Culture
Temples for True Love: Love God in Chinese Culture
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While you may know Shakespeare's romantic play, did you know that China has its own version? Liang Zhu, also known as Butterfly Lovers, is a tragic love folktale that's been passed down for hundreds of years in Chinese history.
We’re sure you’ve heard of Shakespeare’s romantic play, Romeo and Juliet, but have you ever heard of the "Chinese version" of it?
The Chinese romantic 民间传说 (mín jiān chuán shuō), Butterfly Lovers, is a similar but more dramatic story with characters from different culture and backgrounds. Unlike most plays and fairytales, 民间传说 is a special type of cultural production in China. They are legends based on certain historical events, traditions, and famous figures. People created the stories and spread the words orally from one generation to another. Therefore, as time passes by, it’s easy to confuse these folktales with actual history. Mulan, for example, was most likely not a real story. However, while 民间传说 are not real, they accurately reflect the emotions of people in those times.
In fact, 民间传说 are so important to Chinese culture, that we teach them in many of our intermediate and advanced online Chinese lessons.
THE STORY
The title of this great folktale in Chinese is composed of the names of the two main characters -- Liang Shanbo (梁山伯 liáng shān bó) and Zhu Yingtai (祝英台zhù yīng tái) -- which is often abbreviated to Liang Zhu (梁祝 liáng zhù.) Liang Shanbo was a scholar from an ordinary family, while Zhu Yingtai was the only daughter of a wealthy family.
In the Eastern Jin dynasty, women were not allowed to go to school. Yingtai tried her best to persuade her parents to send her to school, and finally was able to attend classes in disguise as a man. On her way to the school from her hometown, Yingtai met Liang Shanbo, and they became best friends. During the time studying at the same school, no one discovered Yingtai’s true identity, including her closest friend Shanbo. Yingtai soon found herself falling in love with him, but she could not express her feelings to him without revealing her secret.
Three years later, Yingtai’s family asked her to go back home. With sadness, Shanbo accompanies his “best brother” for 18 miles to see “him” off, and this famous scene in the story is called 十八里相送 (shí bā lǐ xiāng sòng.) During the long journey, Yingtai hinted that she was a woman to Shanbo several times, and even suggested that she be a matchmaker between him and her “sister”, which is Yingtai herself, but Shanbo was too blunt to discover the truth.
It was months later, when Shanbo finally realized that Yingtai was a woman. The two were extremely devoted to one another, and Shanbo decided to propose. However, Yingtai’s parents had already arranged her to marry Ma Wencai (马文才 mǎ wén cái), a man from another rich family. Filled with heartbreak and regret, Shanbo became critically ill, and died soon after.
The most dramatic part of the story happens on the day of marriage, when the strangely strong winds prevent the wedding procession from passing the bridge where Shanbo's grave was. Yingtai stopped to pay her respects at his grave. Suddenly, lightning and thunder split open the grave. Unwilling to get married with anyone except for Shanbo, Yingtai jumped into his grave without hesitation. Everyone was stunned as the grave reopened, and a pair of beautiful butterflies came out and flew away together.
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