Legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai
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Butterfly Lovers
Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is one of the four Chinese folk legends and one of the most influential types of verbal art. Having been spread far and wide in China for over 1600 years, it was awarded the fame of "A faithful-love masterpiece through the ages" and the title of "Oriental Romeo and Juliet". Appearing in the Jin Dynasty 1600 years ago, the Legend of Liang Zhu goes like this: To pursuit her studies in Hangzhou, Zhu Yingtai disguised herself as a man. After studying for three years together with her schoolfellow Liang Shanbo, Zhu Yingtai fell in love with the intellectual. Before the farewell, Zhu Yingtai dropped hints again and again to Liang Shanbo who failed to understand it at that time. Later, after being clear about Zhu Yingtai's intentions, he headed for the Zhu family to propose marriage. Unfortunately, Zhu Yingtai had been betrothed by her father to another man. Liang Shanbo was so grieved that he finally suffered decease and passed away. Zhu Yingtai headed for Liang Shanbo's tomb to offer sacrifice to him on the day when she got married. At the time she held the memorial ceremony, it winded and rained, with thunder flashing in the sky. After a while, the tomb blew out and Zhu Yingtai sprang into it. Later on, the lovers turned into a pair of colored butterflies and flied wing to wing in rainbowed sky. With touching plot and magnificent imagination, Legend of Liang Zhu is very popular with common people. A gigantic system of Liang Zhu culture has come into existence. It is comprised of various literary and artistic works including the Yue Opera Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, violin concerto Liang Zhu and the film Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and also, the peculiar fashion of pursuing studies as well as love and marriage. When going round, the legend has been continuously enriched and developed by people in various regions. At the same time, numerous gravestones, temples and other buildings were built, with Legend of Liang Zhu as the theme. Furthermore, this legend has been spread to many countries such as North Korea, Viet Nam, Burma, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia with unequalled influence.
The Butterfly Lovers: A Look at China’s Romeo and Juliet
Like those of us familiar with Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, the ancient Chinese were no strangers to ill-fated romance. The legend of the “Butterfly Lovers,” also known as Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, took place over a thousand years ago, and is still told today as one of China’s four great folk tales. As far as the story and message go, however, the “Butterfly Lovers” bears only passing resemblance to “Romeo and Juliet.” While the Chinese tale contains its share of young love, it is framed by measured action, propriety, and steadfastness. The duels and poisons of Shakespeare’s impulsive romantics have given way to disguises, leading metaphors, and unbreakable family arrangements. Our heroine, a bright young lady called Zhu Yingtai, was her family’s ninth child and only daughter. Her elderly father not only raised Zhu with loving kindness, but also taught her how to read and write. In addition to the classics, Zhu studied and admired great women of China’s past. In ancient China, schools did not accept female students. So Zhu disguised herself as a boy and left for an academy in the city of Hangzhou, where she could continue her love of learning. At school, Zhu met a boy called Liang Shanbo, whom she soon befriended. Becoming sworn brothers, they studied, played, ate, and lived together. They composed poems and couplets, and debated history and philosophy. Three years went by, and Zhu fell in love with Shanbo, but he never for a moment suspected that Yingtai was in fact a beautiful young woman, and one who had fallen in love with him. She tried many times to show her affection, but Liang misunderstood every time. Finally, it was time for Yingtai to leave the academy. Her father had become ill and she was needed at home. To see her off, Shanbo walked with Yingtai for 5.5 miles of her journey. The silent walk was heavy with the pain of separation. As they neared a stream, Yingtai noticed a pair of mandarin ducks together on the water, and threw a branch at them. Watching the startled birds fly off in different directions, Zhu broke the silence. “My elder brother, when we part today, who knows when we shall meet again? We are just like these ducks, who separate in flight.” “Esteemed little brother,” Shanbo said, “even if we are brothers about to part ways, how can you compare us to husband and wife?” To the Chinese, a pair of mandarin ducks represents the love between man and woman, and even this final hint had failed to reach his senses. All Yingtai could do was beg Liang to visit her someday. The moment of departure finally came; in tears they bade each other farewell. Yingtai had known to plan ahead. Before setting off, she told her secret to the teacher’s wife and bade her to inform Liang. Only then did her feelings finally get through to him. But fate was cruel. As Shanbo hastily left to propose to her, let us turn to the house of Zhu. Yingtai was celebrated as a rare woman scholar by the people of her hometown. Her father recovered from his illness, and happily informed her of her upcoming marriage to Ma Wencai, the gifted and cultured son of a wealthy and powerful provincial governor. The Chinese hold that marriage is not simply a union of man and wife, but the act of joining two families as one. In this case, the Zhu and Ma families had a history of amiable relations, and both were of high social standing. To cancel the engagement at this time would be unthinkable. So it was that upon meeting his beloved, Shanbo did not receive Yingtai’s hand in marriage. There could be no words; the silence between them sounded the crushing denial of his innocent love. Shanbo, who as a man of resolution had devoted himself to Yingtai, never recovered. Devastated, he soon fell ill and died. Yingtai was torn. In her heart, she was just as devoted to Shanbo as he had been to her. As a woman who had given him her love, it would be only right to be true to him. But her betrothal to Wencai was a family matter, and one could not simply live according to the whims of personal sentiment. Finally she agreed to marry Wencai, but only on the condition that the marriage procession pass by Shanbo’s grave, and that she be permitted to pray and sacrifice before his tomb. After all, she had to stay true to her promise. Through an exchange of letters, Wencai recognized Yingtai as a woman of supreme character. She would not give up her love for the late Shanbo, and being himself a man of scholarly caliber, Wencai would not fault her for it. On the day of the wedding, Yingtai came dressed in funereal white. As the marriage procession passed Shanbo’s grave, the weather turned stormy. In the rain, Yingtai wept before his tombstone, lamenting that neither in life nor in death was there to be union between them. At that moment, thunder and lightning shook the earth, splitting open a divide in Shanbo’s gravesite. Yingtai was caught in and fell into the abyss. Then the chasm collapsed as rapidly as it had opened. As the two families scrambled to rescue their daughter, the weather suddenly let up. Two large and colorful butterflies, fluttered out of the tomb. In dreamlike splendor the pair danced and weaved higher and higher into the heavens. Were the butterflies not the unfortunate couple, now rejoined in the afterlife? It is said that Ma Wencai and his father reported the events to the emperor, who then proclaimed Yingtai to be a woman of extraordinary virtue and had her recorded in official history. The story of Liang Shanbo, the young scholar devoted to pure love, and Zhu Yingtai, the learned woman who followed him to the grave in honor of her promise, is just one expression of the traditional standards to which the ancient people held themselves.
Romeo And Juliet From China Liang Shan Bo And Zhu Yingtai
Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) and Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) is the one of four Chinese legends and one of legend which gave great influence to Chinese modern arts and cultures. For Indonesian, Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) and Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) called Sampek Engtay. This love story had ever staged by Teater Koma in Jakarta at 2005, and got tremendous response from the audiences. In China, this love story diffused more over 1.600 years as well as got awards " A Masterpiece of Love Loyalty For Centuries " and got epithet Romeo And Juliet From The East. Appeared at Jin Dynasty more over 1.600 years ago, this love story tells of the journey of love. Tells of a pair of young people, Shan Bo and Yingtai( 祝英台 ). Yingtai was a girl from one village in Hangzhou ( 杭州 ) whom wholeheartedly wanted to go to a school for study. In ancient China time, girls were not allowed to attend a school. As it continues to be persuaded, finally Yingtai's father gave the permitted to go study. To pursued her study in the capital city of Hangzhou, and with her father's helped, Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) forced to posing as a man and she went to school with her private servant girl. On the way to capital city of Hangzhou ( 杭州 ), she came across a young learner, Shan Bo. They talked each other during their trip to find a school in the capital city. Afterwards, they studied in Wansong School ( 萬松學校 ) together for three years. During these years, Shan Bo and Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) sworn brothers but Shan Bo didn't know that his " brother ", Yingtai ( 祝英台 )was actually a woman as well as fell in love with him too. After graduation, when the time came for them to part, she told Liang Shanbo( 梁山伯 ), "We must arrange a time when you can come to my house. I have a younger sister and I shall request that my father betroth her to you." Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) was, of course, referring to herself. Although Liang Shanbo ( 梁山伯 ) agreed to the proposal, he felt unworthy of the match as he came from a poor family. One in the beautiful morning, Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) received a letter from her father to asked her to go back home as quickly as possible. Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) confused. If she goes back to home, it does mean she will never meet Liang Shan Bo( 梁山伯 ) anymore. Whereas, the feel of love for Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) is growing in her heart. Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) told to her private servant about anxiety her heart. Her servant said Zhu Yingtai should to tell her love feeling for Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ). But she wasn't ready to tell to Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) about the truth. After she thought very hard, Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) got a brilliant idea, though. She wrote a love letter made from a jade for Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) and asked to her teacher's wife to deliver the letter to Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) when she's on the way to home. Upon her departure, she couldn’t stand dropped her tears to Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) who saw her off, but Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) had not apprehended her meaning at all. Thereafter, their teacher's wife whom got the notes from Yingtai to deliver her letter, gave the love letter to Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ). When Liang Shan Bo read the letter and he realized the letter tells the truth about ( 祝英台 ) Zhu Yingtai's condition as well as love feeling to him, Liang Shan Bo( 梁山伯 ) decided to hurried ( 祝英台 ) Zhu Yingtai's house. When he arrived at Yingtai's house, he met the house servant, " May I meet Jiuguan Master ? " asked Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ). " Our young mistress is Jiuniang. There's no Jiuguan living here." replied the servant. Shan Bo more convinced what was written in the letter is true, that Zhu Yingtai( 祝英台 ) is young mistress of the house and she is a girl. Unfortunately, when he came across Yingtai( 祝英台 ), she had been forced to betroth a rich guy, Ma. Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) told that her father sent her a letter to returned to home for marriage. Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) also told that she fell in love to Liang Shan Bo during they were being a classmate at school and she didn't fell in love with Ma. Liang Shan Bo endeavored to met Yingtai's father and tried to proposed Yingtai before her wedding day and asked to Yingtai's father to cancelled her wedding. What lickerish, ( 梁山伯 ) Shan Bo's proposal rejected outright by Yingtai's father and kicked him out of his house because he was exactly poor. Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) should to make a deal with the reality that he lost his first love to Yingtai. Filled with remorse and regret, he died sometime later of a broken heart. His last request was that his remains be buried at the foot of Qingdao Mountain (青島山 ). Two years later, it was wedding day of Yingtai and Ma. When she and her entourage family was on the way to Ma's house, they passed through Qingdao Mountain ( 青島山 ), there was a sudden fierce wind and the revellers were forced to stop. Stepping down from her bridal sedan chair, Zhu Yingtai saw ( 梁山伯 ) Liang Shan Bo's grave and immediately fell to her knees, weeping bitterly. She cried on ( 梁山伯 ) Liang Shan Bo's grave. Suddenly, overcast covered the bright sky. The rain came and thunder boomed. The grave burst open suddenly. Yingtai ( 祝英台 ) jumped into the grave in front of her father's eyes and all her families. Her father and all her families crying over and calls Yingtai ( 祝英台 ). But it was useless. Thereafter the wind had calmed down, the grave closed up again. Then,( 祝英台) Yingtai's father and her families were seen two exquisite butterflies dancing together above the grave. They flew together into the distance unite their love in the blue sky. Even today, when the azaleas are in full bloom, you may well see two large butterflies, one yellow, the other black, fluttering and dancing together. People would point to the yellow one and say, " That's Liang Shan Bo( 梁山伯 ). " and then to the black one saying, " That's Zhu Yingtai ( 祝英台 ). " If there's a pair of butterflies and you catch the one of butterflies then the butterfly die, the others of pair butterfly will die too. It represent of love between Liang Shan Bo ( 梁山伯 ) and Zhu Yingtai( 祝英台 ).
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 The late-imperial legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, the "Butterfly Lovers"—a story as central to Chinese culture as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is to Western culture—also relates a tale of two lovers help apart by social strictures.
2 a variety of related documents reveal the historical and cultural origins of the Legend of Liang Shambo and Zhu Yingtai
3 The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend which tells a tragic love story between a pair of famous lovers- Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.