There are actually two versions of the four great love stories of ancient Chinese folklore. The more traditional ones are:
Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai,
Xu Xian and the White Lady,
Liu Yi Zhuanshu,
Dong Yong and the Seven Immortals; and the other is:
Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai
Xu Xian and the White Lady
Meng Jiangnu
Cowherd and Weaving Maiden.
Whichever it is, it actually illustrates the people's yearning for a better love, of which the well-known ones are "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" and "The Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden". Though both of them end in tragedy, as long as one adheres to the true meaning of love, love will be waiting for us not far in front of us.
"Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" is about the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Zhu Yingtai disguised as a man to go to Hangzhou to study, and met Liang Shanbo, because of like-mindedness and become brothers and three years of the same window. After Zhu Yingtai returned home, she asked her mother to marry Liang Shanbo before the trip. When she was sent away, Zhu Yingtai promised to marry him as a "sister". Liang Shanbo knew about this and went to Zhu's family to propose to her. At that time, Zhu's father, Gongyuan, had already promised his daughter to Ma Wencai, the son of Ma Taishou. Liang and Zhu met on the roof of a building, after which Liang Shanbo returned home sick and died. Zhu Yingtai wedding time, the sedan chair detour to Liang Shanbo grave to pay tribute, thunder cracked the tomb, Yingtai into the grave. Liang Zhu Zhu butterfly double dance.
There is another folk legend that the two are actually more than 800 years apart, Liang Shanbo is the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yingtai is the North and South Dynasties. Zhu Yingtai is a chivalrous woman, robbing the rich to help the poor, three to go to the governor's home to steal silver, after the ambush was hacked to death, the people will be buried; Liang Shanbo is the Ningbo silver county county magistrate, after the death of the burial digging the tomb, coincidentally planed out the Zhu Yingtai's tombstone, feng shui is good, and another alternative to the burial of the land and is not good, so the joint burial, monument, the black for the Liang, the red for the Zhu, a man of letters thought, perfomance of a song of amazing heaven and earth and sobbing the gods and God's love story.
The Cowherd and the Weaving MaidenThe poignant love story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden took place during the Western Zhou Dynasty, when the slave society was very strict in terms of hierarchy, and this story is a portrayal of the general people's quest for happiness and repression, which is a reflection of the reality on earth by referring to the two stars in the sky.
It is one of the best legends circulating in China's folk history, the Weaving Maiden is the granddaughter of the Heavenly Emperor in Chinese mythology, her job is to weave clouds, and then she came down to the earth privately to unite with the Cowherd, and the Queen Mother of the West found out that, with a stroke of a hairpin, a heavenly river (i.e., the Milky Way) appeared between the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden separating the two of them. Only on the seventh day of the seventh month (lunar calendar) can they meet once a year on the Magpie Bridge (a bridge built by magpies). The saying that the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden meet on July 7 every year has become our present-day folk belief of the Seven Charms on the eve of the seventh moon.
The Hsu Hsien and the White LadyThe story was written in the Southern Song Dynasty or earlier, and matured and flourished in the Qing Dynasty, and is an example of collective Chinese folklore. Feng Menglong's "A Cautionary Tale" contains the story of the White Snake, which is the earliest known version of the "Leifeng Pagoda" (雷峰塔). It consists of "Xu Xian and the White Snake borrowing umbrellas in a lake", "The White Snake drinking Xionghuang Wine", "Stealing Immortal Grass to Save Xu Xian", "Water Flooding San Francisco", "The Broken Snake", and "The White Snake's Eternal Resting on Leifeng Pagoda". ", "Meeting at the Broken Bridge", "Fa Hai puts the White Lady under the golden mantle and presses her under the Leifeng Pagoda", "Xiao Qing forces Fa Hai to go into the belly of a crab" and other popular episodes. Composition.
The two serpent fairies, who have been practicing for thousands of years in Emei Mountain, come to the West Lake on earth and are transformed into the beautiful maidens, White Maiden and Qing'er. They meet a young man, Xu Xian, in the rain, and love develops between the White Maiden and Xu Xian, and they become husband and wife. The monk Fa Hai believed that this was a demonic evil, so he compelled Xu Xian to get his wife drunk on the Dragon Boat Festival with xiong huang wine, and when she was drunk, she revealed her snake form, which scared Xu Xian to death. When she woke up, she was so shocked and pained that she sacrificed her life to go to the fairy mountain to steal back the immortal grass and save Xu Xian's life.
Unexpectedly, when Xu Xian recovered from his illness, he was lured by Fa Hai to the Jinshan Temple. The White Queen and the Green Child arrived, but the sea is not allowed to see Xu Xian, the White Queen had no choice but to mobilize the water tribe with the Green Child, the water flooded San Francisco, Fa Hai invited the gods and goddesses to protect the law to help the battle, do not want to be in Fa Hai Zen Master's scheme, was installed into a very small bowl, pressed in the Leifeng Pagoda underneath, and from then on the loss of personal freedom and the joy of heaven.
Liu Yi Chuan Shu says that the daughter of the Dragon King of Dongting, married far away to the second son of the Dragon King of Jingchuan, her husband was abusive to his wife, and drove her out of the Dragon Palace to graze the sheep. The dragon lady had no way to seek help and cried and cried. When Liu Yi, a scholar, comes across her, he sends a letter on her behalf, and she is rescued and reunited with her family in the Dragon Palace. The dragon lady thanks Liu Yi for his kindness and falls in love with him. The Dragon King also wants to marry his daughter to Liu Yi. The Dragon King also wants to marry his daughter to Liu Yi. However, Liu Yi refuses to marry her because he has no personal interest in the matter and he sends a letter to her as a matter of righteousness. Liu Yi went home and married two wives, both of whom unfortunately died. Later, he married a fisherman's daughter, who looked like a dragon lady, and later found out that she was the dragon lady of the book. Thereafter, the couple respect each other as guests, and grow old together. Dong Yong and the Seven ImmortalsThe story of Dong Yong has its origins in three or four of the earliest episodes of the Shih Chien (史乘), the Classical Books (类书), the Notes (笔记), and the Zi Zhi (子集). It is widely believed that he was a native of Qingzhou in the Han Dynasty, in the northern part of present-day Shandong Province. As for the place where the story of his selling his body to bury his father and meeting a fairy on the way took place, there are different accounts.
Dong Yong sold himself to bury his father and became a slave in the house of Mr. Fu. The seventh fairy of the Jade Emperor sympathized with Dong Yong and came down to earth to marry him. The seventh fairy weaves 10 pieces of brocade in one night, helping Dong Yong to change his three-year long labor to 100 days. At the end of the 100-day period, the couple returned home, but the Jade Emperor ordered the Seven Immortals to return to Heaven. For the sake of Dong Yong, the Seven Immortals endured the pain of saying goodbye to their husbands.
The legend tells that Dong Yong sold his body to bury his father, and his filial piety touched the seven fairies, who came down to earth to marry him. Overnight, she wove ten pieces of brocade cloth to help Dong Yong pay off his debt and redeem himself. The Jade Emperor ordered the seven fairies to return to Heaven, and they had to endure the pain of parting with their husbands for the sake of Dong Yong, a love story.
Meng Jiangnu is based on the Chinese folktale "Meng Jiangnu Weeps at the Great Wall". She was a woman from the state of Qin, and on her wedding night, her husband, Fan Xiliang, was taken away to build the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu traveled thousands of miles to bring her husband warm clothes, and it took her a long time to get to the Great Wall, but in the end, she was told that her husband was dead, and his body was buried under the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu cried so loudly that she eventually cried down the Great Wall and found her husband's body.