Post by Isaac Ho, the Admin on Sept 3, 2014 10:29:57 GMT -5
THE LEGEND OF THE CHINESE BUTTERFLY LOVERS
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introduce by Isaac Ho, the Admin & Founder of this Forum
Dear visitors to our forum, although in the West, there is the story of Romeo and Juliet, but in ancient China there is an early
version of this story which the Chinese people take great pride in enacting in their cinema halls during festive days.
I still remember when I was still in my teens, in Malaya (now Malaysia), my mother used to bring me along to attend the famous
Chinese opera show inside the BB Park at Jalan Bukit Bintang in the early l950s, as my father sometimes received some
complimentary tickets to this show in town.
The BB Park Chinese Opera would open up, night after night, on popular demand, the famous play concerning the love story
between Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai in which the legendary love tales occurred in China of long ago.
The story is told that the Scholar Liang met his later lover, Zhu, while both were on the way to attend school in a place known
generally as Jiangnan, or just below China's Yangtze River, in Central China.
It was a somewhat hot day as both met each other at a rest pavilion in the midst of a luxuriant bamboo grove at midday.
They greeted each other by bowing as both were aspiring scholars.
Interestingly, Zhu Yingtai was accompanied by a female attendant but she was dressed as a handsome male scholar, since
in those ancient days, females were seldom found among aspiring scholars and if they were discovered, it could cause intense
gossip among the male population and perhaps even a public scandal...!
In time, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai came to know each other better and even further their friendship by addressing each
other as brothers.
Then a time came, when one day, Zhu Yingtai received a letter from her parents telling her to return home as her father had
taken ill.
She then told Liang and bid him fairwell above a poetic arch bridge which spanned across a small brook.
However, Zhu did drop a hint and persuaded Liang to visit with her as she would like to introduce her to her sister.
Liang reluctantly agreed and wished her all the best, as it was a long journey home.
In time, Liang finished his studies and returned home.
But on the way, Liang Shanbo and his male servant did paid a visit to the village to see Zhu Yingtai.
However, as Liang got there, it was too late as he saw from the entrance to Zhu's home, two red lanterns which signified that a
marriage was taking place.
Only then, after certain enquiries did Liang Shanbo learned that Zhu Yingtai was in fact a girl and she was to be married that
day to a young man of the Ma Family.
In sorrow, Liang returned home and only to fall sick as he fell intensely in love with Zhu Yingtai, and thought about her
day and night without eating nor sleeping.
Finally, Liang Shanpo, as the story goes, became so ill that he passed away with a broken heart.
When Zhu Yingtai heard about the untimely demise of Liang Shanpo, her heart was shattered and on a chosen day, she
visited his grave.
Suddenly, there was lightning and thunder above the sky, and all of a sudden the Liang's grave split open to release a
beautiful butterfly, which in the meantime, Zhu was so shattered with love that she killed herself by plundering her head on
Liang's grave stone and in the end, both became a pair of fluttering butterflies which flew away happily together.
At last, the loving pair was united in death.
This love story of Liang Shanpo and Zhu Yingtai has endured from generation to generation among the Chinese people and
therefore, on festival days, they would donate money generously to pay for the expenses of the performing artists to come
to their village and play out the story in front of the temple to their gods.
In Malay, later Malaysia, the Chinese opera which perform the eternal love story of Liang Shanpo and Zhu Yingtai would often
played during the Mid-Summer (Mooncake) festival to honour their temple gods. And it would be a highly festive occasion
where young and old would joyous attend to this eternal love play, and in memory of Liang-Zhu for unfailing love together!
en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Lovers
www.chinaexploration.com/ChineseCulture/Liang_Shanbo_and_Zhu_Yingtai