Four Famous Folk Tales in China

China's four famous folk tales are the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, Meng Jiangnu Weeping at the Great Wall, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and the Legend of the White Snake.

1. The Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden

Legend has it that the Weaving Maiden is a heavenly goddess, while the Cowherd is a mortal. Once, the Weaving Maiden was traveling on earth, and later splashed in the lake, and was picked up by a passing Cowherd who picked up her clothes. The two fell in love at first sight, became husband and wife, and gave birth to a boy and a girl. However, it is against the laws of heaven for humans and gods to fall in love, and the Jade Emperor ordered the Weaving Maiden to leave the Cowherd. Upon seeing his wife taken away, Cowherd immediately picked up a pair of baskets with a flat stretcher, put a pair of sons and daughters into each of the baskets, and went after the Weaving Maiden.

When he saw that he was about to catch up with her, a big river suddenly stood in his way, which was the Milky Way drawn by the Queen Mother. Seeing the sincerity of their feelings, the Queen Mother made an exception and allowed them to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month.

2, Meng Jiangnu Weeping Great Wall

According to legend, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang, heavy labor, young men and women Fan Xiliang, Meng Jiangnu three days after their wedding, the groom was forced to set out to build the Great Wall, and soon died of hunger and cold and exhaustion, and the bones of his body was buried under the wall of the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu carrying cold clothes, through the hardships, thousands of miles to find her husband to the Great Wall, but got the bad news of her husband. She cried for three days and three nights, and the city cracked, revealing Fan Xiliang's body, and Meng Jiangnu threw herself into the sea in despair.

Since then, the Shanhai Pass is considered to be the "Meng Jiangnu crying the Great Wall" place, and built the Meng Jiangnu Temple there, people from the north and south of the people often sprinkle a sympathetic tears here.

3, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai

Shangyu County, Yuezhou County, there is a woman Zhu Yingtai, like to read poetry and books, and want to go abroad to study, but at that time the women can not be outside the face of the world, so the girl Yinxin and disguised as a man to go to the Yuezhou city to study. They met Liang Shanbo, a scholar from Yin County, who was also going to study in Yuezhou, and his servant, Shijiu. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were instantly attracted to each other, so they traveled to Yuezhou together.

During the three years in Yuezhou, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were inseparable, studying together during the day and sleeping together at night. Zhu Yingtai secretly adored Liang Shanbo, but Liang Shanbo's personality was simple and straight, and he never knew that Zhu Yingtai was a woman, let alone her feelings.

Later, her family wrote a letter urging Zhu Yingtai to go home. Before she left, Zhu Yingtai left a letter telling Liang Shanbo that "two eights, three sevens and four sixes are set", which meant that Liang Shanbo should go to Zhu's house to propose marriage after ten days. But Liang Shanbo thought it was three ten days together, so he went to propose marriage after one month. When Liang Shanbo arrived at Zhu's house happily, he realized that Ma Wencai had already proposed marriage before him, and he had already paid the bride price.

Liang Shanbo had to leave with a broken heart, and Zhu Yingtai saw him off along the way. After Liang Shanbo returned home, he was very sick with lovesickness, and wrote to Zhu Yingtai to ask for some prescriptions that he couldn't find or get, indicating that his condition was desperate. At the same time, he hoped that Zhu Yingtai could come to visit him, but Zhu Yingtai wrote back to Liang Shanbo, telling him that he was not destined to be with him in this life, and he only hoped that he and Liang Shanbo could be buried together in Nanshan Mountain after their deaths. Later, Liang Shanbo died of illness, Zhu Yingtai pretended to promise the Ma family marriage.

But she demanded that the wedding procession must pass through Nanshan Mountain and that she be allowed to get out of the sedan chair to pay homage to Liang Shanbo. When Zhu Yingtai got off the sedan chair to pay her respects to the grave, there was a moment of heavy rain and wind, and a miserable cloudy wind. Liang Shanbo's grave cracked open, Zhu Yingtai saw this and jumped into it, the grave immediately closed up again, and soon a pair of butterflies flew out from the grave.

4. The Legend of the White Snake

In Zhenjiang City during the Song Dynasty. Bai Suzhen, a snake demon with a thousand years of training, in order to repay Xu Xian, a scholar, for saving her life in his previous life, took human form in order to repay the favor, and then met Xiaoqing, a green snake spirit, and the two of them were companions. Bai Suzhen exerted her magic power and trickery to meet Xu Xian and married him.

After the marriage, Fa Hai, a monk from Jinshan Temple, told Xu Xian that Bai Suzhen was a snake demon, and Xu Xian was skeptical. Later, Xu Xian followed Fahai's advice and made Bai Suzhen drink wine with Xionghuang at the Dragon Boat Festival, and Bai Suzhen had to show her original form, but Xu Xian was scared to death.

Bai Suzhen went to heaven to steal the herb Ganoderma lucidum to bring Xu Xian back to life. Fahai tricked Xu Xian to the Jinshan Temple and put him under house arrest. Together with Xiaoqing, Bai Suzhen fought with Fahai and flooded the temple, but harmed other living beings as a result.

Bai Suzhen, after giving birth to a child, was taken into Fahai's mantle and suppressed under the Leifeng Pagoda because she had violated the laws of heaven. Later, Bai Suzhen's son grows up and wins the Scholarship, and goes to the tower to sacrifice his mother, rescuing her and reuniting the family. The family is reunited, and the lovely Xiaoqing also finds her husband.

Characteristics of China's Four Great Folk Tales

1, all are about love stories.

2, all end in tragedy, very sad.

3, the four major folk tales are folk authored, not true stories.

4, there are many plots are more exaggerated, such as Meng Jiangnu crying down the Great Wall, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai butterfly story.

5. They are all stories created by the folk masses to express their dissatisfaction with the feudal system.

6. They all originated from folklore and oral traditions and were popular among the people.

7. These stories cover a wide range of themes, including love, friendship, loyalty, courage and so on, and can touch people's emotions.

In addition, the characters in these stories are distinctive, with unique personalities and characteristics, enabling people to have ****ing feelings. Finally, these stories incorporate rich cultural elements and philosophies, conveying profound wisdom of life, with the role of education and inspiration. In short, the four great folk tales have become an important part of Chinese culture with their unique charm and value.