West Lake Love Story

There are so many things I love about China and the Chinese people. Here is an example.

I was IMing my coworker and friend from China the other day. We were talking about where he grew up. I looked at the area on the map and asked about the many lakes in the area. He told me that East lake is a beautiful recreation area. Then he asked if I had ever been to West Lake in the Hangzhou region. He told me there is a beautiful love story for West Lake. That it is very old and even a TV program about it too. He looked for a website with an English translation of the story, but it read like gibberish. I was going to try and piece it all together to figure it out. But after he read the translation, he said he can’t even figure out the story from what he wrote and he knows the story! So he took the time to re-write the story for me (during his free time, mind you). Here it is. You’ll have to forgive the grammar and any possible translation errors, as English is not his primary language. But, it is certainly better than the first translation that was on the Chinese website.

The legend takes place in the fields such as Hangzhou , Suzhou and Zhen Jiang City during the period of the Song dynasty. It's about a snake who was saved by a small boy. The Snake spirit changes to a pretty women, named Bai Suzhen, to come to the real world, and pay back her benefactor, who already reincarnated a few generations and become a young handsome fellow, his name is Xu Xian. Bai Suzhen has a servant girl, who is also a snake spirit, but has less theurgy (Cheryl’s note – perhaps energy or powers) than Bai Suzhen. She is very loyal to Bai but she is a little aggressive and easily to lose temper.

Xu Xian is very gentle and kind-hearted, and love to help people. Bai Suzhen is very nice too, but with more social experiences than Xu Xian. She originally just want to thanks XuXian with award him whatever he wants, since she is able to. But she found she fall in love with him.

People around sing high praise for XuXian and Bai kindness and some jealous to them. During these time, Bai Suzhen uses her theurgy skills and help Xu Xian to overcome difficulties, to realize his ambitions to help others. But these things some time damages the rich people's benefits, so they will set them up and have the senior monk to arrest Bai and her servant.

The master monk, named Fahai, has super skill as well. He can recognize Bai is snake spirit. Before that, nobody knows Bai is a snake spirit, only Fa Hai knows. During the battle between Bai and rich, also some other fairs that Bai is too eager to help Xu Xian, she made some mistake. That's when Fa hai, the master monk, start to look for Bai, and try to arrest her, but he can't do this in front of normal people, since these action will scare people. When Fa Hai found Bai and Xuxian, (they married already), Bai is pregnant with Xu Xian's baby. Fa Hai can't arrest Bai in this condition, at same time, the baby is a star in the heaven who reborn in real life. He dare not to hurt him, since he knew the baby is a supernatural being and protected.

Fa Hai started to explain the whole story to Xuxian. Why Bai came to real world, why his life changes after she come out, why so many strange things happen. By doing this, Fahai can convince Xuxian that Bai is spirit, then Xu Xian will leave her away and live in a temple to atone for her mistake.

Bai loves Xu Xian so much, so does Xuxian to Bai. Xuxian knows she is a spirit, he asks Fa Hai to leave her along, and he can be punished for her. So Fahai took Xuxian away and make him believe only stay in the temple "Leifeng" (also Yu Lei Feng) tower, then he can save Bai. But Bai knows this is a trap, all Fahai want is to use Xuxian as a bait, so Bai will come to save Xuxian, then she will fight with Fahai, make her make mistake again in front of "leifeng" tower, since this is a holy place, nobody can escape punishment if make mistake. Leifeng tower is beside West Lake.

After Bai borned the baby, she wento Leifeng and fight with Fahai. She initiates floodwater and flush the places which is a big disaster, but she has to do this to save Xuxian. Then Fahai arrest Bai and left Xuxian go. Now Xu Xian understand that he was set up by Fahai. Fahai says the only way to save Bai is the tower collaps and west lake empty of water, which both are impossible.

18years later, the baby grew up, and he got the number 1 score in the governor officers examination, so he got a high rank, which is just a little lower than the king. The son still has the ambitions to save his mother. He asked for a leave, then come the west lake. Dig the lake days and days, just want to make the lake out of water. His actions and the whole story moved the king in heaven, the king sent an officer to have Fahai leave Bai away, so Xu xian's family meet together again. The End.

Despite the difficult read and the questions that go unanswered when reading the story…like what part does the servant girl play? You can get the gist of this story. I think it is wonderful that the Chinese have such a rich folklore tradition that is still alive today. Like all cultures their folklore is beautiful… Kindness is rewarded. Love is more powerful than hate. Family ties hold people together. And in the end, despite the suffering, good triumphs over evil.