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{{Short description|Chinese legend}}
{{Chinese|pic=Long Gallery-Legend white snake.JPG|piccap=Image from the [[Summer Palace]], Beijing, China, depicting the legend|t=白蛇傳|s=白蛇传|p=Bái Shé Zhuàn|j=Baak6 Se4 Cyun4|poj=Pe̍k-siâ-tōan or Pe̍h-siâ-tōan}}
{{Other uses}}
The '''''Legend of the White Snake''''', also known as '''''Madame White Snake''''', is a Chinese legend, which existed as oral traditions before any written compilation. It has since become a major subject of several [[Chinese opera]]s, films and television series.
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2013}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox Chinese
|title = Legend of the White Snake
|pic=Long Gallery-Legend white snake.JPG
|piccap=Image from the [[Summer Palace]], Beijing, China, depicting the legend
|t=白蛇傳
|s=白蛇传
|p=Bái Shé Zhuàn
|j={{Tone superscript|Baak6 Se4 Cyun4}}
|poj=Pe̍k-siâ-tōan or Pe̍h-siâ-tōan
}}
The '''Legend of the White Snake''' is a Chinese legend centered around a romance between a man named [[Xu Xian]] and a female snake spirit named [[Bai Suzhen]]. It is counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales, the others being ''[[Lady Meng Jiang]]'', ''[[Butterfly Lovers]]'', and ''[[The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl]]''.{{sfnb|Idema|2012|p=26}}


==Early versions==
The earliest attempt to fictionalize the story appears to be ''The White Maiden Locked for Eternity in the [[Leifeng Pagoda]]'' (白娘子永鎮雷峰塔) in [[Feng Menglong]]'s ''[[Jingshi Tongyan]]'' (警世通言), which was written during the [[Ming Dynasty]].
[[File:Three Pools Mirroring the Moon 01 2020-04.jpg|thumb|left|The three stone pagodas of [[West Lake]].]]
The snake-woman motif possibly came from Indian folklore.<ref name=chen/> In the earliest versions the white snake was depicted as an evil demon. Over the centuries, however, the legend has evolved from a horror tale to a romance story about forbidden love.


==Legend==
==="Li Huang"===
The [[Tang-dynasty]] story collection ''Boyi zhi'' ({{lang|zh-hant|博異志}}; "Vast Records of the Strange"), from the early 9th century, contains a ''[[chuanqi (short story)|chuanqi]]'' tale about a man named Li Huang ({{lang|zh-hant|李黃}}) meeting an attractive woman clad in white (whose aunt is clothed in blue-green). After mating with the beauty at her residence, he returns home and falls ill, his body dissolving into water. His family searches for the woman and discovers that she is a giant white snake.<ref name=chen>{{cite thesis|url=https://ricerca.sns.it/retrieve/e3aacdfd-eff7-4c98-e053-3705fe0acb7e/Chen-Dong-Thesis-Final.pdf|title=Dialogues Between Two Worlds: Prophecy, Resurrection and the Imagination of the Otherworld|last=Chen|first=Dong|degree=Ph.D.|publisher=[[Scuola Normale Superiore]]|year=2019|accessdate=6 January 2024|pages=}}</ref>
===Basic story===
At its most basic, the story tells of a young scholar who falls in love with a beautiful woman, unaware that she is a thousand year old white snake that has taken on human form. A monk intervenes in order to maintain a law that forbids humans and spirits from falling in love with each other, and casts the white snake into a deep well at [[Leifeng Pagoda]].


==="The Three Pagodas of West Lake"===
Over centuries the story has evolved from a horror tale to a romance story, which tells that the scholar and the snake woman are genuinely in love with each other, but their relationship is forbidden by nature's law. There are also other variations of the story, such as the white snake having met the scholar before and the story continues in their next lives, or the white snake's offspring being a reincarnation of the deity [[Wenchang Wang]].
In the [[Ming dynasty]], some time before 1547, a collection of early ''[[huaben]]'' tales was printed by Hong Pian ({{lang|zh-hant|洪楩}}); in it was "The Three Pagodas of West Lake" ({{lang|zh-hant|西湖三塔記}}), likely the first work to set the legend in the [[Southern Song]] capital [[Lin'an Prefecture]], or modern [[Hangzhou]]. In this story, a man named Xi Xuanzan ({{lang|zh-hant|奚宣贊}}) meets a girl, her mother, and her grandmother; he falls in love with the mother — who is dressed in white — but the girl warns him that her mother has killed all her previous lovers. A Daoist exorcist exposes the mother as a white snake; her daughter is a black chicken and the grandmother an otter. He builds three stone [[pagoda]]s in the [[West Lake]] and subjugates the creatures beneath them. Xi Xuanzan becomes a religious layman.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/028/features/tope.pdf|chapter=Tope and Topos: The Leifeng Pagoda and the Discourse of the Demonic|last=Wang|first=Eugene Y.|title=Writing and Materiality in China: Essays in Honor of Patrick Hanan|editor-last=Zeitlin|editor-first=Judith T.|editor2-last=Liu|editor2-first=Lydia H.|editor3-last=Widmer|editor3-first=Ellen|publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]]|year=2003|pages=496–497}}</ref>


==="Madam White Is Kept Forever Under the Thunder Peak Tower"===
An additional character is a hundred year old green snake (or in some cases a carp) that has also transformed into a woman, and serves as the white snake-woman's close friend and confidante.
The story "Madam White Is Kept Forever Under the Thunder Peak Tower" ({{lang|zh-hant|白娘子永鎭雷峰塔}}) in [[Feng Menglong]]'s influential 1624 collection ''[[Stories to Caution the World]]'' began to portray the White Snake in a sympathetic perspective.<ref name=wang>{{cite book|title=Snake Sisters and Ghost Daughters: Feminist Adaptations of Traditional Tales in Chinese Fantasy|last=Wang|first=Yue Cathy|date=2023|publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]]|isbn=978-0-8143-4864-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D3S5EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT153}}</ref> Xi Xuanzan had become Xu Xuan ({{lang|zh-hant|許宣}}), the Taoist exorcist had become a Buddhist monk named [[Fahai (character)|Fahai]], and the White Snake now has a maid-servant (clothed in blue-green) named Qingqing ({{lang|zh-hant|青青}}), who is a [[Fish in Chinese mythology|fish spirit]]. In this tale the White Snake tries to enrich her husband, but unwittingly turns him into a crime suspect; when he tries to leave her, she threatens him with a flood. The story ends with the righteous monk Fahai trapping the demons under the [[Leifeng Pagoda]] ("Thunder Peak Tower").<ref name=wang/>


<gallery widths="220" heights="220" perrow="3">
===Full story===
File:白蛇現形（警世通言）.jpg|An illustration from ''[[Stories to Caution the World]]'' (1624).
The story is set in the Southern [[Song Dynasty]].
File:逰湖借傘.jpg|An illustration from ''Leifeng Pagoda'' (1806).
File:仙草（義妖傳）.jpg|An illustration from ''The Righteous Demons'' (1869 print).
</gallery>


===Qing dynasty texts===
Bai Suzhen (白素貞), a female white snake, dreams of becoming a goddess by doing good deeds. She transforms herself into a woman and travels to the human realm. There, she meets a green snake, Qing (青), who causes disaster in the area she lives. Bai holds Qing captive at the bottom of a lake but promises her that she will return 300 years later to free her. Bai keeps her word and develops a sisterly bond with Qing. They encounter Fahai, a sorcerer who believes that every demon is inherently evil and must be destroyed. However, Bai is too powerful and Fahai is unable to eliminate her immediately, so he vows to destroy them if he sees them again.
The Qing dynasty saw major transformations of the legend thanks to [[Chinese opera]] and ''[[quyi]]'' (storytelling performances). While Huang Tubi (黃圖珌)'s 1738 ''[[chuanqi (theatre)|chuanqi]]'' play ''Leifeng Pagoda'' is considered similar to Feng Menglong's version, a major shift seemed to have occurred in texts from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Three long- or medium-length works from this period are: Fang Chengpei's ({{lang|zh-hant|方成培}}) ''chuanqi'' play ''Leifeng Pagoda'' (1777); a thirteen-chapter novel (also ''Leifeng Pagoda'', 1806) by Yushan Zhuren ({{lang|zh-hant|玉山主人}}, "Master of the Jade Mountain"), and ''The Righteous Demons'' ({{lang|zh-hant|義妖傳}}, preface dated 1809), a transcribed ''[[tanci]]'' text by Chen Yuqian ({{lang|zh-hant|陳遇乾}}). In all of them, White Snake is presented as endearing and devoted; while Fahai's portrayal is more negative.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Global White Snake|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BPU4EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|page=13-14|last=Luo|first=Liang|year=2021|publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]]| isbn=978-0-472-03860-2 }}</ref>


{{Multiple image
Fearing that they will meet more human sorcerers, Bai and Qing retreat to the Banbuduo, a realm that exists between the human and demon worlds. They try to perform good deeds by bringing rain to places experiencing drought. However, Qing was careless and almost flooded the whole town once. Due to this mistake, Bai loses her chance to become an immortal. However, [[Guan Yin]] informs her that she may have yet another opportunity.
|direction=vertical
|image1=游湖 20231026.jpg
|caption1=[[Xu Xian]] lends [[Bai Suzhen]] his umbrella on a ferry boat in [[West Lake]]. ([[Yun opera]])
|image2=盗库银135121.jpg
|caption2=[[Xiaoqing (character)|Xiaoqing]] steals silver from the treasury of a corrupt magistrate to finance Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian's shop. ([[Hubei Han opera]])
|image3=Opéra de Pékin - voler l'herbe de longue vie Serpent Blanc combattant un fils de la Grue et un fils du Cerf (9479355870).jpg
|caption3=Bai Suzhen battles the guardians of the magical herb. ([[Peking opera]])
|image4=力竭 威压 支援 (17286468721).jpg
|caption4=Xiaoqing saves the pregnant Bai Suzhen from [[Skanda (Buddhism)|Skanda]] during the Battle of [[Jinshan Temple (Zhenjiang)|Jinshan Temple]]. (''[[Kunqu]]'')
|image5=白蛇传.断桥155710.jpg
|caption5=A furious Xiaoqing wants to kill Xu Xian on [[Broken Bridge (Hangzhou)|Broken Bridge]], but Bai Suzhen stops her. ([[Yangzhou opera]])
}}


==Plot==
In the meantime, Bai and Qing accidentally bring a scholar named Xu Xian, and his friend, into the demon world. Bai protects them from the other demons and falls in love with Xu in the process. After the battle with the lord of the Underworld, Xu confesses his feelings for Bai, claiming that it was love at first sight. However, for a human to return to his world, he must first become unconscious and have any memory about his experience in the demon realm erased, but Xu knows and avoids being knocked out. However, Fahai finds a way into the demon world and he tricks Xu into being knocked out.
The following is one version from [[Chinese opera]]:<ref>{{cite book|title=Lady White Snake: A Tale from Chinese Opera|last=Shepard|first=Aaron|others=Illustrated by [[Song Nan Zhang]]|publisher=[[Pan Asian Publications]]}}</ref>


A white snake and a [[blue-green distinction|blue-green]] snake from [[Mount Emei]] transform themselves into two young women called [[Bai Suzhen]] and [[Xiaoqing (character)|Xiaoqing]], respectively. They become best friends and travel to [[Lin'an Prefecture]] (or [[Hangzhou]]), where they meet a young man named [[Xu Xian]] on a ferry-boat in [[West Lake]]. Xu Xian lends them his umbrella because it is raining. Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen fall in love instantly and are eventually married. They open a medicine shop.
When Xu Xian returns to the human realm he forgets everything. Since he and his friend entered the portal separately, they end up in different locations. Xu meets many new people there. Not long later, Bai takes a final step to becoming a goddess, which is to collect human tears. Bai sees Xu with another woman and assumes that they are a couple. Qing realizes that when Xu and Bai meet, Xu will fall in love with Bai again, so she helps to arrange a meeting for them. Xu and Bai are married, open a medicine shop and live happily together.


[[Fahai (character)|Fahai]], the abbot of [[Jinshan Temple (Zhenjiang)|Jinshan Temple]] in [[Zhenjiang]], approaches Xu Xian and tells him that his wife is a snake. Xu Xian brushes him off, so Fahai tells him that he should have her drink [[realgar wine]] during the [[Dragon Boat Festival]]. Bai Suzhen unsuspectingly drinks the wine and reveals her true form as a large white snake. Xu Xian dies of shock after seeing that his wife is not human.
However, as humans and demons are forbidden to bond, the town is struck by a plague and ends up on the verge of total destruction. Bai, Qing and Fahai finally agree to a truce and obtain a magical herb needed to help the population. Bai becomes pregnant later with Xu's child, but Fahai continues to attempt to eliminate her and Qing.


Bai Suzhen travels to [[Kunlun (mythology)|Kunlun]], where she braves danger to steal a magical herb guarded by disciples of the [[Old Man of the South Pole]]. The herb restores Xu Xian to life.
On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, when the [[Duanwu Festival]] is held, demons in human form will revert to their original shape. Bai thus decides to take Qing and Xu Xian back to Banbuduo, but Xu falls for Fahai's trick again. Bai's true form is revealed and Xu is literally scared to death. Bai retrieves a drug that restores Xu to life. After giving birth to Xu's son, Bai is unable to control herself anymore and is forced to tell her husband the truth about her origin. Xu kindly accepts her, but Fahai attacks the weakened Bai and imprisons her for eternity in [[Leifeng Pagoda]].


After coming back to life, Xu Xian is still fearful of his wife. He travels alone to Jinshan Temple, where Fahai imprisons him, telling him that he must live in the temple in order to save himself from the snake demons. Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing fight with Fahai to rescue Xu Xian. During the battle, Fahai calls on guardian deities like [[Skanda (Buddhism)|Skanda]] and [[Sangharama (Buddhist deity)|Sangharama]] to help him. Bai Suzhen uses her powers to flood the temple, causing collateral damage in the process. However, her powers are limited because she is already pregnant with Xu Xian's child, so she fails to save her husband. Xiaoqing helps her escape back to Hangzhou.
===Modifications===
In [[Feng Menglong]]'s ''Jingshi Tongyan'' (警世通言), the white snake did not have a name. The name "Bai Suzhen" was created only later.


Meanwhile, Xu Xian realizes that his wife's love for him is genuine and that he no longer cares if she is a snake. He manages to escape after persuading a sympathetic young monk to release him. When he reunites with his battered wife on [[Broken Bridge (Hangzhou)|Broken Bridge]], where they first met, Xiaoqing is so furious at him that she intends to kill him, but Bai Suzhen stops her. Xu Xian expresses his regret, and both Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing forgive him, Xiaoqing more reluctantly.
The story in ''Jingshi Tongyan'' was a story of good and evil, with Fahai out to save Xu Xian's soul from the demon Bai Suzhen. Over the centuries however the story has evolved from horror to romance with Bai and Xu genuinely in love with one another, but such a relationship is forbidden by the laws of Heaven.


Bai Suzhen gives birth to their son, Xu Mengjiao (in some versions [[Xu Shilin (character)|Xu Shilin]]). Fahai tracks them down, defeats Bai Suzhen and imprisons her under [[Leifeng Pagoda]], despite pleadings from Xu Xian. Xiaoqing flees, vowing vengeance.
Modifications to the story included:


==Subplots and spin-offs==
1. Redemption of Bai:
===Prequel===
*After Bai is trapped in the [[Leifeng Pagoda]], Qing escapes and leaves to train and increase her power. She returns later and defeats Fahai, releasing Bai. Fahai retreats to the stomach of a crab. A saying that a crab's internal fat is orange because it resembles the colour of Fahai's [[Kasaya (clothing)|kasaya]].
[[Lü Dongbin]], one of the [[Eight Immortals]], disguises himself as a ''[[Tangyuan (food)|tangyuan]]'' vendor at the Broken Bridge. A boy called Xu Xian buys some ''tangyuan'' from Lü Dongbin without knowing that they are actually immortality pills. After eating them, he does not feel hungry for the next three days so he goes back to ask the vendor why. Lü Dongbin laughs and carries Xu Xian to the bridge, where he flips him upside-down and causes him to vomit the ''tangyuan'' into the lake. In the lake dwells a white snake spirit who has been practicing Taoist magical arts. She eats the pills and gains 500 years' worth of magical powers. She, therefore, feels grateful to Xu Xian, and their fates become intertwined. There is another terrapin (or tortoise) spirit also training in the lake who did not manage to consume any of the pills; he is very jealous of the white snake. One day, the white snake sees a beggar on the bridge who has caught a green snake and wants to dig out the snake's gall and sell it. The white snake transforms into a woman and buys the green snake from the beggar, thus saving the green snake's life. The green snake is grateful to the white snake and she regards the white snake as an elder sister. In the meantime, the terrapin spirit has accumulated enough powers to take on human form, so he transforms into a Buddhist monk called Fahai.


===Sequel===
2. Redemption of Bai (alternative version)
Twenty years after his mother is buried under the pagoda, Xu Mengjiao earns the position of ''[[zhuangyuan]]'' (top scholar) in the [[imperial examination]] and returns home in glory to visit his parents. At the same time, Xiaoqing, who had spent the intervening years refining her powers, goes to the Jinshan Temple to confront Fahai and defeats him. Bai Suzhen is freed from Leifeng Pagoda and reunited with her husband and son, while Fahai flees.
*Bai gives birth to Xu's son before she is trapped. Qing brings the baby to Xu's relatives, who raised him. The boy grows up to become the top scholar in the [[imperial examination]]. He returns to Leifeng Pagoda to pay respect and Bai is released because of her son's filial piety.


In a version Fahai hides inside the stomach of a crab. There is a saying that a crab's internal fat is orange because it resembles the color of Fahai's ''[[Kasaya (clothing)|kasaya]]''.
3. [[Reincarnation]]
*In a retcon version of the story, Xu and Bai are actually immortals in Heaven. However, they break celestial rules and are banished to the human world. The human Xu saves a white snake that is actually Bai, and they meet again to begin the story of Madame White Snake.


==Reference and parallel to Wu Zetian==
===Modifications and alternate versions===
The legend has been presented in a number of major [[Chinese opera]]s, films, and television series.
A quote from the adaptation ''Madam White Kept Forever under Thunder Peak Tower'' (''Stories to Caution the World'') states: "Judging from the case of Empress Wu, how we know that this white snake is not a beautiful woman? Who is to say that a white snake can’t change into a beautiful woman?" [i] Another quote in ''Lady White Snake: A Tale From Chinese Opera'', retold by Aaron Shepard, states that an "animal may become a human. A human may become a god. Just so, a snake may become a woman."


The white snake was simply known as the "White Lady" or "White Maiden" ({{zh|t=白娘子|labels=no}}) in the original tale in [[Feng Menglong]]'s ''[[Stories to Caution the World]]''. The name "Bai Suzhen" was created in a later era.
Chinese folklore and Zodiac traditions both acknowledge snakes as the seducers and charmers throughout history of which there is equal fear and admiration for. There is a common and likely male dominated perception that Empress [[Wu Zetian]] of the [[Tang Dynasty]] thrust herself into power by having these intrinsic serpent qualities. Therefore the parallels between the story of Madam White and Wu Zetian are easy to draw.


Some adaptations of the legend in [[theater]], film, television and other media have made extensive modifications to the original story, including the following:
==Adaptations==
===Operas and stage plays===
* The story has been performed numerous times in [[Peking opera]], [[Cantonese opera]] and other [[Chinese opera]]s.


* The green snake (Xiaoqing) is portrayed as a treacherous antagonist who betrays the white snake, as opposed to the traditional depiction of her as the white snake's close friend and confidant.
* Stage musical adaptations in Hong Kong include:
* Alternatively, the green snake (Xiaoqing) is less evolved, less well-trained compared to the white snake (Bai Suzhen), and thus less cognisant of what it means to be human. She is more animalistic and therefore sometimes at odds with Bai Suzhen, thus explaining their differences both in character and actions.
:: ''Pai Niang Niang'', created by [[Joseph Koo]] and [[Wong Jim]]. Premiering in 1972, it marked the start of the musical theatre industry in Hong Kong.
* Fahai is portrayed in a more sympathetic light as opposed to the traditional depiction of him as a vindictive and jealous villain: rigid and authoritarian, yet well-intentioned. His background story is also different in some adaptations.
:: ''White Snake, Green Snake'' (2005), created by Christopher Wong
* Bai Suzhen is freed from Leifeng Pagoda because her son's [[filial piety]] moved Heaven.
:: ''The Legend of the White Snake'', created by [[Leon Ko]] and Chris Shum
* A [[retcon]] or revisionist version of the story relates that Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen were actually immortals who fell in love and were banished from Heaven because celestial laws forbade their romance. They are reincarnated as a male human and a female white snake spirit respectively and their story begins.


==Adaptations==
* Taiwan's [[Cloud Gate Dance Theater]] performed a modern dance interpretation of ''Madam White Snake'' in the 1970s.
{{Further| List of media adaptations of the Legend of the White Snake}}

[[File:Haw Par Villa 13, Dec 14.jpg|thumb|Diorama at [[Haw Par Villa]], Singapore, depicting the battle between Bai Suzhen and Fahai.]]
* In 2010, an opera based on the legend, ''[[Madame White Snake (opera)|Madame White Snake]]'', with music by [[Zhou Long]] and a libretto by Cerise Lim Jacobs, premiered in a production by [[Opera Boston]].<ref>''Boston Globe'': [http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/03/01/curtain_rises_on_ancient_myth_in_opera_bostons_madame_white_snake/ "Curtain rises on ancient Chinese myth," March 1, 2010], accessed March 2, 2010</ref> It won the [[2011 Pulitzer Prize]] in Music.

* In 2012, the [[Oregon Shakespeare Festival]] in [[Ashland, Oregon]], staged an adaptation by [[Mary Zimmerman]]<ref>"Oregon Shakespeare Festival" website[http://www.osfashland.org/browse/production.aspx?prod=236], accessed March 4, 2012</ref>.

===Films===
*''[[The Legend of the White Serpent (1956 film)|The Legend of the White Serpent]]'' (白夫人の妖恋), a 1956 Japanese film made by [[Toho]] in collaboration with Hong Kong's [[Shaw Brothers Studio]]. It was noted for being the first Toho film to be in color.

*''[[The Tale of the White Serpent]]'' (白蛇傳), the first coloured anime feature film released in Japan in 1958. The U.S. release title was ''Panda and the Magic Serpent''. It was also one of the rare instances where Qing is represented as a fish demon and not a snake demon. It was also the only known film based on the legend to be dubbed in German (German release title: ''Erzählung einer weißen Schlange'').

*''Madam White Snake'', a 1962 film produced by Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers Studio. This version is a [[Huangmei opera]] directed by [[Feng Yueh]], with music by Wang Fu-ling on a [[libretto]] by Li Chun-ching.

*''Snake Woman's Marriage'' (白蛇大鬧天宮), a 1975 Taiwanese film directed by Sun Yang

*''[[Green Snake]]'' (青蛇), a 1993 Hong Kong film directed by [[Tsui Hark]], starring [[Maggie Cheung]], [[Joey Wong]], [[Vincent Zhao]] and [[Wu Hsing-kuo]].

*''[[The Sorcerer and the White Snake]]'' (白蛇傳說), an upcoming 3D film starring [[Jet Li]], [[Huang Shengyi]], [[Raymond Lam]] and [[Charlene Choi]].

*''The Legend of Lady White Snake: A Tribute to the Spirit of Alexander McQueen'', an upcoming short film starring [[Daphne Guinness]], directed by [[Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri]], with creative direction/styling by [[GK Reid]], and produced by Markus Klinko & Indrani, [[Daphne Guinness]] and [[GK Reid]]. Inspired by the ancient Chinese legend, the film is set in contemporary New York. Previews of the film are featured in the Daphne Guinness Exhibition at the Museum of the Fashion Institute from September 16, 2011 through January 6, 2012.<ref>Eolin, Sara. "Daphne Guinness Exhibit at FIT" September 13, 2011 in Aero Film Blog. http://aerofilm.blogspot.com/2011/09/fashion-week-has-settled-upon-new-york.html</ref>

===Television===
*''The Serpentine Romance'' (奇幻人間世), a 1990 television series produced by Hong Kong's [[Television Broadcasts Limited|TVB]], starring Maggie Chan, [[Maggie Siu]] and Hugo Ng.

*''[[New Legend of Madame White Snake]] / The Legend of White Snake'' (新白娘子傳奇), a 1992 Taiwanese television series starring [[Angie Chiu]], [[Cecilia Yip]] and Maggie Chen. It was aired in the Philippines under the title ''Lady White Snake'' in 1997.

*''The Legendary White Snake'' (白蛇後傳之人間有愛), a 1995 Singaporean television series starring Geoffrey Tso, Lin Yisheng, [[Terence Cao]], [[Lina Ng]], Ding Lan, Liu Qiulian and Wang Changli.

*''[[My Date with a Vampire]]'' (我和殭屍有個約會), a Hong Kong television series produced by [[Asia Television Limited|ATV]]. The series made extensive use of the story, reusing it in the first season (1998) and a modified version in the second season (1999).

*''[[Madam White Snake (TV series)|Madam White Snake / Legend of the Snake Spirits]]'' (白蛇新傳), a 2001 Taiwanese and Singapore co-produced television series starring [[Fann Wong]], [[Christopher Lee (Singaporean actor)|Christopher Lee]], Zhang Yuyan and Vincent Jiao.

*''Madame White Snake'' (白蛇傳), a 2005 Chinese television series starring [[Liu Tao]], Pan Yueming, Chen Zihan and Liu Xiaofeng.

*''The Legend of White Snake Sequel / Tale of the Oriental Serpent'' (白蛇後傳), a 2009 sequel to ''Madame White Snake'' (2005), starring Fu Miao, Qiu Xinzhi, Shi Zhaoqi, Chi Shuai and [[Cecilia Liu]].

*''Love of the Millennium'' (又見白娘子), an upcoming Chinese television series as a sequel to ''New Legend of Madame White Snake'' (1992), starring Zuo Xiaoqing, Queenie Tai, Ren Quan and Shen Xiaohai.

===Others===
*In the West there have been children's picture book adaptations of the legend, written by Western authors and illustrated by Chinese artists, including:
::''Legend of the White Serpent'' by A. Fullarton Prior, illustrated by Kwan Sang-Mei<ref>Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1960</ref>
::and ''Lady White Snake: A Tale From Chinese Opera,'' by Aaron Shepard, illustrated by Song Nang Zhang<ref>Union City, CA: Pan Asian Publications, 2001</ref>

*The novella ''The Devil Wives of Li Fong'' by [[E. Hoffmann Price]] is based on the story.

*In 2009, [[Dantes Dailiang]] made use of the Chinese lyrics of the Legend of White Snake for his song ''La muse aux lèvres rouges (红唇之缪斯女神)'' recorded in his LP ''[[Dailiang]]''.


== See also ==
== See also ==
*[[Duanwu Festival]]
*[[Leifeng Pagoda]]
*[[Chinese mythology]]
*[[Chinese mythology]]
*[[Dragon Boat Festival|Duanwu Festival]]
*[[Leifeng Pagoda]]
*[[Melusine]]
*[[Snakes in Chinese mythology]]


==Notes==
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


==References and further reading==
== External links ==
* {{cite book |last = Idema |first = Wilt L. |year = 2009 |title = The White Snake and Her Son: A Translation of the Precious Scroll of Thunder Peak with Related Texts |publisher = Hackett Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ok8qyivasGcC |isbn = 9781603843751|ref = none}}
{{Commons category|Legend of the White Snake}}
*{{cite journal|last =Idema|first =Wilt L.|author-mask =2|title =Old Tales for New Times: Some Comments on the Cultural Translation of China's Four Great Folktales in the Twentieth Century 二十世紀中國四大民間故事的文化翻譯|journal =Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies|volume =9|issue =1|pages =25–46|date =2012|url =http://www.eastasia.ntu.edu.tw/chinese/data/9-1/9-1-2/9-1-2.pdf|url-status =dead|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20141006103301/http://www.eastasia.ntu.edu.tw/chinese/data/9-1/9-1-2/9-1-2.pdf|archive-date =October 6, 2014|df =mdy-all}}
*[http://www.legendofladywhitesnake.com Fashion/art film starring Daphne Guinness, directed by Indrani.]
* {{cite book| last=Mao| first=Xian| title=Cowherd and Weaver and other most popular love legends in China| year=2013| publisher=Kindle Direct Publishing| location=eBook|ref=none}}
*[http://www.pbase.com/quahyc/legendofwhitesnake Legend of White Snake - Stage Performance from Penang, Malaysia]

*[http://www.seeraa.com/china-culture/baishezhuan.html Xu Xian and Lady White Story, Bai She Zhuan]
==External links==
*[http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=bUfFmQnYakoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Stories+to+Caution+the+World&hl=ja&ei=BlR8TaupI4WqsAOE2_H1Ag&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Stories to Caution the World in Google Books]
{{Commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.ladywhitesnake.com Lady White Snake]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140101232847/http://legendofladywhitesnake.com/ Fashion/art film starring Daphne Guinness, directed by Indrani.]
*[http://www.osfashland.org/browse/production.aspx?prod=236 Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2012 production]
*[http://www.pbase.com/quahyc/legendofwhitesnake ''Legend of White Snake'' – Stage Performance from Penang, Malaysia]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=bUfFmQnYakoC&q=Stories+to+Caution+the+World Stories to Caution the World in Google Books]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120618152646/https://www.osfashland.org/browse/production.aspx?prod=236 Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2012 production]

{{Legend of the White Snake}}
{{Chinese mythology}}
{{Chinese mythology}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Legend of the White Snake}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legend of the White Snake}}
[[Category:Chinese legends]]
[[Category:Legend of the White Snake| ]]
[[Category:Legendary serpents]]
[[Category:Shapeshifting]]
[[Category:Shapeshifting]]
[[Category:Chinese operas]]
[[Category:Chinese operas]]
[[Category:Legend of the White Snake| ]]
[[Category:Female legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Hangzhou in fiction]]

[[Category:Love stories]]
[[fr:Légende du serpent blanc]]
[[Category:Buddhist folklore]]
[[ko:백사전]]
[[Category:Chinese legends]]
[[id:Legenda Siluman Ular Putih]]
[[Category:Jiangsu in fiction]]
[[jv:Legenda Siluman Ula Putih]]
[[Category:Legendary lovers]]
[[ja:白蛇伝]]
[[th:ตำนานนางพญางูขาว]]
[[tr:Beyaz Yılan Efsanesi]]
[[vi:Bạch Xà truyện]]
[[zh:白蛇传]]

Latest revision as of 18:22, 5 December 2024

For other uses, see Legend of the White Snake (disambiguation).

Legend of the White Snake
Image from the Summer Palace, Beijing, China, depicting the legend
Traditional Chinese白蛇傳
Simplified Chinese白蛇传
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinBái Shé Zhuàn
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingBaak6 Se4 Cyun4
Southern Min
Hokkien POJPe̍k-siâ-tōan or Pe̍h-siâ-tōan

The Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese legend centered around a romance between a man named Xu Xian and a female snake spirit named Bai Suzhen. It is counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales, the others being Lady Meng Jiang, Butterfly Lovers, and The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.[1]

Early versions

[edit]
The three stone pagodas of West Lake.

The snake-woman motif possibly came from Indian folklore.[2] In the earliest versions the white snake was depicted as an evil demon. Over the centuries, however, the legend has evolved from a horror tale to a romance story about forbidden love.

"Li Huang"

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The Tang-dynasty story collection Boyi zhi (博異志; "Vast Records of the Strange"), from the early 9th century, contains a chuanqi tale about a man named Li Huang (李黃) meeting an attractive woman clad in white (whose aunt is clothed in blue-green). After mating with the beauty at her residence, he returns home and falls ill, his body dissolving into water. His family searches for the woman and discovers that she is a giant white snake.[2]

"The Three Pagodas of West Lake"

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In the Ming dynasty, some time before 1547, a collection of early huaben tales was printed by Hong Pian (洪楩); in it was "The Three Pagodas of West Lake" (西湖三塔記), likely the first work to set the legend in the Southern Song capital Lin'an Prefecture, or modern Hangzhou. In this story, a man named Xi Xuanzan (奚宣贊) meets a girl, her mother, and her grandmother; he falls in love with the mother — who is dressed in white — but the girl warns him that her mother has killed all her previous lovers. A Daoist exorcist exposes the mother as a white snake; her daughter is a black chicken and the grandmother an otter. He builds three stone pagodas in the West Lake and subjugates the creatures beneath them. Xi Xuanzan becomes a religious layman.[3]

"Madam White Is Kept Forever Under the Thunder Peak Tower"

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The story "Madam White Is Kept Forever Under the Thunder Peak Tower" (白娘子永鎭雷峰塔) in Feng Menglong's influential 1624 collection Stories to Caution the World began to portray the White Snake in a sympathetic perspective.[4] Xi Xuanzan had become Xu Xuan (許宣), the Taoist exorcist had become a Buddhist monk named Fahai, and the White Snake now has a maid-servant (clothed in blue-green) named Qingqing (青青), who is a fish spirit. In this tale the White Snake tries to enrich her husband, but unwittingly turns him into a crime suspect; when he tries to leave her, she threatens him with a flood. The story ends with the righteous monk Fahai trapping the demons under the Leifeng Pagoda ("Thunder Peak Tower").[4]

  • An illustration from Stories to Caution the World (1624).
    An illustration from Stories to Caution the World (1624).
  • An illustration from Leifeng Pagoda (1806).
    An illustration from Leifeng Pagoda (1806).
  • An illustration from The Righteous Demons (1869 print).
    An illustration from The Righteous Demons (1869 print).

Qing dynasty texts

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The Qing dynasty saw major transformations of the legend thanks to Chinese opera and quyi (storytelling performances). While Huang Tubi (黃圖珌)'s 1738 chuanqi play Leifeng Pagoda is considered similar to Feng Menglong's version, a major shift seemed to have occurred in texts from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Three long- or medium-length works from this period are: Fang Chengpei's (方成培) chuanqi play Leifeng Pagoda (1777); a thirteen-chapter novel (also Leifeng Pagoda, 1806) by Yushan Zhuren (玉山主人, "Master of the Jade Mountain"), and The Righteous Demons (義妖傳, preface dated 1809), a transcribed tanci text by Chen Yuqian (陳遇乾). In all of them, White Snake is presented as endearing and devoted; while Fahai's portrayal is more negative.[5]

Xu Xian lends Bai Suzhen his umbrella on a ferry boat in West Lake. (Yun opera)
Xiaoqing steals silver from the treasury of a corrupt magistrate to finance Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian's shop. (Hubei Han opera)
Bai Suzhen battles the guardians of the magical herb. (Peking opera)
Xiaoqing saves the pregnant Bai Suzhen from Skanda during the Battle of Jinshan Temple. (Kunqu)
A furious Xiaoqing wants to kill Xu Xian on Broken Bridge, but Bai Suzhen stops her. (Yangzhou opera)

Plot

[edit]

The following is one version from Chinese opera:[6]

A white snake and a blue-green snake from Mount Emei transform themselves into two young women called Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing, respectively. They become best friends and travel to Lin'an Prefecture (or Hangzhou), where they meet a young man named Xu Xian on a ferry-boat in West Lake. Xu Xian lends them his umbrella because it is raining. Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen fall in love instantly and are eventually married. They open a medicine shop.

Fahai, the abbot of Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, approaches Xu Xian and tells him that his wife is a snake. Xu Xian brushes him off, so Fahai tells him that he should have her drink realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival. Bai Suzhen unsuspectingly drinks the wine and reveals her true form as a large white snake. Xu Xian dies of shock after seeing that his wife is not human.

Bai Suzhen travels to Kunlun, where she braves danger to steal a magical herb guarded by disciples of the Old Man of the South Pole. The herb restores Xu Xian to life.

After coming back to life, Xu Xian is still fearful of his wife. He travels alone to Jinshan Temple, where Fahai imprisons him, telling him that he must live in the temple in order to save himself from the snake demons. Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing fight with Fahai to rescue Xu Xian. During the battle, Fahai calls on guardian deities like Skanda and Sangharama to help him. Bai Suzhen uses her powers to flood the temple, causing collateral damage in the process. However, her powers are limited because she is already pregnant with Xu Xian's child, so she fails to save her husband. Xiaoqing helps her escape back to Hangzhou.

Meanwhile, Xu Xian realizes that his wife's love for him is genuine and that he no longer cares if she is a snake. He manages to escape after persuading a sympathetic young monk to release him. When he reunites with his battered wife on Broken Bridge, where they first met, Xiaoqing is so furious at him that she intends to kill him, but Bai Suzhen stops her. Xu Xian expresses his regret, and both Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing forgive him, Xiaoqing more reluctantly.

Bai Suzhen gives birth to their son, Xu Mengjiao (in some versions Xu Shilin). Fahai tracks them down, defeats Bai Suzhen and imprisons her under Leifeng Pagoda, despite pleadings from Xu Xian. Xiaoqing flees, vowing vengeance.

Subplots and spin-offs

[edit]

Prequel

[edit]

Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals, disguises himself as a tangyuan vendor at the Broken Bridge. A boy called Xu Xian buys some tangyuan from Lü Dongbin without knowing that they are actually immortality pills. After eating them, he does not feel hungry for the next three days so he goes back to ask the vendor why. Lü Dongbin laughs and carries Xu Xian to the bridge, where he flips him upside-down and causes him to vomit the tangyuan into the lake. In the lake dwells a white snake spirit who has been practicing Taoist magical arts. She eats the pills and gains 500 years' worth of magical powers. She, therefore, feels grateful to Xu Xian, and their fates become intertwined. There is another terrapin (or tortoise) spirit also training in the lake who did not manage to consume any of the pills; he is very jealous of the white snake. One day, the white snake sees a beggar on the bridge who has caught a green snake and wants to dig out the snake's gall and sell it. The white snake transforms into a woman and buys the green snake from the beggar, thus saving the green snake's life. The green snake is grateful to the white snake and she regards the white snake as an elder sister. In the meantime, the terrapin spirit has accumulated enough powers to take on human form, so he transforms into a Buddhist monk called Fahai.

Sequel

[edit]

Twenty years after his mother is buried under the pagoda, Xu Mengjiao earns the position of zhuangyuan (top scholar) in the imperial examination and returns home in glory to visit his parents. At the same time, Xiaoqing, who had spent the intervening years refining her powers, goes to the Jinshan Temple to confront Fahai and defeats him. Bai Suzhen is freed from Leifeng Pagoda and reunited with her husband and son, while Fahai flees.

In a version Fahai hides inside the stomach of a crab. There is a saying that a crab's internal fat is orange because it resembles the color of Fahai's kasaya.

Modifications and alternate versions

[edit]

The legend has been presented in a number of major Chinese operas, films, and television series.

The white snake was simply known as the "White Lady" or "White Maiden" (白娘子) in the original tale in Feng Menglong's Stories to Caution the World. The name "Bai Suzhen" was created in a later era.

Some adaptations of the legend in theater, film, television and other media have made extensive modifications to the original story, including the following:

  • The green snake (Xiaoqing) is portrayed as a treacherous antagonist who betrays the white snake, as opposed to the traditional depiction of her as the white snake's close friend and confidant.
  • Alternatively, the green snake (Xiaoqing) is less evolved, less well-trained compared to the white snake (Bai Suzhen), and thus less cognisant of what it means to be human. She is more animalistic and therefore sometimes at odds with Bai Suzhen, thus explaining their differences both in character and actions.
  • Fahai is portrayed in a more sympathetic light as opposed to the traditional depiction of him as a vindictive and jealous villain: rigid and authoritarian, yet well-intentioned. His background story is also different in some adaptations.
  • Bai Suzhen is freed from Leifeng Pagoda because her son's filial piety moved Heaven.
  • A retcon or revisionist version of the story relates that Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen were actually immortals who fell in love and were banished from Heaven because celestial laws forbade their romance. They are reincarnated as a male human and a female white snake spirit respectively and their story begins.

Adaptations

[edit]
Further information: List of media adaptations of the Legend of the White Snake
Diorama at Haw Par Villa, Singapore, depicting the battle between Bai Suzhen and Fahai.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Idema (2012), p. 26.
  2. ^ a b Chen, Dong (2019). Dialogues Between Two Worlds: Prophecy, Resurrection and the Imagination of the Otherworld (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Scuola Normale Superiore. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  3. ^ Wang, Eugene Y. (2003). "Tope and Topos: The Leifeng Pagoda and the Discourse of the Demonic". In Zeitlin, Judith T.; Liu, Lydia H.; Widmer, Ellen (eds.). Writing and Materiality in China: Essays in Honor of Patrick Hanan (PDF). Harvard University Asia Center. pp. 496–497.
  4. ^ a b Wang, Yue Cathy (2023). Snake Sisters and Ghost Daughters: Feminist Adaptations of Traditional Tales in Chinese Fantasy. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-4864-2.
  5. ^ Luo, Liang (2021). The Global White Snake. University of Michigan Press. p. 13-14. ISBN 978-0-472-03860-2.
  6. ^ Shepard, Aaron. Lady White Snake: A Tale from Chinese Opera. Illustrated by Song Nan Zhang. Pan Asian Publications.

References and further reading

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[edit]

Media related to Legend of the White Snake at Wikimedia Commons

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