9 The White Lady

Love stories are always more popular than other types of stories. There is the romance of Liang and Zhu turning into butterflies related in the previous section, and there is another love story between the White Lady and Xu Xian.

It was said that in his previous life, Xu saved the life of a white snake. After being saved, the white snake went on to become a practitioner of some magical power and finally she turned into a Jing. (A Jing is a spirit that can transform itself into something real and has magical power. The closest thing to a Jing in Western mythical creatures would be a genie.) The white snake genie transformed itself into a woman with the name Bai Suzhen (also known as the White Lady), and took a maid along with her, who was also transformed from a green snake genie. The White Lady came to look for Xu as she wanted to repay the kindness shown by him in saving her life. Unsurprisingly, the two fell in love and got married, and the White Lady became pregnant. One day, when Xu was on his way home, he came across a monk called Fahai. Fahai told him that his wife and the maid were both snake genies. Naturally, he did not believe it at all. He laughed heartily and said, “How is it possible that my wife is actually a genie? ”

As Fahai was a powerful monk, it was his duty to capture all genies in the world. In order to try to lure the White Lady into a fight so that she could be captured, he first lured Xu up to the Jinshan Temple and locked him up. This enraged her and she proceeded to use her magical power to draw upon huge amount of water to flood the temple. Fahai hung his basin on the door of the temple, and started using his power to stop the water. In the midst of all these, he shouted, “You white snake! You are so brave, now you are going to fight against me? ” She answered, “Now what makes you think that you are in the position to separate my husband and me? ” Just as the White Lady was overpowering him and the water nearly flooded the temple completely, she suffered her labour pains. The pains were too much of a distraction for her and in the end, she was defeated. She passed the baby to her maid and ordered her to flee immediately. Fahai came up, took his basin out and captured her in his basin. After that, he locked her under the Leifeng Tower at West Lake.

Years later, her son grew up and did well in the imperial examinations. The maid, the son and Xu came to the Leifeng Tower to hold a memorial for her. All of a sudden, the Buddha appeared and released her from her prison at the bottom of the tower. The Buddha told her to go back to the magical realm and continue her practice. She was satisfied with this last chance of seeing her husband and her son again, so she listened to the Buddha and left the human world.

Traditionally, snakes give us negative impressions but the Chinese people love the White Lady. A possible reason for this is that the White Lady and Xu were very loyal to each other and remained constant in their love. The White Lady dared to love and thus endeared her to the people. People are touched that she tried to save Xu when she knew he was in trouble even though she knew she might not be powerful enough to win against the monk.

Valuing loyalty and keeping promises between couples are highly regarded. In the above story, the White Lady and Xu provide a very good example. No matter how hard the monk tried to separate them, they remained committed to each other. This contrasts with the number of divorces in modern marriages and may provide inspiration for people nowadays.