Chinese Legend

The Chinese Legend of White Snake---白娘子传说

This is a love story about a man and a white snake. The first short tale was found during the Tang Dynasty (618 AD). That is a cautionary, vigilant and tragic story of a man in love with a lady in white. The scenes of West Lake and Thunder Pagoda were added and the central theme was established during the Song Dynasty (960 AD). The entire story was completed during the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD). It was rewritten to beautify characters in some episodes in Qing Dynasty (1644 AD).

Today we find that the stories are somewhat different depending on which source has been used, because of rewriting. The complete story should have at least 16 episodes. The following is the shortest abstract of the story。

Once upon a time, a white snake and a green snake that had magical power in the Mountain Er-Mei and had transformed into two beautiful young ladies, on white, one green. They met a man named Hsu Sheng at the West Lake of Hang-Zhou city. The white snake fell in love with Hsu Sheng at first sight. They got married soon after.

The Lady White helped her husband to open an herbal medicine store by writing the prescriptions. Patients unable to pay were given free treatment and medicine. The store quickly became well known and popular. One day a monk called Fa Hai saw the couples and warned Hsu Sheng that his wife was a white snake.

It was during the Dragon Boat Festival, when Chinese families like to decorate with calamus and Chinese mugwort around the house and drink wine to drive away spirits. This was dangerous to Lady White and Lady Green, since they were spirits after all. Lady White was pregnant at that time and her magical power had weakened a lot. She tried to drink wine to please her husband.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t control herself and turned into her snake body in her bedroom. Hsu Sheng saw the white snake and was literally scared to death.

In order to save her husband's life, Lady White went to steal the resurrection plant on the Kunlun Mountain. She failed. But her true love won the resurrection plant and the life of Hsu Sheng was restored.

Hsu Sheng remembered Fa Hai and went to the Golden Mountain Temple to see him. Fa Hai suggested Hsu Sheng become a monk to forget his wife. Fa Hai could take care the spirits. Lady White asked a great army of underwater creatures for help and brought forth a flood over the Golden Mountain Temple to fight with Fa Hai. Fa Hai had the magical power too and asked the heavenly soldiers to save his temple. Since the Lady White was pregnant, she was too weak to fight harder, She gave up the battle and waited for the time after giving birth.

Hsu Sheng went to see his son and carried a magical hat from Fa Hai for his son. The magical hat captured the White Snake. Fa Hai imprisoned the White Snake inside the Thunder Pagoda.

The Green Snake was unable to fight Fa Hai alone, escaped and practiced in her magical power even harder. After the son of Lady White grew up, she took revenge by destroying the Thunder Pagoda and rescued White Snake. White Snake reunited with her husband and her son. The story ended here.

Since the story is so popular. It was moved to Chinese opera, movies, novels, comics, cartoons and PC games. The beginning and the ending portions have been rewritten a lot.

The Chinese Valentine’s Day---七夕的传说

The Story

A love story for this day is about the 7th daughter of Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd. They were separated by the Emperor. The 7th daughter was forced to move to the star Vega and the cowherd moved to the star Altair. They are allowed to meet only once a year on the day of 7th day of 7th lunar month. Click here for detail...

The Stars

The star Vega (Weaving Maid) is the 5th brightest star in the sky. Therefore, it's very easy to find in the summer night. The size of Vega is 16 times bigger than the Sun. The temperature on its surface is more than 10,000 degrees. The brightness of Vega is 25 times brighter than the Sun. It’s 25 light years away from the Earth.

The star Altair (Cowherd) is the 11th brightest star in the sky. Therefore, it's not difficult to find in the summer night. The size of Altair is 4 times bigger than the Sun. The temperature on its surface is about 8,000 degrees. The brightness of Altair is 11 times brighter than the Sun. It's 17 light years away from the Earth.

There are two stars, Alshain and Tarazed, next to the Altair. They said those two stars on Altair's each side are the Cowherd's two children in the story. The distance between the Vega and the Altair is 16 light years. They cannot meet in the sky, as they are too far apart. In the story, there was a magpie's bridge for Weaving Maid and Cowherd to meet. Do you know the length of that bridge?
Find Star Vega and Star Altair in the sky.

The Festival

On the Chinese Valentine's Day, people in love like to go to the temple of Matchmaker and pray for their love and the possible marriage in China. People still single will do the same thing to ask their luck of love in the Matchmaker temple.

The Chinese Valentine's Day is also called The Daughter's Festival. Long ago, Chinese girls always wanted to train themselves having a good handcrafting skill like the Weaving Maid. The skill is essential for their future family. On that night, the unmarried girls may pray for the Weaving Maid star to let them become smarter. When the star Vega is high up in the sky, girls do a test, which is to put a needle on the water surface. If the needle doesn't sink, then girl is already smart enough and ready to find a husband. Girls may ask for any wish, but only one per year.

In some Chinese provinces, people believe that decorating the flowers on the ox's horn on the Chinese Valentine's Day enables to prevent from the disaster. On the night of Valentine's Day, women wash their hair to give it a fresh and shiny outlook. Children wash their face in the next morning of the Valentine's Day using the overnight water in their backyards to have a much more naturally beautiful appearance. Girls throw the five-color ropes, made at Chinese Dragon Boat festival, on the roof for magpies. Magpies will carry ropes to build the bridge.