🦋🦋 Exploring the Timeless Tale: The Butterfly Lovers 梁祝 🦋🦋
In Chinese culture, numerous well-known folktales have been passed down from one generation to the next. Many young Chinese children grew up listening to these stories. Other than serving as a form of entertainment, folktales are instrumental in preserving a culture by providing modern generations with a glimpse into the thoughts, traditions, and beliefs of their predecessors. These tales can be transmitted through oral storytelling or recorded in writing. For example, one renowned collection of Chinese folktales is “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” also known as 聊斋志异 (Liaozhai Zhiyi), written by Pu Songling during the Qing Dynasty in China. It compiles supernatural tales, legends, and folklore, featuring a diverse cast of characters, including ghosts, demons, and spirits.
Since I was young, I have always loved listening or reading stories, particularly those with Chinese elements. Out of all the folktales that I have come across, The Butterfly Lovers (梁山伯与祝英台) is one of my favourites. Hence, I thought that today is a good chance for me to share them here.
Story plot
“The Butterfly Lovers” is a story of two young lovers, 梁山伯 Liang Shanbo and 祝英台 Zhu Yingtai. Yingtai, who is a young lady, disguised herself as a male so that she could study from a renown teacher at a confucian academy which was known to only accept male students. It is in this academy that Yingtai got to meet Shanbo and they became fast friends, often studying and spending time together, in spite of their differences in their families’ economic background.
Overtime, Yingtai slowly developed feelings for Shanbo. However, she hid her feelings and did not reveal her true gender to Shanbo. On the other hand, Shanbo had never suspected her as being a female and always thought of Yingtai as a fellow brother. The truth only comes to surface when Yingtai receives news that her mother has fallen sick and is commanded to return home immediately. Yingtai, unsure if she may see Shanbo again, decided to confess her feelings to him. However, she did not do so directly. Instead, during their last few days together, she tried to leave some hints to Shanbo but Shanbo was confused and did not pick up anything. In the end, Yingtai enlisted the help of the academy’s master’s wife to tell Shanbo of her true gender and feelings, and asked if he would like to pay her a visit at her home.
Alas, when Yingtai returned home, she realised that the news about her mother’s sickness was false and it was a ploy by her family to persuade her to return home. She received bad news that her family had promised her to another man, whom she had to marry. Distraught, she tried to get out of the agreement but was told by her parents that they could not break out of the agreement for fear of opposing the groom’s family, who were a very powerful family and had huge influences in society.
When Shanbo finds out from the academy’s mater’s wife that Yingtai was a female, only then he finally understood Yingtai’s previous actions and hints. Almost immediately, he makes arrangements to visit Yingtai. However, upon meeting Yingtai, she breaks the news of her arranged marriage to him.
Heartbroken, Shanbo falls ill and eventually dies.
On her wedding day, while on the way to her groom’s place, Yingtai makes a deliberate request to visit Shanbo’s grave. Just as she reached Shanbo’s grave, the sunny sky suddenly turned gloomy and strong winds started blowing heavily. Overwhelmed with grief, she threw herself onto Shanbo’s grave. Miraculously, the ground opened and she jumped inside before anyone could grab her. Then, just as quickly as the sky had turned bad, the sky started clearing and to the surprise of everyone, a pair of butterflies happily fluttered upwards to the sky.
Shanbo and Yingtai were finally reunited in death.
My thoughts
The story of “The Butterfly Lovers” is often considered a tragic and enduring tale of forbidden love, societal norms, and the power of love beyond death.
Firstly, I admire Yingtai for her independent thinking and determination for knowledge and growth. Most females of that time were not very well educated and were only taught a limited range of subjects with a primary emphasis on moral virtues or domestic skills such as embroidery, weaving, music and etiquette. Despite living in a time when education for females were discouraged, Yingtai was willing to go against societal norms to disguise herself as a male just so that she could satisfy her ambition of learning new knowledge. I think that she is really brave and admirable.
Secondly, Yingtai is someone who will stand up for what she thinks is right. This is demonstrated by how she would rather end her life than go ahead with marrying someone she does not like. When she is forced to the edge of a cliff and she does not like the path that is ahead of her, she chooses to remain true to herself and protest by ending her life.
While I do like the tale, committing suicide is definitely not something that I stand for. I think that our lives are precious and no matter how helpless of a situation we may find ourselves to be or how dim the world appears to be, we should never consider suicide. There will always be a way out for those who are willing to seek help or consider alternatives solutions such as by looking at the problem from a different perspective or from a higher angle. At the end of the day, committing suicide does not solve any problem and will only end up causing pain and regret for those closest and dearest to us. It is ultimately a selfish individualistic and hurtful act.
However, although I don’t support suicide, while reading the story, I tried to put myself in Yingtai’s shoes and empathise with the constraints she faced. I imagine that at that moment, she must have felt that the world was bleak and meaningless without Shanbo. Although I have never been put in that situation, I can imagine how painful it is to lose someone you love. At some level, it’s kind of similar to being laid off or being rejected from something you had worked hard for and deeply desire, except that the pain of losing someone to death is infinitely more times magnified. The feeling of abandonment and sudden loneliness makes life not worth going on. Food tastes bland and blue skies have turned grey. To add on, Yingtai was forced to marry someone she had never met before. While arranged marriages were the norm back then and a milestone to mark a girl’s adulthood, it was definitely hard for many young girls to go through. From her eyes, her future seemed bleak and even terrifying.
Through her life, Yingtai has always tried to stand up for her own thoughts and fight fate. While she can be considered to have been successful in some of her attempts (securing an education for herself), the death of Shanbo and her impending marriage to a stranger is something that she is powerless against. As a headstrong character, it must have been something hard for her to swallow and accept. Perhaps if Shanbo was still alive, Yingtai might have chosen to elope with him. However, after his death, there was no longer a chance of it anymore. Therefore, not willing to accept her fate and wanting to remain true to herself, Yingtai decided to end her life to ultimately escape from the 红尘 red dust.
In Chinese culture, there is a saying “白发送黑发” which means white haired parents sending off their black haired children in a funeral. Dying before one’s parents is seen as the greatest sin that a child can do to his or her parent. In a traditional Confucian environment, children are taught of the importance of obedience to one’s parents and demonstrating filial piety by taking care of them till old age. As a scholar herself, in the days before her death, Yingtai must have felt deeply conflicted. Therefore, I believed it was a decision that was not taken lightly. She must have felt really really disappointed and perhaps even angry at her parents to the extent that she would rather her parents undergo sorrow after her death than her endure the unhappiness of a loveless marriage.
From another point of view, perhaps she felt that suicide was the best way out of the situation. While contradictory, her death could also be another way for her to express filial piety to her parents while remaining true to herself. Given her personality, Yingtai must have considered running away and not go through the arranged marriage. However, with the groom’s family being powerful and influential, out of fears that they might cause harm and trouble to her parents, the best way for her to get out was through her death. Only her death could persuade the groom’s family to drop the matter and her parents would remain safe. And at the same time, Yingtai would be released.
While tragic, the story ends on a positive note where Shanbo and Yingtai are reincarnated as butterflies. As butterflies, they are no longer subjected to societal constraints imposed onto them. They are free to flutter, unite forever and enjoy the beauty of the world together.
The fact that they are reincarnated as butterflies instead of humans again somewhat re-enforces the Chinese expression of, “来生不做女人” which expresses a sentiment where someone, typically a woman, expresses a desire or preference to be reborn as something other than a woman in their next life. This often stems from the gender inequality that a Chinese woman often has to face in her life that she is unwilling to be born a woman again. Maybe the author of this story wants to express that the human world is complex and that in this world, only the animals are truly happy. Hence, butterflies are chosen to represent the two lovers’ fates. This makes me wonder why humans have to impose so much restrictions on our own lives that we become so unhappy. Even simple minded animals are happier than us. Perhaps the animals have more wisdom than us, after all.
A recurring theme: withdrawal and suicide
I would also like to make another note on how withdrawal and suicide is a common theme in Chinese culture. In many Chinese stories and legends, it is often applauded as a brave final act of defiance against the wrongdoings of society.
Many times, we see a main character, when faced with a difficult situation, chooses suicide in order to uphold his or her integrity and moral values. For example, to express his grief and despair over the fall of his kingdom to an enemy, 屈原 Qu yuan who was a patriot and had once worked for the king until he was betrayed by those around him, decided to jump into the river. Similarly, when 杜十娘 Du Shi Niang was betrayed by a man whom she had gone through many sacrifices and given up her career and life for, she chose to express her disappointment by dramatically dumping her jewellery box and ending her life (also by jumping into the river).
At a more subtle level, throughout Chinese culture, there are also numerous stories of “mountain dwelling scholars” such as 老子 Laozi (credited as the founder of Daoism) and 庄子 Zhuangzi (a prominent Daoist philosopher) who have chosen to live a hermit life and withdraw from society due to their disagreements with “modern” societal values.
Not surprisingly, as folktales often reflect people’s beliefs, we can also spot this theme in Chinese History. For example, when the Ming Dynasty fell to the Qing Dynasty, there were many individuals, including officials, scholars, and loyalists, who chose to commit suicide rather than submit to the new ruling power which was seen as a foreign power (as they belonged to the Manchus instead of the mainstream Han ethnic group).
Therefore, one can observe the common theme of withdrawal and escape in Chinese culture. It is indeed a final act out of desperation and when one is pressed against a wall.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed reading the story of “The Butterfly Lovers”. It really opened my eyes to the lives of the Chinese people in the past and enabled me to further appreciate the current privileges I enjoy as a female living in the modern era. I also think that there are some traits from the main protagonist that I can learn from, such as her determination, independent thinking and desire for knowledge and learning.
I would like to end this article by sharing some videos relating to this popular folktale for us to appreciate. Being a well-known and beloved story that has been passed down through generations, many art performances such as operas, movies and songs have been influenced by it. For example, Karen Chen, who is an competitive Chinese American Figure Skater has skated to the popular 梁祝 butterfly lovers song several times. I really like watching her skate performances which I have attached below. I have also attached other videos which you may be interested to check out!
Videos
The End 🦋🦋
As I was writing this article, I realised that I really do enjoy reading and writing, especially topics relating to the Chinese culture. Regardless of whether anyone reads my work, I always feel really happy and satisfied upon the completion of my work.
