Bai Suzhen: the snake who wanted to live as a woman
Go to Hangzhou and a guide will walk you onto a bridge that is not broken and point across the water at a pagoda that is not old. Both are famous because of one story, and Chinese visitors come partly to stand inside it.
A thousand years of wanting to be human
A white snake spends a thousand years in the hills, listening to rain on stone, until what she wants is simple: to live, to feel, to love something. She takes the shape of a woman, Bai Suzhen, and comes down to West Lake in spring with Xiaoqing, a green snake who is younger, sharper and permanently annoyed on her behalf.
It rains. On the Broken Bridge she meets Xu Xian, a gentle young man who lends her an umbrella. They marry. He runs a small medicine shop by the lake; she keeps the accounts and treats people who cannot pay. The neighbours say the young wife has a healer's hands, and do not know how right they are.
The monk, the wine, and the flood
Across the water at Jinshan Temple, the monk Fahai senses something that does not belong to the world of men coiled around a certain pharmacist's life. He tells Xu Xian to watch his wife during the Dragon Boat Festival, when realgar wine is poured — truth, he says, cannot hide from that wine.
It cannot. Xu Xian sees what she is, and the sight breaks something. Fahai takes him into Jinshan Temple and will not let him out. So Bai Suzhen comes for her husband and raises the Qiantang River behind her like an army — and the flood does not stop at the temple. Fields go under. Houses with nothing to do with monks or snakes go dark with water. That is the part the old storytellers dropped their voices for: she wins and she is guilty at the same time. In the end she is shut under the Leifeng Pagoda by the lake.
The people in it
- Bai Suzhen 白素贞 (Bái Sùzhēn) — a white snake spirit in human form, who wants to love and live as a person.
- Xiaoqing 小青 (Xiǎoqīng) — a green snake spirit, her loyal and quick-tempered sister.
- Xu Xian 许仙 (Xǔ Xiān) — a gentle young pharmacist by West Lake, her husband.
- Fahai 法海 (Fǎhǎi) — the old monk of Jinshan Temple who tries to part them.
- Xu Shilin 许仕林 (Xǔ Shìlín) — the son born to Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian.
Where it comes from and where to stand
The legend was first told in the Song dynasty and written down in the Ming. It is one of the Four Great Folk Legends, and it is still retold constantly in opera, television and film — there is a new screen version every few years, so your Chinese colleagues will each have a favourite.
In Hangzhou you can walk it. The Broken Bridge (断桥) is where the couple meet in the rain; it is called broken because the last winter snow melts off its arch first, so from a distance it looks snapped in two. The Leifeng Pagoda (雷峰塔) is where she is imprisoned. The real pagoda stood for centuries, collapsed in 1924 after people chipped bricks out of it for luck, and was rebuilt in 2002, lit at night over the water.
Listen to it
Laonei narrates this legend in 3 chapters, ending with the pagoda and what actually happened to it. Worth playing on the train to Hangzhou, because the sites only make sense once you know who stood where. Listen at liuxuesheng.help/talk.
FAQ
Is Fahai the villain?
Chinese audiences argue about this, which is part of the story's long life. He is a monk doing what a monk is supposed to do: separating a man from a spirit that is not human. But he separates a husband from a wife who has done nothing but good, and the flood that follows is his doing as much as hers. Most modern retellings treat him unsympathetically.
Why is the Broken Bridge in Hangzhou called broken?
It is not damaged. The name comes from the way the last of the winter snow melts from the arch first, so from across West Lake the bridge appears to be cut in half. It is famous because this is where Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian meet in the rain, and couples still stand on it in bad weather on purpose.
What does realgar wine have to do with the story?
Realgar wine is drunk at the Dragon Boat Festival and was traditionally thought to ward off poisonous creatures. In the legend it is the test Fahai sets: he tells Xu Xian to watch his wife when the wine is poured, because the wine will reveal what she truly is. It does, and it is the moment the marriage breaks.