This story occurred long, long ago. At that time Emperor Qinshihuang of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) conscripted 800,000 men to build the Great Wall. Local governments all along the projected route rounded up young men to help to complete the gigantic project. Those who were pressganged and sent to the project site toiled around the clock and many of them were worked to death.
In Suzhou there lived a scholar named Fan Qiliang, who hid himself in all kinds of different places to evade the government troops. One day, he hid himself in the garden of the Meng Family where he happened to meet Meng Jiangnu, who was a beautiful and smart girl. She and her parents hid Fang Qiliang again. Her parents liked him too, and so permitted Meng Jiangnu to marry him. Less than three days after their marriage, Fan Qiliang was caught and transferred to the Great Wall construction site to do hard labor under the command of bailiffs in a feudal yamen. She cried a river, missing him very much and bitterly awaiting his return.
Half a year later, she still had no news from Fan Qiliang. It was late autumn and the northerly were coming and the reed catkins were becoming white and it was colder day by day. Meng Jiangnu thought that because her husband was building the Great Wall in north China, he must be very cold. She sewed some winter clothes for him and set out to go to the Great Wall and find her husband.
On the road, she weathered many hardships, eventually arriving at the foot of the Great Wall. Unexpectedly, a worker told her that Fan Qiliang had died and that his corpse had been buried under the Great Wall. After hearing this heartrending piece of news, Meng Jiangnu felt that there was nothing but gloom above and darkness below, and fainted with sorrow and exhaustion. After regaining consciousness, she burst into floods of bitter tears. She cried so desperately that the heavens were moved by her tears and the sun and moon put out their lights.
Suddenly a trumpet blast rocked the sky and the earth and a part of the Great Wall stretching dozens of kilometers collapsed, exposing thousands of skeletons of those who had died in its construction. Meng Jiangnu bit her finger, and dropped some blood on every skeleton. She prayed secretly that if it was her husband’s skeleton, the blood would infi ltrate into it, while if not it would flow in four directions. Finally Meng Jiangnu found the skeleton of her husband. She held the bones in her arms, weeping bitterly.
Thinking Meng Jiangnu very beautiful, Emperor Qinshihuang wanted to force her to be his concubine. Meng Jiangnu pretended to agree, but asked the emperor to complete three tasks first: Monks were invited to recite scriptures for Fan Qiliang for 49 days and rebury his skeleton gracefully; Emperor Qinshihuang personally led all his ministers to offer sacrifice to Fan Qiliang; after Fan Qiliang was buried, Meng Jiangnu visited scenes at different spots for three days before marrying Emperor Qinshihuang. The emperor agreed to her requirements. After the three things were done, Meng Jiangnu severely scolded the emperor and committed suicide by jumping into the sea.
