The beautiful and touching Chinese legend of butterfly lovers

Butterflies, for Chinese culture, are a reflection of the soul and a symbol of marital happiness; so it is not uncommon to find them in a variety of oriental works of art from different eras. As well as sculptures, paintings and clothing, they also inspired literary works as beautiful as the legend of butterfly lovers.

This ancient legend, which is over a thousand years old, is one of the four most popular in China and is as beautiful as it is tragic. Its protagonist is a young woman willing to do anything to make her dreams come true. She is even able to dress up as a man so she can study.

O awesome.club brings you this beautiful story that talks about marital fidelity, beyond death and the conquest of dreams.

Legend has it that a very beautiful and intelligent young woman with a lot of determination named Zhu Yingtai, although born in a golden cradle, had a luxurious life, but that didn’t seem enough to her. So, she decided to convince her father to allow her to study at a school. Such a request may seem simple today, but, At that time, education was reserved for men only, so her father’s acceptance was not an easy thing, but either because of Zhu’s insistence or because of the man’s affection for her, she finally agreed.

That was how Zhu packed up her belongings and traveled to a distant city to study…disguised as a man, since, of course, being a man was the basic requirement for entering the academy.

While at the institution, she met Liang, an intelligent and kind young man of the same age with whom she established a deep connection. What started as an innocent friendship between the two, after sharing games, confidences, studies and so many moments, ended up becoming a conflicting love for Zhu, who, aware of her feelings, could not declare them without betraying her identity to Liang.

In a desperate attempt to keep him by her side, she wanted to convince the young man to marry his supposed twin sister. Although the description of the young woman piqued Liang’s interest in meeting her, he was so focused on his studies that he couldn’t see that Zhu was describing herself.

After three years, our protagonist received the order from her father to return home. Liang accompanied her out of the city, so he could spend a little more time with his “friend”, and Zhu took advantage of the trip to try to be recognized using hints, but the young man did not catch them. Reluctantly, they parted on the way out, and as a last attempt, she gave him a letter for him to read when she was far from school.

Lonely, Liang read the message and finally knew that his best friend was actually a woman. After that, he understood that all that time he was also in love with Zhu and that love was reciprocated. Aware of this truth, he didn’t want to waste any more time and went looking for her at her house to ask her to marry him.

Unfortunately, once there he could not see her and what was worse, he knew that her father had promised her in marriage to a merchant close to the family. In China, marriage was understood as the union between two families and, since Zhu’s betrothed was close to her father, the suspension of the commitment was something unthinkable.

Steeped in regret, Liang was trying to move on with his life, but his sadness was so great, as well as his immense love, that he ended up getting sick and died (yes, worse than Romeo, since he didn’t need to take poison).

Zhu received the news of Liang’s death by his fellow academics and the anguish weakened your body, losing hope of being happy in a world without him.

The wedding day arrived Zhu, who had a mourning heart and a willingness to say yes out of duty rather than feeling, on the one condition that, before going to the ceremony, he was allowed to go to Liang’s grave. to bid farewell to her deceased loved one.

Once at the cemetery, in her wedding dress, she arrived at Liang’s grave, instantly awakening memories of their years together. The feeling of loss and helplessness turned into tears that spread across the land. Her heart cried out screaming for the opportunity to be with him again, asking that this time it would be forever, with nothing in life ever separating them.

Suddenly, a crack opened in the grave, which, far from frightening Zhu, filled her with relief, and after silently exhaling, the young woman fell into the hole, which closed again.

Thats how from the lovers’ grave two large butterflies emerged, who distanced themselves from the earth to fly together through the eternity of heaven.

The oldest manuscript where this story was found is by the author Zhang Du, in the years 850-880.

We may think that the story of the protagonists willing to “die for love” is exaggerated and even outdated, but legend of butterfly lovers, more than tragic; it is, above all, a story that speaks of freedom.

Let no one tell us what our limit is, because we have our own wings and, if we have confidence and are true to ourselves, we will be able to fly.

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