Intro ~ Styles ~ People ~ Snippets ~ My Work ~ Other Sites

Snippets (21 Sept 1997)
Amended 7 Feb 1997

  The music of the Butterfly Lovers, from this uncontactable source.  

The Butterfly Lovers: Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai

"I'M PUTTING A STRING DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE BED. Please stay on that side, and I'll stay on this side," the young scholar Zhu Yingtai requested of new classmate Liang Shanbo, upon discovering that they were going to share a bed. If I had been Liang Shanbo I would have been surprised, but I doubt I could have guessed the truth -- that his new bedmate was, beneath masculine disguise, a pretty young girl trembling with nerves.

That part of the story explains a lot of the reasons why Zhu Yingtai was remembered by centuries of ancient Chinese, who would ordinarily have reviled a young woman who -- so to speak -- slept around before marriage. The young girl named One Who Gallantly Ascends the Stage is remembered as beautiful, but intelligent; modest, but courageous.

Young girls in ancient China never went to schools that taught hard-core classics. Zhu Yingtai had to beg and plead with her family. She even visited them in disguise as a distant male cousin, to get them to admit her disguise could work. School was for young men to pass level after level of the demanding Imperial examinations, to become an official. Women didn't become officials, so all they needed -- even the rich ones -- was art, music, calligraphy, and some classics, which were taught at home. Yingtai was an extraordinary woman to even consider school.

In those days, a school was simply a teacher's house. Students lived with him like family, and would call fellow students "learning-brother" (si-siong). Zhu Yingtai was assigned a very nice, but slightly dim, young man named Liang Shanbo as her study partner -- and, as she discovered to her chagrin, her bedmate too.

Living together as brothers, the young pair became best friends. Or so Liang Shanbo thought. Zhu Yingtai, however, realised that she was falling in love with him. She dared not tell him. He was poor, she was rich; her parents surely would never agree to their marriage. And then, without warning, came the letter -- come home immediately, we have found a husband for you.

She went. Liang Shanbo accompanied her on her journey, sad that they would be parting, but cheerfully unaware of the turmoil in his friend's heart. She smiled and joked in response to his jokes and laughter, struggling not to cry. In desperation, she decided that she had to try something, anything. And so, as they parted, unsure if they would ever see each other again, she told him she had a younger sister named Yingtai, and suggested that he visit to ask her parents if he could marry her.

Parents usually did try to arrange marriages for their children's happiness, so if their horoscopes were compatible, Yingtai thought she might persuade them to call off her forthcoming marriage to a stranger. So she went home, to wait and hope. And Liang Shanbo looked at her house -- and left. He would have liked to marry his best friend's sister, but Yingtai's family was clearly rich, while he was poor. Only friendship had prompted that crazy suggestion, he was sure. He returned to his school, missing his "brother".

So Yingtai waited, worried, despaired. When she knew her lover was not going to rescue her, she gave up.

Then Liang Shanbo found out the truth. And then he knew he loved her. It was too late to stop the wedding. He killed himself.

The day she was married, on the way to her new husband's house, Zhu Yingtai asked the sedan chair bearers to stop at Liang Shanbo's grave, so she could pay her respects. As she knelt, the ground opened, swallowed her up.

It is said that a yellow butterfly and a black butterfly flutter over their shared grave. And so the Butterfly Lovers live forever.

Previous snippets

The Chinese mania for calligraphy

My musings on why the Chinese culture places so much emphasis on calligraphy.

The colourful Chinese

Which colours should you wear to a Chinese wedding? Which will earn you a thump on the head from your great-grandma?

Qin Shi-huang, First Emperor of China

A tale of the man who united China and built the Great Wall. His tomb was discovered just this century, but his legacy is immortal.

Coming up next -- I'm really not sure! When I wrote about Zhu Yingtai I suddenly remembered all the women there are to write about in Chinese legend. Might be that, or sons/daughters and fathers in Chinese calligraphy. Please tell me what you think below, or mail me at e-ching@oocities.com if you have an idea to contribute!

  

Intro ~ Styles ~ People ~ Snippets ~ My Work ~ Other Sites This page hosted by GEOCITIES Comments? Tell E-Ching at e-ching@oocities.com!

Butterfly