About
The Legend of White Snake
"The Legend of White Snake" is a Chinese folk legend. Together with "Meng Jiangnu"(孟姜女), "Cowherd and Weaver Girl"(牛郎與織女), "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai"(梁山伯與祝英台), it is known as the four major Chinese folk legends. The story was written in the early Song Dynasty, and was popular in the Qing Dynasty. It is a collective creation of Chinese folk. It is a tortuous love story between a snake demon who cultivates human form and a mortal.
Main Characters in the Story
Bai Suzhen
(Chinese:白素貞)
She was a one-thousand-year-old white snake spirit. After transforming into a woman, she fell in love with Xu Xian. In the story, Fahai was at odds with her and had been chasing her.
Xiao Qing
(Chinese:小青)
She was a green snake spirite who also transformed into human and was the close confidant of Bai.
Xu Xian
(Chinese:許仙)
He was a respected doctor, who met Bai on a rainy day on the Broken Bridge located in the picturesque West Lake of Hangzhou. They loved at the first sight. After their marriage, their lives were constantly disturbed by Fahai.
Fahai
(Chinese: 法海)
Fahai was a monk, who determined to destroy the marriage between the snake Bai Suzhen and her mortal husband Xu Xian. Following a fierce battle against Bai Suzhen and her companion Xiaoqing which resulted in the flooding of Jinshan Temple, Fahai successfully entrapped Bai Suzhen under the Leifeng Pagoda.