"The Legend of the White Snake" is also a timeless and beautiful love story in China.
The story goes that in Sichuan Province, in southwestern China, there is a famous mountain called Mount Emei. On the summit of the mountain lies a cave called the White Cloud Cave, where a white snake lives. Through years of diligent cultivation and arduous practice, the snake has attained profound spiritual mastery and brimming vitality, gradually transforming itself into a beautiful and delicate young woman. On the mountain there also lives a green snake, which has likewise attained human form. The green snake and the white snake have become sisters, and the two are extremely friendly and get along splendidly.
One day, the two snakes transformed into human form, dressing up as mistress and maid, and set off to visit West Lake in Hangzhou. The White Snake disguised herself as Bai Suzhen, wearing a milky-white dress, while the Green Snake went by the name Qing’er and donned a green dress.
While boating on the lake, Bai Suzhen met the young man Xu Xian. The two fell deeply in love and eventually married, beginning a life in the mortal world filled with affection and happiness—so blissful that they forgot all about their former heavenly existence.
Little did they know that the abbot, Master Fahai, of Jinshan Temple had divined that Bai Niangzi was actually the reincarnation of a white snake. He then stirred up trouble between Xu Xian and drove Bai Suzhen to drink a cup of realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival. After drinking the wine, Bai Suzhen revealed her true form, and Xu Xian was so frightened that he died of shock.
After Bai Suzhen woke up and found that Xu Xian had already died, she was overcome with grief. Ignoring her own pregnancy, she risked her life to steal the immortal herb, the Lingzhi mushroom.
Bai Suzhen traveled over mountains and rivers, enduring countless hardships, and finally managed to find the lingzhi mushroom. Seeing that no one was around, she secretly picked one. Just as she was about to leave, she was spotted by Mei Tong and Lu Tong—the two fairy attendants guarding the lingzhi herb. The two blocked her path and together raised their swords, ready to strike. Bai Suzhen had already been exhausted from her long journey and extreme fatigue, and moreover, she was pregnant and thus unable to move freely. After only a few exchanges, she was quickly subdued. Just as it seemed Bai Suzhen’s life was about to end, an elderly man with rosy cheeks and silver hair—a cheerful-looking old fellow—suddenly appeared. Moved by Bai Suzhen’s sincere devotion in saving her husband, he ordered the two fairy attendants to release her.
Bai Suzhen narrowly escaped certain death and was deeply grateful to the Antarctic Celestial Elder. Holding the immortal herb, she mounted a white cloud and, in the blink of an eye, returned home.
Qing’er quickly boiled the fairy herb into a soup, then used a spoon to gently pry open Xu Xian’s mouth and pour the herbal soup in. Before long, Xu Xian let out a soft sigh, and his stomach began to rumble softly. A little while later, Xu Xian’s limbs gradually regained their ability to move, and his heart started beating again.
Sure enough, Lingzhi brought Xu Xian back from the brink of death.
