孟姜女哭长城 Meng Jiangnu's Bitter Weeping

billzhao · 发表于 2009-10-15 12:45

孟姜女哭长城 Meng Jiangnu's Bitter Weeping
This story happened during the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC). There was once an old man named Meng who lived in the southern part of the country with his wife. One spring, Meng sowed a seed of bottle gourd in his yard. The bottle gourd grew up bit by bit and its vines climbed over the wall and entered his neighbor Jiang's yard. Like Meng, Jiang had no children and so he became very fond of the plant. He watered and took care of the plant. With tender care of both men, the plant grew bigger and bigger and gave a beautiful bottle gourd in autumn. Jiang plucked it off the vine, and the two old men decided to cut the gourd and divide it by half. To their surprise when they cut the gourd a pretty and lovely girl was lying inside! They felt happy to have a child and both loved her very much, so they decided to bring the child up together. They named the girl Meng Jiangnu, which means Meng and Jiang's daughter.
As time went by, Meng Jiangnu grew up and became a beautiful young woman. She was very smart and industrious. She took care of old Meng and Jiang's families, washing the clothes and doing the house work. People knew that Meng Jiangnu was a good girl and liked her very much. One day while playing in the yard, Meng Jiangnu saw a young man hiding in the garden. She called out to her parents, and the young man came out.

At that time, Emperor Qin Shihuang (the first emperor of Qin) announced to build the Great Wall. So lots of men were caught by the federal officials. Fan Qiliang was an intellectual man and very afraid of being caught, so he went to Meng's house to hide from the officials. Meng and Jiang liked this good-looking, honest, and good-mannered young man. They decided to wed their daughter to him. Both Fan Qiliang and Meng Jiangnu accepted happily, and the couple was married several days later. However, three days after their marriage, officials suddenly broke in and took Fan Qiliang away to build the Great Wall in the north of China.

It was a hard time for Meng Jiangnu after her husband was taken away - she missed her husband and cried nearly every day. She sewed warm clothes for her husband and decided to set off to look for him. Saying farewell to her parents, she packed her luggage and started her long journey. She climbed over mountains and went through the rivers. She walked day and night, slipping and falling many times, but finally she reached the foot of the Great Wall at the present Shanhaiguan Pass.

Upon her arrival, she was eager to ask about her husband. Bad news came to her, however, that Fan Qiliang had already died of exhaustion and was buried into the Great Wall! Meng Jiangnu could not help crying. She sat on the ground and cried and cried. Suddenly with a tremendous noise, a 400 kilometer-long (248-mile-long) section of the Great Wall collapsed over her bitter wail. The workmen and supervisors were astonished. Emperor Qin Shihuang happened to be touring the wall at that exact time, and he was enraged and ready to punish the woman.

However, at the first sight of Meng Jiangnu Emperor Qin Shihuang was attracted by her beauty. Instead of killing her, the Emperor asked Meng Jiangnu to marry him. Suppressing her feeling of anger, Meng Jiangnu agreed on the basis of three terms. The first was to find the body of Fan Qiliang, the second was to hold a state funeral for him, and the last one was to have Emperor Qin Shihuang wear black mourning for Fan Qiliang and attend the funeral in person. Emperor Qin Shihuang thought for a while and reluctantly agreed. After all the terms were met, Emperor Qin Shihuang was ready to take her to his palace. When the guarders were not watching, she suddenly turned around and jumped into the nearby Bohai Sea.

This story tells of the hard work of Chinese commoners, as well as exposes the cruel system of hard labor during the reign of Emperor Qing Shihuang. The Ten-Thousand-Li Great Wall embodied the power and wisdom of the Chinese nation. In memory of Meng Jiangnu, later generations built a temple, called the Jiangnu Temple, at the foot of the Great Wall in which a statue of Meng Jiangnu is located. Meng Jiangnu's story has been passed down from generation to generation.

xuejunwang 2008-09-01 10:26
Qixi -- the Chinese Valentine's Day

If it rains heavily on Thursday night, some elderly Chinese will say it is because Zhinu, or the Weaving Maid, is crying on the day she met her husband Niulang, or the Cowherd, on the Milky Way.
Most Chinese remember being told this romantic tragedy when they were children on Qixi, or the Seventh Night Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which is usually in early August. This year it falls on Thursday, August 11.
As the story goes, once there was a cowherd, Niulang, who lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law. But she disliked and abused him, and the boy was forced to leave home with only an old cow for company.
The cow, however, was a former god who had violated imperial rules and was sent to earth in bovine form.
One day the cow led Niulang to a lake where fairies took a bath on earth. Among them was Zhinu, the most beautiful fairy and a skilled seamstress.

The two fell in love at first sight and were soon married. They had a son and daughter and their happy life was held up as an example for hundreds of years in China.
Yet in the eyes of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism, marriage between a mortal and fairy was strictly forbidden. He sent the empress to fetch Zhinu.
Niulang grew desperate when he discovered Zhinu had been taken back to heaven. Driven by Niulang's misery, the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died.
The magic shoes whisked Niulang, who carried his two children in baskets strung from a shoulder pole, off on a chase after the empress.
The pursuit enraged the empress, who took her hairpin and slashed it across the sky creating the Milky Way which separated husband from wife.
But all was not lost as magpies, moved by their love and devotion, formed a bridge across the Milky Way to reunite the family.
Even the Jade Emperor was touched, and allowed Niulang and Zhinu to meet once a year on the seventh night of the seventh month.
This is how Qixi came to be. The festival can be traced back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).

Traditionally, people would look up at the sky and find a bright star in the constellation Aquila as well as the star Vega, which are identified as Niulang and Zhinu.
The two stars shine on opposite sides of the Milky Way.
Traditional celebrations
In bygone days, Qixi was not only a special day for lovers, but also for girls. It is also known as the "Begging for Skills Festival" or "Daughters' Festival."
In the past, girls would conduct a ceremony to beg Zhinu for wisdom, dexterity and a satisfying marriage in the future.
This was not the case all over China, as the festival varied from region to region.
In some parts of Shandong Province, young women offered fruit and pastries to pray for a bright mind. If spiders were seen to weave webs on sacrificial objects, it was believed the Waving Girl was offering positive feedback.

In other regions, seven close friends would gather to make dumplings. They put into three separate dumplings a needle, a copper coin and a red date, which represented perfect needlework skills, good fortune and an early marriage.
Girls also held weaving and needlework competitions to see who had the best hands and the brightest mind, both prerequisites for making a good wife and mother in ancient China.
Young women in southern China used to weave small handicrafts with colored paper, grass and thread.
Afterwards, they competed to pass a thread through the eyes of seven needles in a single breath.
(China Daily August 10, 2005)

牛郎织女的传说
七夕节始终和牛郎织女的传说相连，这是一个很美丽的，千古流传的爱情故事，成为我国四大民间爱情传说之一。
相传在很早以前，南阳城西牛家庄里有个聪明．忠厚的小伙子，父母早亡，只好跟着哥哥嫂子度日，嫂子马氏为人狠毒，经常虐待他，逼他干很多的活，一年秋天，嫂子逼他去放牛，给他九头牛，却让他等有了十头牛时才能回家，牛郎无奈只好赶着牛出了村。
牛郎独自一人赶着牛进了山，在草深林密的山上，他坐在树下伤心，不知道何时才能赶着十头牛回家，这时，有位须发皆白的老人出现在他的面前，问他为何伤心，当得知他的遭遇后，笑着对他说：“别难过，在伏牛山里有一头病倒的老牛，你去好好喂养它，等老牛病好以后，你就可以赶着它回家了。
牛郎翻山越岭，走了很远的路，终于找到了那头有病的老牛，他看到老牛病得厉害，就去给老牛打来一捆捆草，一连喂了三天，老牛吃饱了，才抬起头告诉他：自己本是天上的灰牛大仙，因触犯了天规被贬下天来，摔坏了腿，无法动弹。自己的伤需要用百花的露水洗一个月才能好，牛郎不畏辛苦，细心地照料了老牛一个月，白天为老牛采花接露水治伤，晚上依偎在老年身边睡觉，到老牛病好后，牛郎高高兴兴赶着十头牛回了家。
回家后，嫂子对他仍旧不好，曾几次要加害他，都被老牛设法相救，嫂子最后恼羞成怒把牛郎赶出家门，牛郎只要了那头老牛相随。
一天，天上的织女和诸仙女一起下凡游戏，在河里洗澡，牛郎在老牛的帮助下认识了织女，二人互生情意，后来织女便偷偷下凡，来到人间，做了牛郎的妻子。织女还把从天上带来的天蚕分给大家，并教大家养蚕，抽丝，织出又光又亮的绸缎。
牛郎和织女结婚后，男耕女织，情深意重，他们生了一男一女两个孩子，一家人生活得很幸福。但是好景不长，这事很快便让天帝知道，王母娘娘亲自下凡来，强行把织女带回天上，恩爱夫妻被拆散。
牛郎上天无路，还是老牛告诉牛郎，在它死后，可以用它的皮做成鞋，穿着就可以上天。牛郎按照老牛的话做了，穿上牛皮做的鞋，拉着自己的儿女，一起腾云驾雾上天去追织女，眼见就要追到了，岂知王母娘娘拔下头上的金簪一挥，一道波涛汹涌的天河就出现了，牛郎和织女被隔在两岸，只能相对哭泣流泪。他们的忠贞爱情感动了喜鹊，千万只喜鹊飞来，搭成鹊桥，让牛郎织女走上鹊桥相会，王母娘娘对此也无奈，只好允许两人在每年七月七日于鹊桥相会。
后来，每到农历七月初七，相传牛郎织女鹊桥相会的日子，姑娘们就会来到花前月下，抬头仰望星空，寻找银河两边的牛郎星和织女星，希望能看到他们一年一度的相会，乞求上天能让自己能象织女那样心灵手巧，祈祷自己能有如意称心的美满婚姻，由此形成了七夕节。

xuejunwang 2008-09-01 10:27
Legend of White Snake 白蛇传
This is a love story about a man and a white snake. The first short tale was found during the Tang Dynasty (618 AD). That is about a cautionary, vigilant and tragic story of a man in love with a lady in white. The scenes of West Lake and Thunder Pagoda were added and the central theme was established during the Song Dynasty (960 AD). The entire story was completed during the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD). It was rewritten to beautify characters in some episodes in Ching Dynasty (1644 AD).

Today we find that the stories are somewhat different depending on which source has been used, because of rewriting. The complete story should have at least 16 episodes. The following is the shortest abstract of the story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once upon a time, a white snake and a green snake who had magical power in the Mountain Er-Mei and had transformed into two beautiful young ladies, on white, one green. They met a man named Hsu Sheng at the West Lake of Hang-Zhou city. The white snake fell in love with Hsu Sheng at first sight. They got married soon after.

The Lady White helped her husband to open an herbal medicine store by writing the prescriptions. Patients unable to pay were given free treatment and medicine. The store quickly became well known and popular. One day a monk called Fa Hai saw the couples and warned Hsu Sheng that his wife was a white snake.

It was during the Dragon Boat Festival, when Chinese families like to decorate with calamus and Chinese mugwort around the house and drink wine to drive away spirits. This was dangerous to Lady White and Lady Green, since they were spirits after all. Lady White was pregnant at that time and her magical power had weakened a lot. She tried to drink wine to please her husband. Unfortunately, she couldn抰 control herself and turned into her snake body in her bedroom. Hsu Sheng saw the white snake and was literally scared to death.

In order to save her husband's life, Lady White went to steal the resurrection plant on the Kunlun Mountain. She failed. But her true love won the resurrection plant and the life of Hsu Sheng was restored.

Hsu Sheng remembered Fa Hai and went to the Golden Mountain Temple to see him. Fa Hai suggested Hsu Sheng become a monk to forget his wife. Fa Hai could take care the spirits. Lady White asked a great army of underwater creatures for help and brought forth a flood over the Golden Mountain Temple to fight with Fa Hai. Fa Hai had the magical power too and asked the heavenly soldiers to save his temple. Since the Lady White was pregnant, she was too weak to fight harder, She gave up the battle and waited for the time after giving birth.

Hsu Sheng went to see his son and carried a magical hat from Fa Hai for his son. The magical hat captured the White Snake. Fa Hai imprisoned the White Snake inside the Thunder Pagoda.

The Green Snake was unable to fight Fa Hai alone, escaped and practiced in her magical power even harder. After the son of Lady White grew up. She took revenge by destroying the Thunder Pagoda and rescued White Snake. White Snake reunited with her husband and her son. The story ended here.

Since the story is so popular. It was moved to Chinese opera, movies, novels, comics, cartoons and PC games. The beginning and the ending portions have been rewritten a lot. For example,

The Lady White was a bad girl and became a good lady
Hsu Sheng was a lewd, lustful guy
Hsu Sheng saved the white snake life in his previous life
The Lady White was beautified as a former fairy lady in the heaven
The son of Lady White rescued Lady White from the Thunder Pagoda

xuejunwang 2008-09-01 10:28
烽火戏诸候A Legend about Beacon Tower

The beacon towers on hilltops often played a key role in military communication in ancient war times. Once the enemy pressed towards the border, the signal from the beacon tower would be sent by beacon (fires or lanterns) during the night or by smoke signals in the daytime.

A famous story is told about Baosi, Queen of the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC - 711 BC). She was highly honored, yet she never cracked a smile. King You tried many ways to put a smile on her face, but he failed over and over again. He "called his court band to toll bells and beat gongs", and she looked unhappy. Then the band was asked to "play the bamboo flute and strings", and she remained displeased. Afterwards, "maids of honor served wine, festively singing and dancing", and she still did not smile.

"You don't like music! What on earth are you fond of?" the King asked.

"I don't have much of a liking for anything. But I can still well remember when I was a child. I liked to listen to the sound of colored silk being torn. It was clear and melodious," she replied. King You said in excitement, "That is very simple. Why didn't you let me know that earlier?"

Then the King ordered the official property manager to produce colored silk. He assembled fresh and energetic maids of honor and had them tear the silk into pieces, but Queen Baosi remained unmoved.

"Why won't you smile now?" he asked.

"I have not smiled so far," the Queen replied.

The King tried over and over again, but failed. In the end he gave an order: "Anyone, either in or out of court, who can amuse Queen Baosi will be awarded one thousand pieces of gold."

Afterwards, Guo Shifu, a treacherous court official, came and offered advice: "Set the beacon tower on fire and fool your sovereign rulers." That night the King and Queen reached Lishan Mountain by carriage, and gave the order. In a split second, the flames of the fire lit up the sky and the sovereign rulers moved their troops immediately to Lishan Mountain. There they found the King and Queen enjoyed drinking festively. The King then dispatched his bodyguard to inform them, "Everything is all right. I have just been joking with you." When they heard this, they looked at each other in blank dismay, leaving disappointed. Sure enough, Queen Baosi burst into laughter, stroking her hands when she noticed all the troops who had come in vain and now returned noisily. Accordingly, Guo Shifu got a prize of one thousand pieces of gold. Later, King You repeated his joke more often than not. In 771 B.C., Quan Rong (a then ethnic group) staged an armed rebellion against the Western Zhou dynasty. King You urgently ordered the beacon tower set on fire, but all the sovereign rulers did not come. Consequently King You was killed, and Baosi was taken away. The Western Zhou dynasty vanished. Hence come the Chinese idioms: "A single smile costs one thousand pieces of gold" and "The sovereign rulers are fooled by the beacon fire."

xuejunwang 2008-09-01 10:28
画龙点睛
Putting the Finishing Touch to the Picture of a Dragon

　　南北朝(公元420--589)时期，有个画家叫张僧繇。有一次，他到一个寺庙去游玩，在墙壁上面画了四条龙，可是都没有画出眼睛。看画的人觉得很奇怪，问他为什么不画出眼睛。他说：“眼睛是龙的关键，画上眼睛，龙就会飞走了。”大家不相信他说的话。张僧繇拿起笔来，刚给两条龙点上眼睛，立刻电闪雷鸣，两条龙飞向天空，墙上只剩下两条没有画眼睛的龙。

　　In the Southern and Northern Dynasties Period (420-589), there was a painter called Zhang Sengyou. Once he visited a temple and painted on the wall four dragons, but gave none of them eyes. The onlookers felt that this was odd, and asked why he hadn't painted the eyes. He answered, 'Eyes are crucial for dragons. With the eyes painted on, the dragons would fly away.' Nobody believed this, so Zhang Sengyou took up his brush and added eyes to two of the dragons. No sooner had he finished than the two dragons flew into the sky amid a thunderstorm. The two without eyes stayed painted on the wall.

　　“画龙点睛”这个成语用来比喻讲话或写文章时，在关键地方加一两句重要的话，使内容更加生动有力。

　　This idiom is used to describe how, when writing or speaking, one or two key sentences will enhance the contents.

xuejunwang 2008-09-01 10:29
惊弓之鸟

Birds Startled by the Mere Twang of a Bowstring

　　战国时期（公元前403―221年中国中原地区各诸侯国连年争战的时代）魏国有个名叫更羸的人。一天，他对国王说：“我只要拉开弓，空射一下，就能把天上的鸟射下来。”国王不相信。更羸便对准天上飞来的一只雁射去，果真那只雁听到拉弦的声音就掉了下来。国王感到很奇怪。更羸说，“那是一只受过伤的雁。它一听到我拉开弓弦的声响，就惊慌得支持不住，自然要掉下来了。”

　　In the Warring States Period, there was a man in the State of Wei called Geng Lei. One day he said to the king: 'I can shoot down birds by simply plucking my bowstring.' When the king expressed doubt, Geng Lei pointed his bow at a wild goose flying in the sky, twanged the bowstring, and the goose fell to the ground. Geng Lei said, 'This goose has been hurt in the past. Hearing the twang of the bowstring, it assumed that it was doomed. So it simply gave up trying to live.'

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