounds exactly like the one before it. Just stay away.