A brief introduction to the contents of four major folk legends

China's four folkloric stories refer to the four myths and legends that are most widely circulated and have the greatest influence in the form of oral and manuscript in China. They and other folk stories constitute an important part of China folk culture and have a far-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary people. These four legends are all love stories, which also reflect people's recognition of sincere feelings from one side. The four major folklores are: Cowherd and Weaver Girl, butterfly lovers, Meng Jiangnu Crying for the Great Wall and Legend of the White Snake.

Four legends

In our country's treasure house of classical literature, besides the classical literature recorded in historical books, there is also a kind of myth and legend widely circulated among the people. They are not only numerous and rich in content, but also colorful and poetic. Among them, Cowherd and Weaver Girl, Meng Jiangnv, Liang Shanbo and the Legend of White Snake are called the four great folklore in China. China's four folkloric stories refer to the four myths and legends that are most widely circulated and have the greatest influence in the form of oral and manuscript in China. They and other folk stories constitute an important part of China folk culture and have a far-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary people. These four legends are all love stories, which also reflect people's recognition of sincere feelings from one side.

Cowherd and Weaver Girl/Cowherd and Weaver Girl

Story background

Legend has it that there is a Vega and an Altair in the sky. Weaver Girl and Penny are soul mates. But it is forbidden for men and women to fall in love and fall in love privately. The Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Queen Mother, so the Queen Mother demoted Penny to the world and made the Weaver Girl Brocade as a punishment.

Weaver girl's job

Weaver's job is to weave layers of beautiful clouds on the loom with a magical silk, and change their colors with time and season. This is the "heavenly clothes". Ever since Penny was demoted, Weaver Girl has been in Lacrimosa, thinking about Penny with a frown. She sat by the loom and kept knitting beautiful brocade, in order to win the favor of the queen mother and let Penny return to heaven as soon as possible.

One day, several fairies begged the Queen Mother to see the Lian Bi Pool on earth. The queen mother was in a good mood today and promised them. Seeing that the Weaver Girl was unhappy all day, they begged the Queen Mother to let the Weaver Girl go with them. After the punishment, the heavenly queen felt sorry for her granddaughter and told them to go and come back quickly.

After penny was demoted,

After being demoted, Penny was born in a farmer's home and named Cowherd. Later, when his parents died, he lived with his brother and sister-in-law. Brother and sister-in-law are very unfriendly to Cowherd and want to separate from him. They only gave him an old cow and a broken car, and the rest were monopolized by his brother and sister-in-law, and then they separated from the cowherd.

Since then, the cowherd and the old cow have lived together. They cut thorns, cultivated land and built houses in the wasteland. A year or two later, they built a small home, barely making ends meet. However, except for the old cow who can't talk, Cowherd is the only one in the deserted home, and life is quite lonely. The cowherd doesn't know that the old cow is the Taurus in the sky.

On this day, the old cow suddenly spoke and said to the cowherd, "Cowherd, today you go to Bilianchi, where some fairies are taking a bath." You hide that red fairy costume, and the fairy in the red fairy costume will become your wife. " Cowherd was surprised and happy when he saw the old cow talking, so he asked, "Niu Ge, can you really talk?" Is it true what you said? "The old cow nodded, and the cowherd quietly hid in the reeds beside Bilianchi, waiting for the arrival of the fairies.

The Weaver Girl became the wife of the Cowherd.

After a while, the fairies really floated in, took off their light clothes and jumped into the clear stream. The cowherd ran out of the reeds and took the red fairy's clothes. When fairies saw someone coming, they quickly put on their clothes and flew away like birds, leaving only fairies who could not escape without clothes. She is a weaver girl. Seeing that her fairy clothes were taken away by a young man, the weaver girl was ashamed and anxious, but she was helpless. At this moment, Cowherd came over and told her that he could not return her clothes unless she promised to be his wife. The weaver girl looked intently and realized that the cowherd was the cow she missed day and night, so she shyly agreed to him. In this way, the Weaver Girl became the wife of the Cowherd.

After they got married, they worked hard, loved each other and lived a very happy life. Soon, they gave birth to a son and a daughter, very cute. Cowherd and Weaver Girl thought they could be together for life and grow old together.

However, when the Queen Mother learned of this incident, she flew into a rage and immediately sent a fairy to catch the Weaver Girl and make amends.

On this day, the weaver girl was cooking, and the cowherd hurried back from the fields. His eyes were red and swollen, and he told Weaver, "Niu Ge is dead. Before he died, he asked me to peel off his cowhide and put it away. One day, I can wear it and fly to the sky. " Hearing this, the Weaver Girl wondered. She knew that the old cow was the golden bull in the sky, and she was demoted to heaven just because she said a few good words for the demoted morning cow. How can you suddenly die? The weaver girl asked the cowherd to peel off the cowhide and bury the old cow.

Heaven will fall from the sky.

At this time, the sky is stormy, and the heavenly soldiers will fall from the sky. It is hard to say that it is escorting the Weaver Girl to the sky.

Flying, flying, Weaver Girl heard the voice of Cowherd: "Weaver Girl, wait for me!" " "Looking back, the Weaver Girl saw the Cowherd coming with a pair of baskets and two cowhide children. Slowly, the distance between them is getting closer and closer, and the weaver girl can also see the lovely faces of her children. The children opened their arms and shouted "Mom". Seeing, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl are about to meet. But at this moment, the queen mother came in with Xiangyun. She took off the golden hairpin on her head and rowed it among them. At the moment, a Tianhe wave is caught between the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd and cannot be crossed.

The Weaver Girl looked at the Cowherd and his children across the Tianhe River and cried herself hoarse. Cowherd and children also cried their eyes out. Their cries and the children's cries for "mom" are so heart-wrenching and tearful that even the fairies and immortals watching the battle feel sad and unbearable. Seeing this situation, the Queen Mother was slightly moved by the loyal love of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, so she agreed to let the Cowherd and the children stay in the sky and let them meet once a year on July 7.

From then on, the Cowherd and his children lived in the sky, separated from the Weaver Girl by a Tianhe River. Among the stars in the autumn night sky, we can still see two big stars on both sides of the Milky Way. They are Vega and Altair. There are two little stars with the Altair, namely the children of the Altair and the Weaver Girl.

Story influence

Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, and countless groups of magpies fly to bridge the gap for them. On the Magpie Bridge, Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet again! The Weaver Cowherd is affectionate, hugging the children, and there are endless words and feelings!

Legend has it that on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year, if people listen quietly in the vines under the grape trellis, they can vaguely hear Yue Xian's performance and the affectionate conversation of the Weaver Cowherd. Really: I knew her a long time ago, but since we separated, the time has become longer. They look forward to meeting again on July 7 of the following year every day.

Later, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, it is said that when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet at the Magpie Bridge, the girls will come to the flowers and the moon, look up at the stars and look for the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl on both sides of the Milky Way, hoping to see their annual meeting, and pray to God that they will be as ingenious as the Weaver Girl and that they will have a happy marriage, thus forming China's Valentine's Day. The Cowherd and the Weaver Maid first appeared in Gan Bao's Search for the Gods in the Jin Dynasty. The Cowherd and the Weaver Maid were Yong Dong, and the Jade Emperor sent them down to help.

Liang Shanbo and Zhu Taiying

The gist of the story

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty in ancient China, Jia Zhu in Shangyu, Zhejiang Province had a daughter, Zhu Yingtai (also known as Zhu Jiumei), who disguised herself as a man and went to Hangzhou to study. On the way, she met Hui Ji's classmate Liang Shanbo, and they walked together. Classmates for three years, deep feelings, but Liang Shanbo never knew that Zhu Yingtai was a daughter. Later, Zhu Yingtai interrupted his studies and returned to his hometown. When Liang Shanbo visited Zhu Yingtai in Shangyu, he realized that his best friend for three years was actually a girl in red makeup, and he wanted to propose to Jia Zhu. At this time, Zhu Yingtai has been betrothed to Ma Wencai. Later, when he was a county magistrate in Yin, he died of excessive depression. When Zhu Yingtai got married, he passed the cemetery of Liang Shanbo, and suddenly a strong wind blew, which hindered the progress of the wedding procession. Zhu Yingtai got off the sedan chair and went to visit Liang Shanbo's grave. Liang Shanbo's grave collapsed and cracked. Zhu Yingtai jumped into the grave, and then a pair of butterflies appeared in the grave. Both butterflies flew away.

Documentary record

It first appeared in Liang Zaiyan's Ten Ways and Four Stories in the early Tang Dynasty: "My adopted daughter wishes Yingtai to be buried with Liang Shanbo." .

Later, it was recorded in detail in the literature of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Knowledge Notes by Xu Shupi in Ming Dynasty;

"Liang Shanbo, Zhu Yingtai, all from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Liang Jia will take a look and wish his family Shangyu. His classmates have been in Hangzhou for three years and are very close. Wish you come back first. After searching in Shangyu, Liang found that she was a woman. Sue parents and want to marry them. I wish I had promised Ma Ziyi. Liang was disappointed and vowed not to get married again. In the last three years, Liang was ordered by Yin, died of illness, and his last words were buried at the foot of the mountain. Next year, I hope I am forced by my father. I am tired and want to die. It will pass by Liangzhong, and it will be stormy and the boat can't enter. Zhu Naizuo was the tomb of Liang and lost his voice. Burial suddenly cracked, I hope to die, burial is self-healing. Ma Shi heard about it in North Korea, and the teacher Xie An asked him to give it as a just woman.

When he lived in harmony with the emperor, Fu Liang County helped the war. There is a temple in Yinxian County. Two oranges were folded in front of the temple, one was a flower and the other was a sugar tree, which women and children called Liang.

By the way, Liang Zhu is different. Jin Lou Zi and Hui Ji Wen Yi both contain this component. Husband and daughter are male ornaments, so be good. But it will never be chaotic, but it will never change. As for God, nothing in the universe is unprovable. "

The story is very detailed.

This sad, sad and touching love story has been circulated for many years at the foot of the handsome Longshan Mountain by the Cao 'e River in Shangyu.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in Zhujiazhuang, Shangyu, Zhejiang, by the Yushui River, there was a beautiful and intelligent girl named Yingtai. She studied poetry with her brother since childhood, admired the talents of Ban Zhao and Cai Wenji, hated the lack of good teachers at home, and wanted to study in Luohong Academy. Zhu Fu refused her daughter's request. Zhu Yingtai is studious, disguised as a fortune teller, and said to Zhu Fu, "Let your love go out." I hope my father sees his daughter Joe disguised as a man, and there is no flaw. In order not to disappoint her, he had to reluctantly agree. England and Taiwan Province disguised themselves as men and went to Hangzhou to study. On the way, I met Liang Shanbo, a scholar from Liangzhuang who went to Luohong Academy to study. As soon as I saw him, I got along well with him. On the grass bridge, I used clay as incense and made a just knot with Jin Lan. One day later, the two men came to Luohong Academy in Taier Temple, where they joined the school. From then on, students read * * *, and they were inseparable. Liang Zhu studied in the deep sea for three years. Yingtai loved Sambo deeply, but Sambo never knew he was a woman. She only cares about brotherhood and has no special feelings. I wish my father misses his daughter. I am in a hurry to return home, so Yingtai has to hurry home. Liang Zhu broke up and was reluctant to go. On the way to the 18-mile farewell, Yingtai kept borrowing things to caress and hint at love. Shan Bo is honest and simple, and he doesn't know why. Yingtai had no choice but to lie that her nine sisters looked exactly like herself and were willing to be a matchmaker for Shanbo. However, because Shanbo was poor, she couldn't come as scheduled. When Shanbo went to Jia Zhu to propose marriage, I was afraid that Zhu Fu had betrothed Yingtai to Ma Wencai, the son of a family member living in Mazhuang. A happy marriage has become a shadow. The two met on the balcony, looked at each other with tears in their eyes and left sadly. When we leave, we make a vow: we can't live together, but we must die together! Shan Bo became depressed and died soon. I was ordered to be buried by the grass bridge. Yingtai heard the bad news of Shanbo and vowed to die. When Yingtai was forced to get married, she made a detour to worship Liang Shanbo's tomb. Under the induction of Zhu Yingtai's wailing, the grave burst, Yingtai jumped into the grave, the grave reunited, the wind stopped raining, the rainbow hung high, and Liang Zhu turned into a butterfly, flying in the world.

Meng Jiangnu cry the Great Wall

This story happened a long time ago, when Qin Shihuang was recruiting 800 thousand migrant workers to repair it.

Meng Jiangnv (4 photos)

Build the Great Wall of Wan Li. The government arrested people everywhere as migrant workers, and the arrested people built the Great Wall day and night. I don't know how tired they are

There is a scholar named Fan Qiliang in Suzhou. In order to escape from the government, he had to hide everywhere. One day, he fled to the garden (not Meng, but Jiang), so this sentence should be written as "fleeing to Jiang's home" ), accidentally met Meng Jiangnv. Meng Jiangnv is a smart and beautiful girl. She hid Fan Qiliang and her parents. The two old people like Fan Qiliang very much, so they betrothed Meng Jiangnv to him as their wife.

Less than three days after their marriage, Fan Qiliang was arrested for building the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnv cried like a crybaby, waiting for her husband to come back. Half a year has passed, and Fan Qiliang has no news at all. It is already late autumn, the north wind is blowing everywhere, the reed flowers are turning white, and the weather is getting colder every day. Meng Jiangnv must be very cold when she thinks of her husband building the Great Wall in the north. She sewed her own clothes to keep out the cold and set off for the Great Wall of Wan Li to find Fan Qiliang.

Along the way, Meng Jiangnv experienced many difficulties and hardships before she came to the foot of the Great Wall. Who knows?

Meng Jiangnv is crying at the Great Wall (4 photos)

The migrant workers who built the Great Wall told her that Fan Qiliang was dead and his bones were filled into the wall. Hearing this heartbreaking news, Meng Jiangnv only felt that it was dark and suddenly fainted to the ground. After waking up, she cried sadly, only crying very sadly, and the sun and the moon were dark. I don't know how long I cried, but suddenly I heard an earth-shattering noise. The Great Wall collapsed for dozens of miles, revealing countless bones. Meng Jiangnv bit her finger and blood dripped on the bone. She secretly prayed that if it was her husband's bone, blood would seep into it; If not, blood will flow everywhere. Finally, Meng Jiangnv found Fan Qiliang's remains in this way. She hugged this pile of bones and began to cry again.

Qin Shihuang saw that Meng Jiangnv was beautiful and wanted to force her to be a concubine. Meng Jiangnv gave him a false promise, but asked Qin Shihuang to do three things first: ask the monk to read Fan Qiliang the 49-Day Classic and then bury him properly; Qin Shihuang will personally lead the minister of civil and military affairs to weep and sacrifice to Fan Qiliang; After Fan Qiliang was buried, Meng Jiangnv was going to travel and get married three days later. Qin Shihuang had to agree to Meng Jiangnv's request. After the three things were done, Meng Jiangnu scolded Qin Shihuang and then jumped into the rolling sea.

The story of the white snake

Story details

According to Jing Shi Tong Yan in the late Ming Dynasty, in the Song Dynasty, a snake demon trained for thousands of years transformed into a human form, named Bai Niangzi, and met a scholar Xu Xian in Hangzhou West Lake. The white snake wanted to have sex with the scholar and married him. After going through a lot of right and wrong, Xu Xiannai knew that the White Snake and Xiaoqingju were different and were threatened by the White Snake, so he was afraid and asked the Buddhist monk Fahai for help. So the white snake was put into a bowl and suppressed under the Leifeng Tower. Xu Xian, who sees through the world of mortals, is willing to become a monk, worshiping the Zen master as a teacher and shaving the Leifeng Pagoda as a monk. After practicing for several years, I sat down overnight. All the monks bought shrines and burned them, and built a bone tower, which was immortal for thousands of years. When they died, they also wrote eight poems as a warning, saying:

My ancestors gave me the world of mortals, and Cycas bloomed without spring.

The cycle of transformation is very heavy, and life is reborn.

If you want to know that color is colorless, you must know that it is invisible, but it is tangible.

Empty color is color, and empty color should be clear.

Later generations added some plots according to this legend, making the story more popular and in line with the public's taste, which has been passed down to this day. The content is as follows: Zhenjiang City in Song Dynasty. The White Snake is a snake demon who has practiced for thousands of years. In order to repay the scholar Xu Xian for saving his life in his last life, he turned into a human figure to repay his kindness. Later, I met the green snake essence Xiaoqing and they got together. Mrs White Snake used his magic to get to know Xu Xian and marry him. After the marriage, the monk Fahai of Jinshan Temple told Xu Xian that White Snake was a snake demon, and Xu Xian was skeptical. Later, according to Fahai's method, Xu Xian asked the White Snake to drink realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival. Mrs White Snake had to show his true colors, but he scared Xu Xian half to death. The White Snake went to Heaven to steal the fairy grass Ganoderma lucidum to save Xu Xian. Fahai tricked Xu Xian into Jinshan Temple and put him under house arrest. The White Snake fought with Fahai, flooded Jinshan Temple, but hurt other creatures. After giving birth, the White Snake who broke the dogma was put into a bowl by Fahai and suppressed under the Leifeng Tower. Mrs. White Snake's son became the best scholar when he grew up. He went to the tower to worship his mother, saved her and reunited the whole family. And the lovely Xiaoqing also found Xianggong. The legend of the White Snake, recorded from its origin, is one of the "Four Great Folklores" in ancient China. The legend of White Snake originated in the Northern Song Dynasty more than 1000 years ago, and its birthplace was at the foot of Heishan in Tangyin, Henan Province (now Hebi City, Henan Province) and Xujiagou Village on the bank of Qihe River.

Mount Braque, also known as Jinshan, Moshan and Dashan, which Xujiagou relies on, was the land of Jizhou in ancient times and is one of the remaining veins of Taihang Mountain. Here the mountains overlap, the water circulates, the trees are lush, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, and the environment is quiet and peaceful. The Asian Games is a paradise. As early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Zuo Si recorded the love story of "an eyebrow matched with a calf" in Du Wei Fu: "A calf leads an ox to visit Montenegro, sometimes it is old and young, and sometimes it is ugly. Later, I married the girl with eyebrows, and they all left, so no one could chase her ... "Later, this allusion evolved into the story of" White Snake Made Xu Xian ",and the heroine of the story also evolved from" Girl with Eyebrows "to a white snake.

The white snake essence in The Legend of the White Snake Xu Xian was saved by an old man surnamed Xu in Xujiagou village from a black hawk. In order to repay the Xu family for saving his life, this white snake married Xu Xian, a descendant of the Xu family. After marriage, she often used herbs to treat villagers, which made the incense of Jinshan Temple nearby cold, and also made the elder "Fahai monk" of Jinshan Temple reincarnated by Black Hawk very angry and determined to destroy Xu Xian's marriage and kill "White Snake". So it leads to familiar plots such as "stealing fairy grass" and "flooding Jinshan Temple". Bai Niangzi touched the fetal air because of flooding Jinshan, and gave birth to her son Xu Shilin prematurely. Fahai took the opportunity to cover the newly born white snake with a "golden bowl" and suppressed it under the "Leifeng Tower" in Nanshan. Through this incident, Xu Xian became disheartened and became a monk to protect the pagoda and wait for his son under the "Leifeng Pagoda". 18 years later, Xu Shilin, the top student in high school, returned to his hometown to pay homage to his ancestors, only to save his mother and reunite his family.

It is reported that "Jinshan Jiayou Temple" was built in the Jiayou period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1056- 1063), and was named after the temple site and its founding year. The story of "The Legend of White Snake to Xu Xian" circulated among the people in this area was formed in the late Northern Song Dynasty. The story of "white snake made" spread to the south of the Yangtze River, which was related to the invasion of the Jin people and the southward migration of the Song family. After meditation in his later years, Song Gaozong lived in Deshou Palace in Lin 'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang). "I like reading scripts" and "I will enter them one day in my life. If you are interested, you will be rewarded with money. " Out of nostalgia, the story of "White Snake Made Xu Xian" circulated by Xiangzhou where he was "Longxing" is fantastic in color and tortuous in plot, which should be one of his favorite stories. This became the main reason why the story of The Legend of the White Snake was widely circulated in Hangzhou during the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

Time flies, 1000 years have passed, and the "Jinshan Jiayou Temple" in Montenegro is still partially preserved. The "Leifeng Pagoda" at Nanshan Head has collapsed into ruins, and the "White Fairy Cave" cultivated by the White Lady in "Blue Rock Juejue" has been burned with incense.

Collecting White Snake: First of all, Fahai brought the White Snake into a controllable target while it was unprepared for injury. Then Fahai picked up the instrument and read the formula. When the bowl senses the formula, it glows, illuminating the white snake, and the white snake shows its original shape. When the attraction enters there, ...

The spread of China

The legend of White Snake is widely circulated in China. At first, it was spread orally. Later, it appeared in various forms such as commenting on stories, telling stories and playing lyrics, and gradually evolved into a drama performance. Later, there were novels, and after the Republic of China, there were operas, Taiwanese operas and cartoons. In modern times, there are also films based on the legend of the White Snake, modern dances, new novels and so on. This story appeared in the name of Legend of the White Snake, probably in the late Qing Dynasty, and there was no fixed name before.

Spread abroad

The Legend of the White Snake is not only circulated in China, but also made into a movie in Japan. The legend of White Snake is said to be related to Hinduism. The establishment of Hinduism began with two Nagas stirring the sea of milk. There is also a story similar to the legend of the white snake in Southeast Asia. The Story of True Wax written by Zhou Daguan in the Yuan Dynasty describes that the King of True Wax has a "Heavenly Palace". Every night, he climbs the golden pagoda of the Heavenly Palace and has sex with a snake spirit who has turned into a female body, which is also the embryonic form of the story of human-snake copulation. In addition, lamia in Greek mythology was transformed from a snake. Later, he married a young man named Menippus Lixius. On the wedding day, a man named de Vita apollonius came and found that lamia was a snake.

In the story books of court storytellers in the Southern Song Dynasty

In addition, in the story book of the court storyteller in the Southern Song Dynasty, there is a story of "Pisces falling in love", in which it is mentioned that the white snake herring cultivated into a fine, fell in love with Xu Xuan (not Xu Xian), stole official silver, opened a pharmacy and other plots, which have the same effect as the later Legend of the White Snake. And in other literary works, there are similar stories. Therefore, some scholars believe that the story of White Snake may be a legend, and that China's story is a combination of Indian mythology.

French sinologist stanislas Julien once translated The Legend of the White Snake into French.

The early story of Legend of the White Snake was mainly oral, so different versions and details were derived. Some original stories ended with the White Snake being suppressed under the Leifeng Pagoda, some versions had the plot that the White Snake gave birth, and some versions had the happy ending that the son of the White Snake won the first prize and sacrificed the pagoda to save his mother. But the basic elements of this story are generally believed to have existed in the Southern Song Dynasty.

The earliest shaping story is recorded in Shi Jing Tong Yan.

At present, the earliest shaping story of the white snake legend is recorded in Feng Menglong's Warning Story, Volume 28, White Snake Leifeng Pagoda in Yongzhen. In the early years of Qing Dynasty, Huang Tu's "Leifeng Pagoda" (Wang Shan Pavilion) was the earliest opera in China. He only wrote that the white snake was suppressed under the Leifeng pagoda, and there was no sacrifice to the pagoda. Later, The Old Manuscript of Liyuan (probably written by Chen's father and daughter, but the existing score is incomplete) is a widely circulated book, with the plot that a white snake gives birth to a child.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Fang Chengpei adapted the Legend of Leifeng Pagoda (Shuizhulou) and published 34 volumes. The first volume is "Picking Green, Meeting Boat, Subscribing to the League", the second volume is "Duanyang Begging for Grass", and the third volume is "Chen Chan". Since then, the main outline of the story of The Legend of the White Snake has been basically completed. The book of this play was given by Qianlong during his southern tour, so there was a sign of Emperor Qianlong's imperial view, which made people from all walks of life know the story of the legend of the White Snake. Later, in the 11th year of Jiajing, the owner of Yushan published the novella The Legend of Leifeng Tower. In the fourteenth year of Jiajing, the story of the snake spirit has completely changed from a simple monster to a sentient and righteous woman.

After the mid-Qing Dynasty, The Legend of the White Snake became a regular drama. Judging from the drama group in Tongzhi period, the performance of The Legend of White Snake is a mixture of Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, but Kunqu Opera is the main one. At the same time, it can also be seen that the plot of offering sacrifices to the tower in the legend of the White Snake came into being later.

In modern times, the new White Snake Biography of Taiwan Opera is based on the already formed story. Besides, the novel Green Snake by Li Bihua, a Hong Kong woman writer, is also based on The Legend of the White Snake, which was filmed and put on the screen by Tsui Hark, a famous Hong Kong director. The White Snake Opera Troupe of Taiwan Province Yuan Minghua Repertory Theatre often performs around the Dragon Boat Festival. There is no major adaptation of the story, but there are many breakthroughs in stage design and traditional drama performance design. Among them, the flooded Jinshan Temple bridge section is even equipped with a sprinkler of the fire brigade, and the design of hanging steel wire creates the feeling of white snake and green snake walking on clouds. In addition, this work has also been adapted into an animated film "The Legend of the White Snake" by Japanese Toyo Animation (1958), which is the first colorful animated film in Japanese history and a milestone in Japanese animation history (it is worth noting that Xiaoqing is a herring instead of a green snake in this work).

This story has undergone nearly a thousand years of evolution. In addition to the continuous enrichment of the plot, the characters' personalities are gradually evolving.