Madame White Snake
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Madame White Snake (白蛇傳) (or Lady White Snake) is a Chinese legend, which existed as oral traditions before any written compilation.
The earliest attempt to fictionalize the story appeared to be "Madame White Snake Jailed Eternally in the Leifeng Pagoda" (白娘子永鎮雷峰塔 ) in “ Jing Shi Tong Yan ” (警世通言) by Feng Menglong (馮夢龍) during the Ming Dynasty.
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[edit] Basic Plot
The story is set in the Southern Song Dynasty. Two female snake spirits transformed into human form after a thousand years of meditation, taking the names Bai Suzhen (White) and Qingqing (Green). One day at the West Lake in Hangzhou they came across Xu Xian, a poor herbal medicine shopkeeper and Bai and Xu fell in love at first sight.
Bai used magic to create a mansion, and she asked Qingqing to propose marriage with Xu for her. After the wedding, Bai helped Xu open an herbal medicine shop and made him the in-house doctor. They lived a happy life together and soon Bai became pregnant. One day, when Xu was on his way home, he met a Taoist priest who claimed that there were evil spirits lingering in his house and gave him three sheets of holy paper. Xu went home and confronted Bai with the holy paper but her powers were stronger than those of the Taoist priest and lifted the "blessings" from the holy paper. Xu was remorseful but Bai did not hold it against him, instead, asking Qingqing to drive the priest away.
Sometime later, a powerful monk named Fahai from Jinshan Temple came to visit Xu and asked him to become a disciple of his and revealed that Bai and Qingqing were not humans but snake spirits. Xu refused to believe him and kicked him out.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Xu asked his wife to have some wine according to the tradition. Bai tried to refuse but Xu insisted. She took a sip of it but fell seriously ill afterwards. She rushed to her bed and slowly transformed back into a snake as the alcohol weakened her control over her form. When Xu brought her some medicine he was horrified to see the huge snake in his bed and fell dead of fright.
When Bai recovered her human form she was grief-stricken to see Xu lying dead on the floor. Qingqing reminded her that the magicical lingzhi herb might save him. She sets out to get these herbs but during her journey to the Kunlun Mountains she was stopped by a group of fairies. Bai risked her life to fight the fairies and was saved by the god of Nanji. He gave Bai the lingzhi and let her go and Bai managed to bring her husband back to life.
However, after this, Bai knew she could no longer conceal her identity from Xu. She told her husband what she really was and asked for his understanding and mercy. Xu was deeply moved and vowed that he would never again be apart from her for the rest of his life.
One day when Xu was collecting herbs outside he was kidnapped by Fahai. Bai and Qingqing rushed to Jinshan Temple to plead for Xu's release, but Fahai refused. Bai and Qingqing had no choice but to use their power to flood Jinshan Temple, but Fahai and his disciples tried their best to resist. During this struggle, Bai goes into labor and she loses control of her magic and the waters end up flooding the nearby villages, killing countless people. Qingqing, whose power was not as strong as Bai's, could do nothing to stop the flood and could only help Bai retreat to the forest. Meanwhile, the God of Nanji released Xu and brought him to the forest.
Bai soon gave birth to a boy and asked Qingqing to bring him back to Xu, so that he could be raised by his father. Fahai and his disciples arrive soon after and state that Bai must be imprisoned in his alms bowl. After giving birth Bai could not recover her magic powers and had had no choice but to submit and be sucked into Fahai's alms bowl, later kept in the Leifeng Pagoda.
Years later, Xu tells his son the story of his mother and the boy travels to the Leifeng Pagoda and begs for his mother's release. Several years later, Fahai finally relents and releases Bai so that she may be reunited with her family.
[edit] Modification
The story in “Jing Shi Tong Yan” was a story between righteous and evil. However, the general public sympathized Bai Suzhen and they had not forsaken her because she was a snake spirit. The story therefore went into various modifications, which emphasized the will of Bai for love, the sacrifice she made for her love, and her bravery in general. In “Jing Shi Tong Yan”, Madame White/Madame Bai did not even have a name, 'Bai Suzhen' was only later created.
These modifications include:
1. Acquiring Magic Herbs
- Under the influence of Fahai to test the true identity of Bai, Xu forced his wife to drink wine at the Dragon Boat Festival. As snakes are repelled to sulfur (as sulfur dioxide in wine), Bai returned to snake form and Xu was horrified to death. When Bai awaken she was grief-stricken. Bai flew to Kunlun Mountains to steal some lingzhi but was stopped by a group of lingzhi–guarding fairies. Bai risked her life to fight with them and impressed the fairies’ master, God of Nanji (South Pole). He gave Bai the lingzhi to restore her husband's life.
2. Redemption of Bai
- After Bai was trapped underneath the pagoda, Qingqing escaped and went for further meditation. She came back and defeated Fahai and set Bai free. Fahai retreated to the stomach of a crab, which is why the internal fat of the crab is of orange color, which resembles the color of Fahai’s Taoist quilt.
3. Redemption of Bai (second version)
- Bai gave birth to Xu’s son before she was trapped. Qingqing took the baby to Xu’s relatives, who raised him to become the top scholar. The son returned to the pagoda to pay respect. Bai was released because of her son’s filial piety.
- Xu and Bai were amongst the god and goddess, but they broke the law in heaven and must repay by living through human lives. Xu first saved a white snake that was Bai, and they met again to begin the story of ‘Madame White Snake’.
[edit] Adaptation
- The story has been performed numerous times in Peking opera, Cantonese opera and other Chinese operas.
- Actresses such as Yoshiko Otaka, Yu So Chow, Lin Dai and Joey Wong had been involved in various movie adaptations of the story. Director Tsui Hark made the movie Green Snake in 1993, which told the story from the prospective of Qingqing, the Green Snake; this movie starred Joey Wong as Bai and Maggie Cheung as Qingqing.
- The Legend of the White Serpent (1956), Japanese film made by Toho in collaboration with the Shaw Brothers Ryo Ikebe and Shirley Yamaguchi starred in a film directed by Shiro Toyoda .
- Madam White Snake (1962 film), also from Shaw Brothers. This version is a huangmeixi opera. Both its Bai (Linda Lin Dai) and Qingqing (Margaret Tu Chan) actors killed themselves a few years after the film was released. Feng Yueh directed. The music is by Fu-ling Wang on a libretto by Chun-ching Li.
- In 1958 the story was adopted into The Tale of the White Serpent (also known as "Panda and the Magic Serpent"), which is historically known as the first colored anime in Japan.
- New Legend of Madame White Snake (新白娘子传奇) (1993 Taiwanese TV series)
- In 2001 a TV drama series Madam White Snake starring Fann Wong was made, which further modified the plot.
- A children's picture book, Lady White Snake: A Tale From Chinese Opera, retold by Aaron Shepard, illustrated by Song Nang Zhang, Pan Asian Publications, Union City, California, 2001.
[edit] See also
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Topics in Chinese mythology
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| General topics: | Creation myth · Astrology · Dragons · Religion in China · Folk religion ·List of deities · I Ching |
| Important beings: | Deities · Three August Ones and Five Emperors · Eight Immortals |
| Mythical creatures: | List of mythical creatures |
| Mythical places: | Xuanpu · Yaochi · Fusang · Queqiao · Penglai · Longmen · Diyu |
| Literary sources: | Shan Hai Jing · Shui Jing Zhu · Ten Brothers · Hei'an Zhuan · Fengshen Yanyi Journey to the West · Baishe Zhuan · Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio |
