The legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, regarded as the Chinese equivalent of Romeo and Juliet, is one of China’s four major folk legends.
In the reign of Emperor Yinghe of the Eastern Jin Dynasty(317-420), there was a Zhujia Village in the south of the Shanjuanshan Mountain where lived a wealthy family whose patriarch was called Noble Zhu. According to the rule of the Zhu Family, property could not be inherited by a daughter, but only by a son. Noble Zhu, however, had no son. In order that his family property could be properly inherited, he had made his daughter disguise herself as a boy from early childhood. Yingtai, talented and good looking, was also intelligent and bookish.
When she was of school age, Noble Zhu sent Yingtai to the nearby Bixian’an, an old-style private school, for study. In the school, there was a classmate named Liang Shanbo, who lived in the Liangjiang Village, about 2.5 km west of the Shanjuanshan Mountain. The two felt like old friends at their very fi rst meeting. Therefore, they gathered some soil as incense and took vows of brotherhood in the pavilion of a thatched bridge, at the back of the Shanjuanshan Mountain.
For three years, Yingtai and Shangbo studied in the same school. During this period, they went together to Qi and Lu area (present-day Shandong Province) to worship Confucius and also travelled to Dongwu (present-day Jiangsu Province). They shared their food in the daytime and their single bed at night. They were nearly always together, and when they were not communicated by writing and replying in poems. Shanbo was not talented, but he was honest and tolerant. Yingtai slowly fell in love with Shanbo. For the three years, Yingtai had not taken off “his” clothes. Though Shanbo puzzled over that, Yingtai never explained. As a result, Shanbo did not see any traces of female characteristics in Yingtai.
After three years, Liang Shanbo was going to travel to Yuhang (present-day Hangzhou) to further his studies, whereas Zhu Yingtai was denied this opportunity by her father. They were reluctant to part with each other, and exchanged tokens of their eternal friendship. Shanbo presented Yingtai with an ancient Qin (musical instrument), while Yingtai presented a gold-plate folded fan in return, on which she had inscribed the two characters “Bianxian.” When Shanbo was going to Hangzhou, Yingtai accompanied him for the first 18 miles to send him off . During the journey, Yingtai hinted to Shanbo that she was a girl and that she had fallen in love with him. Shanbo, honest and tolerant, did not catch onto her hidden meaning and did not even have the slightest suspicion that she was not a boy. Just before parting, she told Shanbo that she would be a matchmaker and arrange a union between Shanbo and her sister. Before the two fi nally exchanged goodbyes, Yingtai reminded Shanbo to pay a visit to her home on a plighted day so that he could propose a marriage to her “sister” (who was, of course, really herself).
After Yingtai returned home from school, her parents unexpectedly betrothed her to a young man surnamed Ma, in Jingtang, west of the county. One day, in a break from studying, Shanbo paid a visit to Yingtai’s home. In the rich and lovely dress of a beautiful woman, Yingtai went up to meet Shanbo who at once recognised her true gender. When Yingtai told Shanbo that her parents were forcing her to marry Ma Wencai, a rich and spoiled gentleman, Liang Shanbo was heartbroken. Before parting, the lovers vowed that if they could not live together, they would die together.
After bidding farewell to each other in tears, Shanbo’s health slowly deteriorated to the point where he became seriously ill and later died. He was buried near the Hu Bridge, in the west of his village. Hearing the news, Yingtai was filled with deep sorrow and determined to die for love. On the day Yingtai was to be married to Ma Wencai, Yingtai insisted on passing by the Hu Bridge, thus offering herself as a sacrifice to Shanbo. When the sedan-chair passed by Shanbo’s tomb, Yingtai left the procession to pay her respects to Shanbo. Yingtai cried and ran into the stele. Suddenly, there was a strong wind, which blew the dust and the stones, making the sky dark. All of a sudden, the earth cracked and without hesitation, Yintai leapt into the chasm that had formed. After the wind stopped, Yingtai and Shanbo’s spirits had turned into a pair of beautiful butterflies and emerged from the tomb, flying together among the fl owers forever, never to be apart again.
