白娘子蛇 (The Lady White Snake)

The above picture shows the poster on TV series ''White Snake Legend.''

It was been 17 years ago since the first time I saw the movie Chinese love story The White Snake Legend(白蛇傳 : Bai She Chuan). It's very famous  TV shows in my town at that time.

I thought The White Snake Legend is more famous than Chinese Monihi and the funny movie Sun Go Gong or the gigantic Chinese movie The Emperor's Shadow. Lots people thrilled watching that movie even elderly. This is only one of thousands Chinese folk story, as we know that Chinese people pride in their stories and they would tell everyone who come to their country, me included.

Hangzhou is the capital largest city of Zhejiang Province, located in eastern China, at the southern end of the Grand Canal of China. The legend of White Snake was famous in Hangzhou, where it's a shining pearl of Chinese folklore literature. The characters of Lady White, Xu Xian, and Fa Hai that are created  in the serve to express the longing of the masses for liberation of humanity. The ancient traditions and costume handed down in the story enable the legend to loom as one of the relics that contain the richest information of Chinese folk culture.

The Legend of White Snake started in the five periods of Tang Dinasty and basically took shape in South Dong Dinasty and was adapted into variety play and script for story-telling in as late as Yuan Dinasty.

One afternoon, after Lady White and Lady Green rowed a boat touring around the beautiful West Lake, the gloomy sky rained heavily. Their helter-skelter condition was seen by the handsome young man Xu Xian, who gave the umbrella to the White Lady. She was attracted by his gentlemanly quality thus their emotionally moving stormy love story begin.

The scenery of Broken Bridge (Duan Qiao) along West Lake

Lady White Snake and Xu Xian married shortly. Lady White Snake would like to repay an obligation for Xu Xian saved her. She truly loved his average man for his honesty and kind heartedness. After they married, they set up a drug store named Baohe Tang, which nowadays has been the national preserve for stopping human from the disease. However, the path of the life was hardly smooth. On the other hand, Monk Fa Hai kept trying different methods to disclose the real identity of Lady White.

In a May Festival or also known as Dragon Boat Festival, Monk Fa Hai visited the couple. They're all drinking a strong liquor (Bai Jiu), which had been a tradition that Chinese people wanted to expel the spirit of evil during festive times. Monk Fa Hai knew that the serpentine White Lady couldn't drink alcohol, otherwise she would be returning back into her state when she was in heaven.

However, Lady White didn't want her husband a suspicion, she took the Bai Jiu and became a snake again afterwards. Xu Xian shocked to death, and Fa Hai was happy to see this happen, then he left the terrible scene.

For saving her husband, Lady White tried her best to turn to for help all through the earth and heaven. After many sufferings and setbacks, she succeeded in saving her husband. Xu Xian saw Lady White as a snake staying in front of him, wanted to bring back to her human state, and decided to ask Fa Hai for help. Fa Hai was happy to assist him, however, he told a lot of false details about the terror of a white snake. Xu Xian was of course cheated by Monk Fa Hai and therefore abandoned his lover.

Xu Xian didn't ever say goodbye to Lady White, who had devoted her life for him. Her heart was now really broken when she returned to the beautiful West Lake. She realized that it was not the bridge broken but her own heart. In the West Lake, Lady White made up her mind to use the lake water and all inside to attack Fa Hai and rescue her husband.

A great flood hit Fa Hai's residence, but he was strong enough to keep him alive in disaster, and he hid into a giant crab shell. By casting his evil magic, he built a large golden tower and caught Lady White. Fa Hai vowed that Lady White would not release unless the pagoda was collapsed. The pagoda where Lady White imprisons is called Leifeng Pagoda.

                                                    Leifeng Pagoda

As a matter of a fact, the octagonal pagoda was built out of brick and wood. Constructed in 975, by the King Of Wuyue Kingdom, to celebrate the birth of his son. Leifeng Pagoda quickly became one of the most famous buildings in China. 

Xu Xian managed to devote the rest of his lifetime to damage the Leifeng Pagoda until it collapsed. He was very regretted that Lady White had loved him that she was sacrificed her life. Several centuries later, the pagoda was eventually collapsed and the couple reunited in heaven.

Today, boys and girls; husbands and wives enjoying their romances along the lake shore and walking on the Broken Bridge, while the sorrow of the lost love of some people who will roam around the scenic area to remember the passing happy and memorable times.

Life Not Easy

Hi again my friends.....

Here, I  just reached my sweet home. Outside the weather is pretty chilly, I put my hand on a warm ball to keep it away from cool. I honestly a little bit confused about how do I start to tell. I have a bomb to announce, but there's too much stuff just like clogged my throat, and I have no idea how to immerse the blockage. I can't speak anymore, so that I only could put my fingers on my keyboard and I'm trying  to start writing.

December was arrived, and it's meant soon the new year will arrive. I don't know and I will never know, whether I could still write something in the next year? Every day I passed my day, and every single second the age of mine will be increase. Human life is a mystery, when we're born and when we're dead is something cannot be defined. It's something completely mysterious.

It has been almost three weeks since I began to write in this blog. The letters just like my best friend even I called them the best friend in this world. Only those letters who knew what I feel inside, only them understand me as I am. I sincerely and truly thank God for gave me a knowledge, so that I can write and read something while lots people in my own country still didn't can write or read even a simple letter. It's so pity, but it's life. Everyone must face to fate after we have our best attempt to struggle with those fated. Sometimes, someone had a good life while another suffered with pain. This is a real life, just deal with it.

I would like to thank to my beloved Mr. Yee, he never gave up to always teach me everything. His advices and supports lead me to stand up on the ground. My life is complicated before. I didn't even know where is my life heading. I didn't know where's to go, I didn't know where's to stand. No certainly of my existence. Life is too hard for me, and more difficult because it's without knowledge. I'm such a blindness. I couldn't decide what should I do.

Now I try to always face everything happened in my life. Life is so simple but it's really really not easy. Begin when I woke up in the morning, and it will soon end at night when I ready to reach my dream. It sounds so simple, but it's not easy. Just like water flows from the upstream to the estuary, there's ripples and waves always exist. I look at life and it looks as simple, but to fulfill the responsibilities and expectation of everyone is much difficult. It is the difference between simple and easy.

''You are as happy as you make up your mind to be.''  ~Mark Twain~