Butterfly Lovers

As the story of Romeo and Juliet is known throughout western countries both to the old and young, a fairy tale of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, also a story of tragic love, was handed down through generations in China. The story of Liang-Zhu is still considered as the best illustrations of true love by Chinese people. Nowadays, among various expressions of this classic story, the most popular art form may be the violin concerto "Liang-Zhu", composed by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang in 1950s, which is also deemed to be one of the most successful music accomplishments in Chinese modern history.

Like most myths, this story has more than one version. And nobody knows when did it take place exactly. But, never had this prevented wonderful stories from spreading widely. Now, even some foreigners have become interested in the story of "Oriental Romeo and Juliet".

Zhu Yingtai was born in a wealthy squire family in Shangyu county, east China Zhejiang province. When the girl grew up, she became beautiful, smart and sometimes wilful, as she was the only child in the family. The father loved her very much. He chose many suitors for her; however, none of the candidates could touch the girl's heart. Zhu had an idea. She put forward to attend a school and then find an ideal man to marry by herself. Her father thought it as nonsense at first, for at that time, attending school was exclusively for boys. Nevertheless, he agreed after her continuous entreating.

Then Zhu disguised herself as a boy and changed her name as Zhu Jiuguan (usually a boy's name). During her traveling to the famous Yixing Shanquan Mountain Academy, Zhu got acquainted with a young scholar, Liang Shanbo, who was both talented and virtuous. Fortunately, Liang was also to go to the famous academy, where they both enrolled as students. Liang and Zhu studied in the same room and lived under the same roof. They treated each other like brothers. They had three years of merry life before Zhu received a letter from her father one day. She had to go back home, for she was told in the letter her father's got ill seriously. But this was a shell game for her.

Zhu tried to show her tenderness and love by all kinds of ways to Liang during he was seeing her off for a distance as long as 18 li (Chinese unit of distance, a very long way). But Liang was too dull to realize anything, as he had never doubted that Zhu is a boy. This is one of the most vivid deion of the story, known as "18 li seeing off" to Chinese people. Arriving at home, Zhu found her father was not ill at all. He had engaged her to a son of a rich family. This time Zhu's objections became pale and helpless. When Liang became aware of Zhu, actually, was a girl and he had been fallen in love with her so deeply, he was filled with grief and regret, and then died after months, with a final request of burying him at the foot of Qingdao Mountain.

Zhu decided to marry the man she'd never known about, for she had to obey his father and the feudalism. When her bridal procession passed by Qingdao Mountain on its way to the bridegroom's house, there was a sudden tornado, and they were forced to stop. Zhu stepped down her bridal sedan chair and wept bitterly in front of Liang's grave. Suddenly the grave split, she stepped into it. Then it became shinning and peace. Two exquisite butterflies were dancing above the grave. People saw them flying off into the distance, never part from each other.

Now, when Chinese people see two butterflies dancing together in shrubbery, they would point to them and tell their children, “This is Liang Shanbo, and that is Zhu Yingtai."

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