The Legend of the White Snake

The legend of the white snake, loosely, is about a snake ( Bai Suzhen) that has been training for more than a century in the Taiost magical arts. During that time, Xu Xian, a human coughed up some immortality pills into the lake that he accidentally swallowed, which was were the snake resided.

The snake felt gratitude for Xu Xian for giving her 500 years’ worth of power and decides to transform herself into a human to meet him. Another snake that is acquainted with the white snake, is the Jade snake (Xiaoqing), who also transforms into a human (think of this snake as supporting character). This takes place after 18 years. Both snakes happen to see Xu Xian on the Broken Bridge. As it’s raining, Xu Xian offers them his umbrella. This is where the white snake and Xu Xian fell in love and decided to marry and open a medicine shop.

After a few years, a monk called Fahai, plots to end the snake’s and Xu Xian’s relationship. He approaches Xu Xian during a festival and offers an alcoholic drink for his wife. Xu Xian takes this drink tom his wife, and she drinks it. Bai Suzhen (the white snake), consumes the drink without realising that the drink will trigger her transformation back into a large demon snake. When she transforms back into her original form, Xu Xian instantly dies due to shock.

The white and jade snakes, takes Xu Xian to find an herb that would bring him back to life, even though the journey would be dangerous. Once Xu Xian came back alive, he still loved Bai Suzhen. The monk came back again and took Xu Xian to a tower, where he was imprisoned. The white snake declared war against the monks and asked fellow spirits to assist her against Fahai. But the monk had an upper hand and won the conflict with the help of the heavenly gods. The white snake lost due to being weak while she was pregnant.

The snake, after a while, gave birth, and was then captured by Fahai with the assistance of the heavenly gods and locked her in the tower, back in her snake form.

Over the years, the story adapted multiple times to suit to the needs of local cultures, but what we want from this story wasn’t the romance aspect but the conflict between tradition and freedom. Int he story, Fahai (the monk) was against the relationship between the snake and the human because it was against the law of nature, but the snake defied it and followed what she wanted. Thus they were in constant conflict, until the monk succeeded and imprisoned the snake for centuries.

So, not the happiest of endings.

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